Throughout the world, only 15% of the material that are used to make clothing is properly recycled, according to the Alle SacUrthur Club, an organization in Liverpool, UK, that boosts the circular economy. Most clothing waste—an
A change in the manufacturing process is being applied to the textile-waste problem by Essen, a start-up in Seattle, Washington.
Although there are abundant technical challenges, the main barrier
2 . The San Diego County Water Authority has an unusual plan to use the city’s scenic San Vicente Reservoir (水库) to store solar power so it’s available after sunset. The project could help unlock America’s clean energy future.
Perhaps ten years from now, if all goes smoothly, large underground pipes will connect this lake to a new reservoir, a much smaller one, built in a nearby valley about 1100 feet higher. When the sun is high in the sky, California’s abundant solar power will pump water into that upper reservoir. It’s a way to store the electricity. When the sun goes down and solar power disappears, operators would open a valve (阀门) and the force of 8 million tons of water, falling back downhill through those same pipes, would drive machines capable of producing 500 megawatts of electricity for up to eight hours. That’s enough to power 130, 000 typical homes.
“It’s a water battery!” says Neena Kuzmich, Deputy Director of Engineering for the water authority. She says energy storage facilities like these will be increasingly important as California starts to rely more on energy from wind and solar, which produce electricity on their own schedules, without considering the demands of consumers.
Californians learned this during a heat wave this past summer. “Everybody in the state of California got a text message at 5:30 in the evening to turn off their appliances,” Kuzmich says. The sun was going down, solar generation was disappearing, and the remaining power plants, many of them burning gas, couldn’t keep up with demand. The reminder worked:People stopped using so much power, and the grid (电网) survived.
Yet earlier on that same day, there was so much solar power available that the grid couldn’t take it all. Grid operators turned away more than 2000 megawatt hours of electricity that solar generators could have delivered, enough to power a small city. That electricity was wasted. There was no way to store it for later, when operators desperately needed it.
1. What is the function of Paragraph 2?A.To present the importance of a reservoir. | B.To recall a situation in recent ten years. |
C.To introduce the usage of solar energy. | D.To explain a way to store electricity. |
A.The reservoir serves to store energy. | B.Californians need little solar energy. |
C.People used to waste too much energy. | D.New storage ways are environmentally friendly. |
A.To stop people working. | B.To warn people of danger. |
C.To tell people the sunset time. | D.To remind people of lack of energy. |
A.Scenic San Vicente Reservoir | B.San Diego County Energy Plan |
C.Water Batteries to Store Solar Power | D.Machines to Store Water in California |
3 . How to save planet earth
Have you ever held a product in your hands and considered the existential weight of your purchase? Beyond each price tag hides a ripple effect. It expands from soil to water ways, grocery aisle to kitchen plates, factories to fulfillment centers and mail slots to landfills. This global impact has become less hidden in the past decade, and ignoring the people downstream from us has grown increasingly difficult.
We’re more aware than ever of the mark our consumption leaves on planet Earth, which now sustains nearly 8 billion people. Somehow, humans are still pumping more than 30 gig a tons of carbon dioxide(CO2)per year into the atmosphere, despite the mountain of evidence that CO2 is the top contributor to greenhouse gases causing global warming.
Climate journalist and author Tatiana Schlossberg says even a simple trip to the supermarket can feel paralyzing in 2021. “I want to buy the local thing, but it’s not organic. Or, maybe it’s in a plastic box,” she says. In her 2019 book Inconspicuous Consumption, she ventures way beyond the store aisle and into the web of less apparent ways that humans are damaging Earth. For example, your internet use is tied to extensive carbon emissions and energy consumption.
In fact, being a good citizen on planet Earth with climate concerns, you’ve likely asked or agonized over this question: What should I do?
One of their most consistent insights may surprise you: Consumer responsibility misses the mark. “One of the major failings of the environmental movement is having everyone focus on these small things that everyone can do.” says Ayana Elizabeth Johnson-a marine biologist and co-host of the podcast How to Save a Planet.
