4 . Demands for stronger protection for wildlife in Britain sometimes hide the fact that similar needs are felt in the rest of Europe Studies by the Council of Europe of which 21 countries are members have shown that 45 per cent of reptile species and 24 per cent of butterflies are, in danger or dying out.

European concern for wildlife was outlined by. Dr Peter Baum, an expert in the environment and natural resources division of the council when he spoke at a conference arranged by the administrators of a British national park. The park is one of the few areas in Europe to hold the council’s diploma for nature reserves of the highest quality and Dr Baum had come to present it to the park once again. He was afraid that public opinion was turning against national parks and that those set up in the 1960s and 1970s could not he set up today. But Dr Baum clearly remained a strong supporter of the view that natural environments needed to be allowed to survive in peace in their own right.

“No area could be expected to survive both as a true nature reserve and as a tourist attraction.” he went on. The shortsighted view that reserves had to serve immediate human demands for outdoor recreation should be replaced by full acceptance of their importance as places to preserve nature for the future.

“We forget that they are the guarantee (保证) of life systems on which any built-up area depends,” Dr Baum went on. “We could manage without most industrial products but we could not manage without nature. However our natural environment areas which are the original parts of our countryside have become mere islands in a spoiled and highly polluted land.”

5 . A future where insects make up a large part of the world’s diet is on the horizon. Despite the unpleasant nature of such cuisine, insects have been considered a delicacy in some parts of world for centuries. Their being low-fat and high-protein makes them a perfect choice for reducing hunger.     1    

Animal protein from livestock (家畜), such as cows, chicken and pigs, takes up 80 percent of the entire world’s farmland, despite only making up less than one-fifth of calories consumed globally.    2    Thus it would support a variety of biodiversity as nature intended.

Insects such as grasshoppers, meal worms and crickets are packed full of protein with much higher vitamin levels than pork or beef.    3    Greenhouse gas emissions through this process are also very little, with insect waste making excellent fertilizer (肥料) for agricultural soil.

It seems that insects are an ideal solution for many issues the world today is faced with.    4    Urban areas of Asia, Europe and North America are most likely to associate insects with dirt instead of as a tasty meal.

Times are changing. The European Union last year declared that meal worms were safe for human consumption. Cricket protein powder is also increasing greatly in popularity, with Canada rapidly becoming the largest market for the product.

    5    As we explore our solar system, efficient means of producing animal based-proteins will become vital. None are more efficient space-wise than insects. And the colonies of the future could well find themselves enjoying fried crickets with a pint of beer while watching the Martian sunset.

6 . Recycling is a great way of doing your bit for the environment and helping to protect the earth’s precious resources. However, a new study has revealed that our desire to be sustainable maybe doing more harm than good. According to waste company Biffa, this is because of “wish-cycling” — assuming that items such as disposable coffee cup sand pizza boxes will be recycled if put in the recycling bin. In fact, pollution from those items or other non-recyclables can result in recyclable items that have been put in the correct bin going to landfill. David Heaton, a business director at Biffa, said: “Pollution happens when items are disposed of in the wrong bins or haven’t been cleaned before being recycled.”

Experts at Biffa analyzed the amounts of non-target and non-recyclable materials that entered UK material recycling facilities between 2016 and 2020. It was found that, in 2016, the average pollution rate of recycling waste was 13.4 percent, rising over four years to 17 percent by the end of 2020. This shows that, even as people are becoming more eco-conscious, wish-cycling is increasing both in households and businesses.

The Biffa experts say that one of the best ways to prevent pollution of recycling is to clean recyclable waste before putting it in the bin. They suggest cutting off the top of old pizza boxes and only recycling that part to avoid pollution from the grease (油脂). Check the on-packaging recycling label to check it can actually be recycled When it comes to plastics, Biffa recommends checking the resin code, the number in the plastic triangle, to know whether it should go in the recycling bin. In general, resin codes 1, 2, 4 and 5 are recyclable, while 3, 6 and 7 are not. Larger items, like electronics, furniture and batteries, can also be recycled but often can not go in household recycling bins as they need specialist separating. These will need to be taken to recycling centers or sustainable waste management companies.

“It’s vital as a nation that we get better at effective ‘pre-cycling’— sorting waste correctly before collection to reduce pollution rates,” added Mr. Heaton.

