3 . Sprite has been recognized for decades by its green cans and bottles, but it is retiring its green plastic bottles after more than 60 years.

Starting Aug. 1, the Coca-Cola Co., which produces Sprite, will package the lemon-lime drink in clear plastic bottles in North America, the company announced Wednesday. Sprite’s current plastic contains green polyethylene terephthalate(PET)(聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯), an additive(添加剂) that can’t be recycled into new bottles, a key choice for the company as it looks to reduce plastic waste.

“When recycled, clear PET Sprite bottles can be remade into bottles, helping drive a circular economy for plastic.” Julian Ochoa, CEO of R3CYCLE, a plastic group helping Coca-Cola improve its recycling, said in a statement.

Customers will also notice a revised logo and packaging design on the Sprite bottles that aims to provide a more “consistent look around the world,” the company said. The well-known green color will still be used on Sprite labels. Other beverages that use green bottles in Coke’s portfolio(系列产品), including Fresca. Seagram’s and Mello Yello, will also be replaced with clear containers in the coming months.

Coca-Cola reported higher-than-expected second-quarter earnings Tuesday, citing strong demand, and lifted its revenue forecast for the full year.

The beverage giant has often been criticized for contributing to environmentally damaging plastic waste. In 2020, the company was named as the world’s No. 1 plastic polluter by the environmental firm Break Free From Plastic. Its logos and branding were found on 13, 834 pieces of discarded plastic in 51 countries, often in public spaces such as parks and beaches.

In downtown Xiamen, Fujian Province, a 6-meter-high mound(土堆) that stretches for 60 to 70 meters stands in contrast to the high-rise     1    (construction) all around. It is a vital place for the blue-tailed bee-eaters. Now they are under second-level state     2     (protect).

The blue-tailed bee-eater, or Merops philippinus, is known for its colorful plumage and on the Chinese mainland it     3     (find) in coastal provinces, such as Fujian and Hainan.

    4    (establish) in 2011 as Xiamen’s inaugural city-level nature reserve in an urban area, the Wuyuanwan Nature Reserve provides     5     crucial habitat for the species.

In recent years, with improved environmental conditions in Xiamen and the city government’s commitment    6     nature conservation, the blue-tailed bee-eaters have become regular visitors.

In 2015, the center     7     (observe) some 70 to 80 birds in the area while in 2023, over 200 of the birds were watched at the nesting site.

The birds,     8     are sensitive to smell, build a new nest every year. Therefore, the mound must be cleared and refilled after the blue-tailed bee-eaters fly south.

    9     (safeguard) their habitat better, the city government issued a notice in 2017, setting up a protective zone around the nesting site, where noise and pollution-producing industries are prohibited     10     (strict).

The 13-year experience of preserving blue-tailed bee-eaters has given the center a grasp of their habits and made the Wuyuanwan Nature Reserve a stable home for them.

6 . Bioluminescence (生物发光) is a natural phenomenon wherein a chemical reaction within an organism’s body produces light. It can be found in many places in nature — fireflies, some mushrooms — but mostly in the deep sea.

Recently, Rambouillet, a small historic French town, has teamed up with a company called Glowee to turn the city into a full-scale bioluminescence laboratory. The goal is to change the way in which cities use light. The company uses marine (海的) bacteria harvested from the coast of France. It makes some of the town’s public light up in the cool blue of bioluminescence.

These bioluminescent bacteria are stored in a seawater filled tube, giving the bacteria room to float around and light up. The light provided by the bacteria is part of their natural metabolism, so producing the light requires no energy other than that which is needed to feed the organisms. This makes it much more environmentally friendly and sustainable than electric light, which consumes a huge amount of non-renewable energy.

“On the way to lighting up the world with bioluminescence, you have to feed the bacteria and add water as they grow. That’s not so easy. The phenomenon will be very temperature-dependent and I doubt that it will work in the winter. Also, bioluminescence is not very bright compared to electrical lighting, though they have improved the light intensity,” Carl Johnson, a professor from Vanderbilt University said.

One potential solution to these issues — and one that Glowee is looking into — is to remove the biological aspect of the whole process. Theoretically, luciferase (荧光素酶) can be removed from the bacteria and used to create light instead of the bacteria itself. Because luciferase is non-living, it doesn’t need to be fed. Creating new means of sustainable lighting is a way of being environmentally friendly without plunging the earth back into darkness.

8 . During the 20th century, an estimated 3 million great whales were hunted to provide humans with oil, meat and rose fertiliser. Roger Payne, a biologist and environmentalist, spurred (推动) a worldwide environmental conservation movement with his discovery that whales could sing.

