1 . When Alex Lin was 11 years old, he read an alarming article in the newspaper about e-waste. The article said that people were throwing away their e-waste in places it should never go. This was dangerous, the article said, because e-waste contains poisonous chemicals and metals like lead. These harmful substances (物质) can leak into the environment, getting into crops, animals, water supplies — and people.

Alex showed the article to a few of his classmates. They were worried too. But what could they do about this problem with e-waste? How would they even start? “The first thing we did,” Alex says, “was to learn more about the problem.” Alex and his friends spent several weeks gathering information about the chemicals in e-waste and their effects on humans. They learned how to dispose (处理) of e-waste properly and how it could be recycled. “Then,” he says, “we had to find out what the situation was in our town. So we sent out a survey.”

What they found shocked them: Of the people who answered the survey, only one in eight even knew what e-waste was, let alone how to properly dispose of it. Alex and his friends went into action. They advertised in the local newspaper and distributed notices to students, asking residents to bring their unwanted electronics to the school parking lot. The drive lasted two days, and they collected over 21,000 pounds of e-waste.

The next step was to set up an e-waste drop-off center for the town and to find a responsible company to recycle the waste. That was when Alex and his friends learned another scary fact about e-waste — some irresponsible recycling companies don’t break down the e-waste and dispose of it safely themselves. Instead, they ship it overseas to countries such as China and Nigeria, where local environmental laws are not applied. “We checked carefully online to make sure the company we chose didn’t do this,” Alex says.

Because of the work of people like Alex and his team, more and more people are getting the message about safe disposal of e-waste. As Alex says, “Today’s technology should not become tomorrow’s poisonous trash.”

4 . A change to organic dairy farming around the nature reserves could significantly reduce damage done to the areas by nitrogen produced by solid waste from cows, according to a research.

Concentrated animal farming near Natura 2000 areas was banned in 2002. However, 800 farms still remain in the outer edge of these protected areas, some of which are particularly damaging to the environment.

Researchers looked at 34 organic farms to see how organic farming practices compared with those large-scale factory farms. They found that cows at organic farms produced 22% less nitrogen in their waste, while the amount of emissions per hectare(公顷)was 53% lower.

“The reason why organic farming is less polluting is that farms generally have fewer cows and don’t use fertilizer,” said researchers. Organic cows are also put out to grassland more often and aren’t given concentrates(精饲料)to the same degree, which also limits emissions.

While organic dairy farms would make a good protective barrier against nitrogen around the nature reserves, this doesn’t hold true for organic chicken and pig farms, the research showed.

“Despite the good it would do, not many dairy farmers are likely to make the change,” researcher Gerard Migchels said. “The organic sector is currently relatively small. Growth is only possible if there is enough market demand. That would make it possible to come to a realistic price for organic milk,” he said.

In 2019, some 40,000 cows in the Netherlands were farmed organically, accounting for just 1% of the Dutch herd of 3.8 million.

According to a government report, 46% of nitrogen compound(复合物)pollution around nature reserves is down to agriculture, to which dairy farming contributes 60%. The new law on nitrogen emissions aims to reduce pollution by 40% by 2025 and 74% by 2035.

6 . The World Wildlife Fund states that up to 100 million sharks and rays are caught each year across the world, both on purpose in targeted fisheries and by accident, as bycatch. As a result, shark populations are in rapid decline. Sharks grow relatively slowly and produce few young, so they are easily harmed or influenced by overfishing.

Robert Enever of Fishtek Marine and his team developed SharkGuard, in response to the dramatic declines in shark and ray numbers. They based it on shark deterrents that are currently used successfully to protect surfers and changed it to be used in tuna fisheries, where bycatch of sharks and rays is significant. The novel equipment is fixed to a hook on a line, and it produces a small electric field which sharks and rays can pick up with their electroreceptors and this, hopefully, will keep them away from the hook.

The experiments took place off southern France, during July and August 2021. Eleven separate fishing trips were made and 18,866 hooks were used, half of which carried a SharkGuard. The results, presented in the journal Current Biology, showed that SharkGuard hooks greatly reduced the number of blue sharks and oceanic stingrays caught, while having no big influence on the catch of bluefin tuna.

With its effectiveness proved, there is still some way to go before fisheries could start using the equipment. Firstly, there is the limitation of the batteries. Each SharkGuide needs to be changed every 65 hours of use. The developers are working to solve this problem, so users could “fit and forget“ them, while still protecting sharks and other sea animals.

Now, the researchers are calling on fishers and companies experiencing high shark and ray bycatch to contact Fishtek Marine.

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.

10 . Here’s a recipe for a good animal rescue story: Take one residential creek (小溪), add one lone dolphin and then bring in 28 determined biologists. Mix well and enjoy the happy ending.

A young dolphin wandered off its usual path and ended up in a creek in Clearwater, Florida. Biologists with Clearwater Marine Aquarium had been monitoring it since Jan. 1. It appeared reluctant to return to open waters via a small opening under a bridge. “Since monitoring began, the dolphin had not left the creek,” the aquarium said last week. “This posed potential long-term problems. Dolphins are naturally sociable creatures, so if they are isolated from other dolphins, they may turn their attention to human interaction.” This can be dangerous, both for dolphins and humans. Humans who get too close to dolphins can find themselves with injuries such as broken bones.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium partnered with NOAA Fisheries and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission to guard the dolphin to safety. A team of 28 biologists got into the water to form a human chain, creating a visual and sound barrier to aim the dolphin out of the creek. It’s not easy to pull off a human chain in a creek. The biologists had to stay shoulder to shoulder and navigate trees and docks without giving the dolphin an opportunity to slip by. The human encouragement worked, though there was a moment of uncertainty as the team members neared the bridge and weren’t sure if the dolphin went through.

The biologists celebrated the dolphin’s arrival on the other side.“It was very exciting after almost 20 plus days for him to finally be out of the canal,” said senior rescue biologist Brittany Baldrica.

The wandering dolphin stands a good chance back out in the wild. “We noted that the animal was in good body condition with normal breathing rates and was displaying normal behavior during observations” the aquarium said.

Happy ending achieved.