8 . The UN this week launched a report urging companies to stop issuing false net-zero targets that amount to greenwashing.

Greenwashing is a term used to describe situations where companies mislead consumers by claiming to be eco-friendly or sustainable as a marketing plan rather than as a core principle of their business model. Often, these industries spend more money making themselves appear sustainable than they do taking actual sustainable measures into their company.

Cities, financial institutions, and scores of companies have announced plans to reduce their emissions to zero, which, in principle, should help the fight against climate change.

“The problem is that the criteria for these net-zero commitments have varying levels of precision and loopholes (漏洞),” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the launch of the report.

Many net-zero plans contain far-away or unclear targets and often call for the use of unproved technologies like carbon capture and tree planting, which effectively allow companies to continue polluting the atmosphere. Studies show that most of these net-zero plans will do little to stop temperatures from rising. For example, many oil majors have announced plans to reduce emissions from their operations to zero by 2050 that do not take into account the carbon emitted by the fossil fuels they sell, which would allow them to increase production. Far from decreasing, fossil fuel production is going strong.

To close these net-zero loopholes, the UN this week released a report that includes 10 recommendations to ensure that companies, cities, regions, and other non-state actors issue credible and accountable net zero commitments. “Their plans cannot rely on cheap carbon credits instead of immediately cutting their own emissions,” Guterres said.

Financial institutions need to cut down emissions from all their investments and businesses need to bring down the carbon footprint of their supply chain, the report said. The report’s lead author, Catherine McKenna, urged companies to release new net-zero targets within a year. The updated targets must contain concrete actionable details.

9 . Michael Gonsalves, a chef of Golden Oak at Disney World, has a cuisine concept rooted in fresh, locally-sourced ingredients that originated from childhood harvesting produce from their family garden with his mom to eventually leading kitchens at Walt Disney World Resorts to employ a sustainable model.

“Truly the whole process starts with menu planning,” he said. Creating one dish leads into the creation of many more through the end-to-end use of products. As chefs, they are always searching for the best ingredients. It is then their focus to ensure they appreciate and respect all that go into each and every one of them. For example, they source chicken that is naturally grown and fed on a natural plant forward diet, no hormones (激素) or additives — that’s used in many ways throughout menus from a simple grilled chicken breast to bone soup. Nothing goes to waste.

When they do have waste, even if minimal, they shift it from landfills to transform it into compost (堆肥) that’s then used across the Walt Disney World property. They also support Second Harvest, a local community food bank where healthy produce, prepared, but not served, meals eatable for human consumption are donated. Disney also works with pig farmers when they can’t distribute foods past the point of safety for human consumption. Besides, wildlife reservations love to get the meat because tigers and wild cats can still eat that.

Their operations are “on a path to a sustainable zero waste kitchen of tomorrow” where chefs learn the full-life cycle of plants from seed to plate and gain a better understanding and appreciation for the product and their craft.

Golden Oak at Disney has millions of bees that produce up to 300 pounds of honey per year, plus those bees help with cross pollination (授粉) of their gardens on a daily basis. They advocate a culture that helps develop not only the quality of food, but an appreciation for nature.

Mountain gorillas, which are found in the forests of the Democratic Republic of Conga, Uganda and Rwanda,    1    (face) multiple threats to their survival over the last 120 years. Due to poaching(盗猎), habitat     2    (lose) and human-caused illnesses, there were only around 600    3    (leave) by 1989.

Today, that number has increased to more than 1000—thanks in part to the work of Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka.    4    Kalema-Zikusoka began her career with the Uganda Wildlife Authority in 1996, she treated mountain gorillas     5    (suffer) from a deadly illness which they had picked up from humans living in unsanitary (不卫生的) conditions near the forests. “I realized that you cannot protect the gorillas     6    improving the health of their human neighbours,”she says.

In 2003, she founded Conservation Through Public Health(CTPH),    7    addresses(处理) the physical and economic wellbeing of the local Batwa people who lived in the forest. The organization teaches hygiene, conservation awareness and     8    (provide) economic opportunities for families that would otherwise poach.

Kalema-Zikusoka, who last year received     9    United Nations Champion of the Earth Award, said: “We’re showing people that we don’t care only about wild animals and the forest. We also care about    10