“Individuals join together to collectively have far more power changing the system than they can as individuals,” says Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
A.That doesn’t mean it’s none of your business. |
B.these experts propose other key steps that every human can take toward a better future. |
C.Similar challenge apply to use of plastics and consumption of meat and other goods. |
D.Part of the challenge with the environmental movement is the astonishing list of things we need to change. |
E.The solution to this problem, however, is not for you to stop using the internet, according to Schlossberg. |
F.It’s easy to get lost in the storm of supposed answers around social media, the latest data sets and “ego-friendly” marketing campaigns. |
4 . There was a time when a trip to the supermarket in theUnited States often ended with a seemingly simple question from the cashier: “Paper or plastic?” Well, which type of bag would you choose?
While all types of bags have some influence on the environment, it has long been supposed that paper bags are kinder. They are made from a renewable source, break down easily, burn without giving off thick smoke and can be recycled. However, the producing process behind paper bags uses more energy than that of plastic ones. How can this be true?
Studies show that paper bag production requires four times as much energy as plastic bag production. And the amount of water used to make paper bags is twenty times higher. Besides, the influence on forests is very serious. It takes about fourteen million trees to produce ten billion paper bags, which happens to be the number of bags used in the United States yearly.In terms of recycling, the idea that paper bags are more environmentally friendly than plastic ones can be quickly discarded. Research shows it requires about 98% less energy to recycle plastic than it does to recycle paper.
Even though paper bags might be more harmful than plastic ones, plastic still seems to be considered by governments as the more harmful of the two. In Ireland, for example, a tax has been introduced to discourage the use of plastic bags. People have to pay 22 cents for every plastic bag, and as a result, their use has dropped quickly.
There’s no doubt that it makes more sense to reuse these bags. However, we don’t seem to be doing that at present. Cloth bags are a better choice, but still, their production also has a bad influence on the environment. So what to do? How should I we answer the question of “Paper or plastic?” It seems that we first need to ask ourselves one more general question: “What can I do to help the environment?”
1. Why does the author use the questions in Paragraph 1?A.To express the author’s doubts. | B.To introduce the topic for discussion. |
C.To tell readers how to save money. | D.To show the kindness of the cashier. |
A.need more water to produce | B.require less energy to recycle |
C.have less influence on forests | D.take more time to break down |
A.Put forward. | B.Discussed. | C.Given up. | D.Shared. |
A.Paper or cloth? | B.Paper or plastic? |
C.A small bag or a big one? | D.A new bag or your own one? |
World leaders at the 5th meeting of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) agreed that by 2024, they would create and sign a new treaty on plastics. The new treaty would create international laws
Because plastic is useful for so many purposes, it has become a part of nearly all areas of our lives. It’s hard to look anywhere without finding dozens of
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) reports that
Plastic gives off dangerous gases when it’s made and also when it’s burned or buried in the ground. Scientists say plastics are responsible
Plastic doesn’t “decompose (腐烂)” like natural materials. Instead, it just breaks into smaller and smaller pieces. And as the plastics
Microplastics are so tiny that
A. respectively B. vision C. rebounded D. decoupling E. respectably F. promoting G. commitments H. emitters I. peak J. remaining K. urgent |
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the Asean (东盟) region are estimated to increase in the same period, based on the latest Nationally determined contributions (NDC) targets up to 2030.
To keep the Paris Agreement temperature goal within reach, Dr Beni Suryadi, Centre for Energy Manager at the Asean Secretariat, stated that ASEAN needs to achieve
However,
“It is vital to reduce energy intensity through lower energy demand and further energy savings and to reduce emission intensity by
“Current policies need to be enhanced to achieve the NDC targets. The
Earlier in his presentation, Dr Beni highlighted, “a brief record-breaking drop in climate change – causing carbon emissions during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. However, nowadays we continue to hear the news and read reports that say that global emissions have already
“While we are grateful to learn that the economy is reviving and we see economic activities taking place everywhere, there is a(n)
At the global level, he said, “It is recorded that almost three-quarters of the GHG emissions come from energy use; almost one-fifth from agriculture and land use; and the
He also noted that the electricity and transport sectors start out as and remain the biggest
“If the Asean member states do what is needed to fully achieve their own national energy efficiency and renewable energy targets, as well as their climate commitments, Asean’s total energy- related GHG emissions in 2040 will be 3,002 MtCO2-eq, 28 per cent lower than in the baseline scenario.
“Power generation remains the largest sectoral contributor, accounting for about 40 per cent and 46 per cent of total GHG emissions from energy in 2025 and 2040,
“Furthermore, if Asean fulfilled its regional aspirational targets on the energy efficiency and renewable energy, Asean will be able to reduce GHG emissions more sharply to only 2,264 Mt CO2-eq in 2040,” he said.
