2 . Eco-friendly replacement products for single-use plastic are appearing everywhere. But have you heard of edible (可食性的) straws?Now EQUO, a new eco-friendly company in Vietnam has come up with a natural edible solution to plastic or paper straws. The edible straws are completely plastic free, nontoxic, chemical free, and 100 percent biodegradable (可生物降解的) according to a company press release.

“It’s well-known that plastic straws are harmful to the environment. Most of the 500 million used every day in America end up in oceans where they pollute water and harm marine life. Currently, over eight billion straws create pollute to the world’s beaches,” said Marina Tran-Vu in the press release. “Although there are some plastic and paper straw alternatives on the market, most are environmentally harmful, but we were also unsatisfied with the quality and lasting of paper straws.”

All of the materials are locally from regions that support sustainable farming according to the company’s website and they struggle to have zero-net influence by “using the power of mother nature”. The name of the company was created by combining “ECO” — meaning environmentally friendly — with “STATUS QUO” — meaning the existent state. EQU stands for creating products that have minimal influence on the environment. The company was first shown on Kickstarter on May 18 and hit their funding goal in only 30 days.

Many counties are banning single-use plastics. The EU banned 10 single-use plastic products including straws that will take effect in 2021. Other items that will no longer be made of plastic include cutlery (餐具), and balloon sticks. These 10 items make up a large percentage of ocean waste that harms marine life.

So do your part, use biodegradable cutlery — you can carry your own edible straws, and reusable water or coffee cups. These small items can contribute to buffering plastic waste.

3 . Cows produce much methane, the world’s second worst greenhouse gas, as they breakdown the grass. They are a large source of the greenhouse gases that are driving climate change. Now scientists have shown the pollution from cows can be reduced by adding a little seaweed (海藻) to their food.

Recently, the researchers from the University of California studied 21 cows on a farm for about five months. They taught the cows to get their food from inside a special hood, which allowed the scientists to know the amount of the methane the cows were giving off. They added a small amount of seaweed to the cows’ food.

The consequences were surprisingly good. In some cases, the cows produced 82% less methane. The improvement depended on the kind of food the cows were given. Even the worst-polluting cows produced 33%less methane. Over the five months, the scientists didn’t see any signs that the cows’ stomachs were getting used to the seaweed and starting to produce more methane again. What’s more, the cows that were fed seaweed gained just as much weight as the other cows.

But there are still some big problems with the idea of feeding cows seaweed. For one thing, there’s not adequate seaweed to feed all of the cows in the world. So farmers would have to figure out a way to grow lots of seaweed. A bigger problem is that for most of their lives, cows live in the fields, where they eat grass. That means there’s no chance to feed them seaweed every day.

Still, as the study shows, something as simple as feeding cows seaweed can help reduce some of the pollution causing the climate crisis.

5 . In 2002, Huang Hui, a researcher of the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, went diving (潜水) near Xisha Islands. In addition to getting an irremovable suntan (晒黑), she was left with memories of a beautiful experience with clear water and masses of colorful corals reef (珊瑚礁). However, due to climate change and human activities, the coral reef is reducing at an alarming rate and much of the breathtaking view of this reef has disappeared. “We started to grow corals near the Xisha Islands in 2010, and restored more than 200, 000 square meters of coral reefs,” Huang said.

In 2004, when Huang was attending the 10th International Coral Reef Conference, she found herself the only person from the Chinese mainland. She said she felt sad but she made up her mind to strengthen communication with other countries to improve China’s level in coral research. She visited top coral research organizations in the US and Australia, establishing long-term partnership with some of the world’s top coral researchers. By far, Huang has worked on coral research and conservation for 22 years.

Huang believes that making people be more ware of coral conservation matters most to the conservation of the coral reefs. “I want to call on more people to love nature and take part in the protection of ocean,” Huang said. “I am 50, and when I become 60, I hope that not only a coral island will be built but a sustainable development pattern (模式) will also be created,” said Huang. “The ideal state is that the coral island should be able to support fishermen and preserve the ecosystem,” she added.

6 . Though you may not know it, about half a billion people worldwide depend on the ecosystems created and supported by corals. And with climate change threatening their survival, marine scientist Enric Sala had an idea that might have seemed impossible.

“We wanted to get into a time machine, go back hundreds of years and actually see a coral reef like they used to be everywhere, before we started exploiting (开发) them, polluting them and killing them all over the world,” Sala said.

The idea was, in essence, made possible during an expedition that Sala led in 2009. The team traveled to a corner of the South Pacific Ocean, and found some untouched reefs.

His team presented their findings to officials in the island country of Kiribati. Then the Kiribati government took steps to protect the waters from fishing and other human activities, but between 2015 and 2016, record levels of ocean warming killed half the coral reefs the team had found.

After hearing that news, they lost hope for the health of coral reefs. But the study continued, and last year, they went in for another dive. Despite the reported conditions, Sala and his team found that the reefs had somehow restored themselves, filled with life and color once more. This resurrection (复兴) is something that Sala says can be traced to two key factors.

The first is, thankfully, half of the corals had not died, as was previously thought. Despite the rise in temperatures, there were enough surviving corals left behind to help reproduce the reefs.

The second factor is the Kiribati government’s decision to fully protect those waters. “There are abundant fish species. They eat all the algae that would smother (窒息) the corals, making it possible for the corals to come back,” Sala explained.

“So if some countries want a future for the fisheries, they need to manage their fisheries in a more responsible way around areas that are set aside to help regenerate the rest of the ocean,” Sala said.

For him and his team, the rebirth of the coral reefs in Kiribati is a beacon of hope among so much pessimism (悲观主义) surrounding the future of reefs.

9 . Brazilian scientists think they might have found a way to undo the damage caused by the cutting down of trees and turn farmland back into forest. The secret lies in ancient local knowledge of soil.

Amazonian Dark Earth (ADE) is a thick, black soil found deep in the Amazon rainforest, and it could help restore forests around the world. ADE is a kind of compost (soil made from dead plants and animals). Various kinds of compost are sold in gardening centers around the world, but ADE is unique. It was created by indigenous people from the Amazon between 2,000 and 2,500 years ago. The Amazonian people, today known as Amerindians, created ADE using charcoal from fires, animal bones, food waste and poo. It contains microbes (微生物) that help to turn chemicals in the soil into useful nutrients that feed plants and trees.

Vast areas of the Amazon have been cut down, mostly to make way for grassland for raising cattle. Scientists are looking for a way to turn grassland back into rainforest and revive forest ecosystems. These support thousands of animal and plant species, many of which are unique to the area. Forests also absorb lots of carbon dioxide.

To see if the Amazon’s special soil could help, the scientists grew grasses and trees in ADE, regular earth and a mixture of both. Trees grown in ADE were up to six times taller than those in regular soil. ADE takes hundreds of years to create, so the scientists can’t simply make more. Team member, Dr Siu Mui Tsai, said that instead they want to try and “copy its characteristics”, especially its helpful microbes, and see if it could help to restore natural habitats.