This discovery was made in 1967 during his research trip to Bermuda (百慕大) when a navy engineer provided him with a recording of curious underwater sounds documented. Payne identified the tones as songs whales sing to one another and he was conscious from the start that whale song was to get the public interested in protecting an animal previously considered little more than a resource, curiosity or nuisance.

Payne saw the discovery of whale song as a chance to spur interest in saving the giant animals, who were disappearing from the planet. In 1970, Payne released the album Songs of the Humpback Whale. The record, a surprise hit, fueled a global movement to end the practice of commercial whale hunting and save the whales from extinction. It remains the bestselling environmental album in history.

The impact of the whale song discovery on the early environmental movement was immense. Many antiwar protesters of the day took on saving animals and the environment as a new cause. The humpback whale became the icon of a new environmental awareness. And the whales entered pop culture, no longer the fearsome beasts. In 1977, the whale calls were loaded on to the Voyager probes and sent into outer space.

Payne, graduating from Harvard University and Cornell University with a doctor’s degree, authored or co authored dozens of scientific papers, gave hundreds of lectures, made countless television programmes and films, and led 100 oceanic expeditions. Payne had started an ambitious new project: CETI, a combination of scientists using new technology to interpret what whales might be “saying”.

9 . In the northernmost edge of Colombia sits the coastal town of Acandí. Access to the town is only by water or air; there is no road that leads there. The residents there are faced with the struggles of balancing livelihoods while protecting biodiversity.

In the past, traditional community fishing methods, passed down by the elders, focused on the reasonable fishing and management of resources. However, the introduction of large-scale trawling vessels(拖网渔船) decades ago gradually depleted the area’s fishing resources, leading to damage to marine(海洋的) life seriously.

Jesús Antonio Julio Cuestas, who serves in the region’s conservation and management of marine resources, stresses the bad impact of these developments and calls for new fishing techniques. “Fishing and conservation co-exist as long as we have good management practices and reasonable use of our fishing resources,” says Cuestas. He and other officials actively monitor fishing activities in Acandí. Each morning, they visit the fish markets to gather data on fishery resources—including prices and sizes—to monitor the state of the local fishing industry.

Along with Cuestas, the fishers work to reduce their impact on the marine ecosystem. By changing fishing methods and adopting new practices, they aim for a more balanced approach to fishing. “This year the local fishermen have not used the trawl net s that were causing the death of the leatherback sea turtles,” explains Cuestas proudly. Changes include the efforts of boats to protect the seagrass that serves as feeding grounds for marine life and an end to fishers throwing net s where turtles lay their eggs.

This marine reserve in Acandí, Cuestas believes, is their greatest treasure. He attaches great importance to working together with local residents to improve the quality of life while preserving the marine ecosystem. By doing so, he imagines a picture where individuals from the fishing community can pursue various careers, such as engineers or lawyers, proudly stating that they are the products of the fishing tradition in Acandí.

10 . Sri Nihal Tammana, age 13, of Edison, New Jersey, was named a winner of the 2022 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. The Barron Prize annually honors 25 outstanding young leaders who have made a significant positive impact on people, their communities, and the environment.

Nihal founded Recycle My Battery to promote and facilitate the recycling of used batteries. His nonprofit places free battery recycling bins(箱子)and educates young people and adults about battery recycling. In just three years he has built a team of more than 250 student volunteers across the globe who have recycled nearly 200,000 batteries and educated millions of people. Nihal learned at age 10 that 15 billion batteries are thrown away each year and that most end up in landfills(垃圾填埋地)where they pollute groundwater, harm the ecosystem, and can cause catastrophic fires. Inspired to tackle the problem, he began collecting used batteries from his community. He put them in free recycling bins at stores like Staples until he was told he was bringing too many and had to stop.

Undeterred, he reached out for help from Call2Recycle, the largest battery recycling nonprofit in North America. Call2Recycle agreed to assist and provided recycling bins for free, which were placed in schools, libraries, and other public places. Nihal’s organization now operates across the U.S. and is expanding to other countries including Canada, Switzerland, and India. “Earth gives us so much — oxygen, food, water — everything! So it’s important that we give something back when we can,” says Nihal.

The Barron Prize was founded in 2001 by author T. A. Barron. “Nothing is more inspiring than stories about heroic people who have truly made a difference to the world,” says T. A. Barron. “And we need our heroes today more than ever. Not celebrities, but heroes — people whose character can inspire us all. That is the purpose of the Barron Prize: to shine the spotlight on these amazing young people so that their stories will inspire others.”