内容包括:
1. 海洋的重要性;
2. 保护海洋的倡议。
注意:1. 词数100左右;
2. 短文的题目和首句已为你写好。
Our oceans, our responsibility
June 8th was named by the UN in 2009 as World Oceans Day...____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
8 . Something’s happening at the lowest point on our planet, some 1,388 feet below the sea level.
The Dead Sea, a salt lake close to Israel, Jordan and the West Bank, is shrinking at an alarming rate — about 3.3 feet per year, according to the environmentalist group EcoPeace Middle East. And human actions are largely to blame.
“It’s not just like one country is punishing the Dead Sea; it's more like the whole region,” said photographer Moritz Küstner, who visited the area in February to work on his series “The Dying Dead Sea”.
The Dead Sea needs water from the other natural sources surrounding it, such as the Jordan River basin. But around the 1960s, some of the water sources it relied upon were diverted.
Mineral extraction industries are another main reason why the water levels are declining, experts say. The Dead Sea’s minerals have been popular for their medical power and can often be found in cosmetics (化妆品) and other consumer products.
And then, of course, there’s the Middle East’s hot, dry climate, which makes it difficult for the lake to refill itself.
Israel and Jordan have signed a $900 million deal in an effort to stabilize the Dead Sea’s water levels.
It involves building a canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea so that both countries would be able to not only supply water to Israel and Jordan but also to pump much needed water — some 300 million cubic meters annually — into the Dead Sea.
“This is the most important and significant agreement since the peace treaty with Jordan (in 1994),” said Silvan Shalom, Israel’s energy and water resources minister at the time.
Whether the canal — estimated to take three years to complete — will work out positively and as planned remains to be seen.
1. Moritz Küstner visited the Dead Sea to ________.A.shoot TV series about people's action there |
B.make a survey about the sea level |
C.do his photographic series work |
D.research into environmental problems |
A.The other natural sources the Dead Sea relied on were switched. |
B.The Dead Sea's minerals have been dug and used in some products. |
C.The Middle East's climate makes the lake itself difficult to store water. |
D.Israel and Jordan are the two countries to destroy the Dead Sea. |
A.Bringing in water from the Red Sea. |
B.Introducing water from Israel and Jordan. |
C.Taking Israel's energy and water resources. |
D.Struggling for international support. |
A.Why the Dead Sea is dying and the measures taken to save it. |
B.How important the Dead Sea is in Israel, Jordan and the West Bank. |
C.How to solve the problem that the Dead Sea is being destroyed. |
D.Protecting the environment is in no hurry all over the world. |
Public Opinion Counts
Modbury is a typical small town of the south of England with a population of about 1,600. Typical, that is, apart from the fact that there are no plastic carrier bags in the town. None. Plastic bags have been well and truly dumped!
The removal of the plastic bags was the brainchild of Rebecca Hosking, Modbury resident and documentary-maker. Filming a documentary in the Pacific Ocean, Rebecca was horrified at the effects of plastic bags on the wildlife off Hawaii. Among other things, she saw seabirds fatally trapped in plastic bags that don’t biodegrade. When Rebecca returned to her hometown, she discussed this problem with people, including the shopkeepers and everyone supported her suggestion to make the town plastic bag free.
But for Rebecca’s concept, Modbury would still be an unremarkable little place. Now, however, shoppers take re-usable cotton bags shopping with them, or they buy biodegradable corn starch ones on the shops. The shopkeepers now wrap their goods in paper. To prove that the townsfolk are not only committed to reducing plastic waste, they organised a mass beach clean-up last year. Dozens of volunteers came to the beach on the appointed day to clean it up, taking the rubbish that visitors throw away and recycling it. And the greatest part of that rubbish was... no, not plastic bags, but plastic bottles.
Becoming the first town in Europe to ban plastic bags, Modbury is now harvesting the rewards of fame — reporters and camera crews from newspapers and TV channels across the world are coming to this mild town to find out its secret. And, contrary to some of the initial reports, it is a normal town, trying to live life in a slightly different way. As one resident put it. “We’re ordinary people, but we want to make just a little difference.”
要求:1. 词数80左右;
2. 适当增加内容,以使行文顺畅。
Caring for the Environment Starts from Ourselves
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