5 . Earth is a big place, but size isn’t everything. The planet’s richest ecosystems are in rapid decline, forcing us to acknowledge countless creatures worldwide are running out of room.

85% of all species on the IUCN Red List are endangered due to many forms of habitat loss, from complete deforestation to less obvious effects of pollution and climate change. Every species needs a certain amount of habitat to find food, shelter and mates, but for a growing number of animals, the space where their ancestors found those things is now overrun by humans. As habitats decline, animals also grow more vulnerable to secondary dangers like disease or conflict with people.

According to many scientists and conservationists, the best strategy to avoid a dramatic loss of biodiversity is to set aside half of Earth’s surface area for wildlife. That might sound like a big sacrifice at first, but upon closer inspection, it’s still an incredibly sweet deal for us: One species gets half the planet, and all other species must share the other half. This idea has been around for years, confirmed in programmes like the WILD Foundation’s “Nature Needs Half” campaign, but it has gained more different opinions recently. And it may now have one of its most forceful arguments yet, thanks to a 2016 book by well-known biologist E. O. Wilson titled Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life.

Half-Earth, therefore, isn’t so different from today’s Earth. We’re already doing many of the right things, as Wilson recently told the University of California-Berkeley’s Breakthroughs magazine. We still have a few big biodiversity zones left, and others that could still recover. We just need to protect as many wilderness areas as we can, fill in gaps wherever possible and do no further harm. “I’m sure we can go from 10% to 50% coverage, land and sea,” Wilson says. “It could be large reserves that still exist, like in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia, in the taiga, the major wilderness areas of Congo, in Papua New Guinea, the Amazon—these can be made inviolate reserves; they can be pieced together.”

6 . Most of us have heard of the 3Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. It is the core principle of a sustainable (可持续的) life, but few of us can apply it in our own lives. Now, there’s a “lab” you can explore and discover a way toward living sustainably.

3R Lab is located in Xuhui district, Shanghai. It offers exhibitions, activities and goods that showcase the 3R principle. The key to a sustainable life, according to Vincent T. M. Fong, the 32-year-old from Hong Kong who created the lab, is to make it a long-term promise. “A sustainable life should be sustainable itself in the first place. You can’t lead a sustainable life on a whim. Small and comfortable changes are exactly what you need,” Fong said.

The lab regularly hosts ugly fruit markets, offering these strange fruits which are often thrown away by traditional markets and consumers at a quite attractive price. “They’re thrown away simply because of their appearance. Buying fruit regardless of how they look reduces food waste significantly in our daily life,” Fong commented.

A water tank with two types of straws is another equipment in the lab. “One type is made from normal plastics widely used in our daily life while the other is from PHA, a new replacement for plastics, and the water is sourced from the Suzhou River,” explained Ni Li, an employee of the lab. Visitors can see how the PHA straws degrade (降解) into a thin layer in just one month, while the others remain unchanged.

“Leading a sustainable life does not necessarily mean sacrifice,” said Fong. Consuming ugly fruit and using degradable plastics are small changes that are good for the environment and easy to stick to. Only in this way can the 3R principle become part of our lives, he added.

After working there for six months, Ni, who wasn’t mindful of the 3R principle before arriving at the lab, now uses her cup every time she buys a coffee. “The job has reshaped my life,” Ni said.

7 . The ocean covers more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface and the deep sea could contain as many as 100 million species. But it’s becoming worse. Overfishing, plastic pollution, rising sea levels, and climate change are to partly blame (责怪) for the ocean’s present state.     1     But there are still some things we can do to improve the situation.

People are talking about plastics more than ever after recognizing the heavy effect the material has on our planet. Every year, thousands of seabirds, sea turtles, seals, whales, dolphins, and fish are killed after mistakenly eating plastics.

    2     You can buy reusable water bottles instead of plastic ones. When buying things, take a reusable shopping bag and choose the product that isn’t covered with plastic packaging.

Keeping our coastlines clean is a simple way to help the planet. After a day at the beach, make sure you’ve taken everything with you, including rubbish.

    3     Common sun cream chemicals can harm ocean life. Search for sun cream made with eco-friendly ingredients (成分).

    4     Consider making a donation (捐赠) to an organization working to help the ocean. The American Cetacean Society helps protect the habitats of whales, dolphins, and other marine (海洋的) animals through educational programs.

Being mindful of what cleaning products you use is another effective way to reduce your effect on the earth. Chemicals like household cleaners can move through waterways and eventually end up in the sea, affecting the health of oceans and the animals in them.     5     You can often use simple ingredients like baking soda, vinegar (醋), or lemon juice to complete many household chores.

8 . The Most Extreme Travel Adventures In The World

The driest place on Earth: Atacama Desert,Chile

You’ll definitely need the right kind of sunscreen if you plan on traveling through this desert. From October 1903 to January 1918,the Atacama Desert did not see so much as one drop of rain, making it the longest rainless period in the world’s recorded history. Lessly populated, the Atacama Desert has several hotels to choose from that cater to tourists who come to explore the land.

The hottest place on Earth: Lut Desert, Iran

Here, temperatures soar as high as 158 degrees F, so it’s important to have a game plan for staying cool and know the signs of heat stroke in case you develop symptoms. According to a local legend, the name Dasht-e Lut means “toasted wheat” in Persian, referencing a story about a load of wheat that burst into flames after being accidentally left out in the desert for a few days. Though tourists visit this desert land, it’s a destination only for those willing to take on the challenge of surviving the heat and the unbearably dry climate.

The closest place to outer space: Mount Chimborazo,Ecuador

An inactive volcano that last erupted in approximately 550 AD, Mount Chimborazo stands at over 20,000 feet high. While Mount Everest is over 29,000 feet tall, due to the position of the mountain on the earth’s surface, the peak of Mount Chimborazo is the furthest spot from the center of the earth. That also means that standing on it will put you closest to outer space than man can ever reach on foot.

The most isolated place on Earth: Tristan da Cunha, United Kingdom

Looking for a getaway from the everyday? Forget these popular island getaways; this is about as far away from it as you can get. Discovered by Portuguese explorer Tristao da Cunha in1506, the island is home to fewer than 300 inhabitants and has no airport; Tristan da Cunha is accessible only by sea.

10 . New Zealand introduced its new climate change curriculum (课程) to schools in January, but not everyone is happy about it. Dairy farmer Malcolm Lumsden told reporters, “If they're going to continue to bite the hand that feeds them, they're going to lose out in the long term.”

The curriculum, which is available to any schools that choose to use it, does point to industrial agriculture as being a major source of greenhouse gas emission. It encourages students to “eat less dairy and meat, have meatless days each week, eat more fruit and vegetables, drive less, recycle and buy second-hand products when possible”. Some of these suggestions, however, are being challenged for not being scientifically sound.

But animal agriculture is widely accepted in the scientific world as a driver of emissions, particularly methane (甲烷), which warms the Earth 86 times faster than carbon dioxide. A brand new study has shown that cutting the consumption of animal products by 50% would reduce dietary-related greenhouse gas emissions by 35%. It is just one of countless other studies that have made similar conclusions.

Kids aren’t clueless (笨的). They hear about the coming global catastrophe (灾难). They deserve to be given the tools with which to comprehend it and to take action. They deserve the knowledge with which to make their own decisions. The curriculum is a response to kids “really crying out for something like this”, in the words of an official from New Zealand.

There isn't about biting the hand that feeds, but rather engaging in thoughtful debate over how humans could be fed in ways that are better and gentler for the planet. Livestock farmers shouldn't be so offended, but rather be open to this debate so as not to become outdated or irrelevant.