2 . The newly-elected president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro says that his country should withdraw (退出) from the 2015 Paris Agreement, and that Brazil’s rainforest protections are standing in the way of economic success. During the election campaign, he promised to ease protections for areas of the Brazilian Amazon set aside for native people and wildlife. Are Brazil’s rainforests in danger?

The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, is called “the lungs of the planet.” Each tree takes in and stores carbon dioxide from the air around it. Billions of trees pull up water through their roots and release water vapor into the air, forming tiny drops of water. The Amazon creates 30 to 50 percent of its own rainfall. Carlos Nobre, a climate scientist, says that it is almost impossible to say Just how important the rainforest is to the planet’s living systems.

Some of Bolsonaro’s support comes from business and farming groups. One supporter, Luiz Carlos, noted that farmers “are not invaders, they are producers.” He blamed the past government for supporting rainforest protections at the cost of farmers. “Brazil,” he said, “will be the biggest farming nation on Earth during Bolsonaro’s years.”

Paulo Artaxo, a professor of environmental physics at the University of Sao Paulo, says that if Bolsonaro keeps his campaign promises, then “deforestation of the Amazon will probably increase quickly — and the effects will be felt everywhere on the planet.”

Other scientists warn that if the Amazon and other tropical rainforests lose too many trees, this could affect rainfall in other areas. Without enough trees to support the rainfall, the longer and bigger dry season could turn more than half of the rainforest into a tropical grassland.

3 . As time goes on, people have come to realize the importance of protecting the environment. But they can’t deal with everything by themselves. Take small steps, and you can make a difference.

●Think Green. Think about the environment as you live your life. If you turn off lights and TV when leaving the room, you’ll save energy. If you take shorter showers, you will save water.

●Shop Green. Shopping is fun, but buying things you don’t need is wasteful and even bad for the earth. Before you buy something, ask yourself how much you will use it, and whenever possible, buy things locally made instead of those shipped from far away.

●Dress Green. What really matters is not the colour. It’s how the clothes were made. So look for products made from environmentally friendly(环保的)materials.

●Study Green. What’s better than learning about the environment? Save it while you learn. It can be as simple as using both sides of a piece of paper before you recycle it.

5 . Paper is one of our oldest, simplest and most important inventions. But it also presents a danger to the world in two significant ways. First, the making of paper requires the loss of millions of trees each year. Between 2001 and 2019, the world lost 386 million hectares of forest. Of the trees that were cut down, 42% went to paper production. And worldwide use of paper is expected to double in the next 40 years. Clearly, the planet cannot sustain such a high rate of forest loss.

The second great problem with paper is what happens once it is no longer useful. A huge quantity of wastepaper ends up in dumps and landfills (垃圾填埋场), where it can produce harmful gases. Paper in landfills leads to the release (释放) of methane, a gas that is a significant contributor in global warming.

One simple solution can greatly reduce both of these problems: paper recycling. Paper is mainly made from cellulose (纤维素), which makes up the cell walls of trees and many other plants. Because of its structure, cellulose can be used repeatedly in papermaking. So far, trees are the only source of cellulose that can fill the massive demand for paper products. Therefore, recycling paper is simply one of the best ways to save trees.

Thanks to advances in processing, recycled paper isn’t the dull-colored stuff many of us are familiar with any more. It now can offer the same print performance as non-recycled paper.

Effective recycling requires a consistent effort. The way to begin is with education and understanding. Once enough people realize the need for recycling, more effective recycling systems can be carried out. The massive loss of trees affects everybody on earth. Everyone should do their part to recycle paper and encourage government and industries to do the same.

8 . Jane Goodall, the well-known scientist, is starting Trees for Jane on Tuesday, joining a global campaign to fight climate change by planting a trillion trees by 2030.

Goodall made it clear that planting is just one part of Trees for Jane. “The key is protecting existing forest because those big trees have already stored CO2,” she said in a National Geographic interview. Donations to Trees for Jane will support local groups working to stop destroying trees. And those who plant are asked to agree to care for the trees and monitor them until they’re mature(成熟的).

Of course, tree planting is not a substitute for reducing emissions (排放), said Susan Cook-Patton, senior forest restoration scientist for The Nature Conservancy. “The most important action is to reduce fossil fuel emissions. However, even if we rapidly reduce emissions, we’re still going to need to remove carbon from the atmosphere to prevent catastrophic warming. That’s why carbon removal approaches like re-growing trees remain important.”

Some tree-planting efforts have come under fire from some scientists as being ineffective since many programs don’t plant native species, essentially creating tree farms, not helping forests. And Cook-Patton’s message is clear, “Plant the right trees, in the right places, in the right way.” This means planting native trees where they historically lived.

Goodall said this agrees with the goal of Trees for Jane. She, noting that Trees for Jane encourages people to plant trees themselves or donate to support global efforts, said her love for trees dates back to her childhood. Nearly eight decades later, she is working tirelessly and selflessly to share the gift of trees with the entire world, for the good of the planet.

9 . There are many wetlands（湿地） in China and some of them have become the world’s important wetlands. The Chinese Yellow Sea Wetlands are among them. They are in Yancheng，Jiangsu Province. They are home for many different kinds of birds and animals. The world’s largest Milu Deer Nature Reserve（自然保护区) is in them. More than 700 milu deer live freely there. There are not many red-crowned cranes in the world, but every winter you can see some in the Red-crowned Cranes Nature Reserve in the Yellow Sea Wetlands.

The temperature in the wetlands is usually neither too high nor too low. There is a lot of rain and sunshine，too. They are really good places for wildlife（野生生物）. Offering food and home for some special kinds of animals and birds is not the only reason why we need to protect wetlands. Wetlands are important because they also prevent flood. But some people want to change the wetlands to make more space for farms and buildings. This means there will be less and less space for wildlife.

Luckily, more and more people are beginning to realize the important of wetlands and wildlife. Every year，on February 2nd，many activities are held to tell people more about wetlands.

10 . If you turn over a plastic bottle, like those we use to drink water, you’ll notice a number “1”—that means it’s made of a material called PET. Some bags, like the kind that holds milk or coffee, get a “2”，meaning they’re made of a material called HDPE. At material recovery factories, plastics get sorted (分类) based on these numbers (they go up to 7)，which shows how recyclable (可回收的) they are.

Plastic marking numbers 1 and 2 are recyclable. They can be made into carpet, clothing, plastic package, as well as other products, according to Live Science.

Recycling gets more difficult with higher numbers, called “mixed plastic”. This waste makes up 69% of all the plastic we use in the daily life. It’s much more expensive to deal with than numbers 1 and 2. In the past, mixed plastics would be sent to other countries. But two years ago, almost no country was allowed to buy foreign plastic waste.

Recycling companies had to find a new market, but many failed. For example, in Los Angeles, recycling companies still won’t recycle any plastics with numbers higher than 2. Instead, they are burying or burning them.

According to Live Science, what the USA needs is machines that can be used to recycle other kinds of plastic. But Hocevar, a scientist, comes up with a different solution: “The really simple answer is there isn’t so much throwaway plastic in the world.”

Someone may ask, “Is recycling worth it?” For bottles with “1” or “2”, the answer is “yes”, said Hocevar. There’s also a growing market for plastics marked “5”, a flexible (灵活的) plastic that includes yogurt containers (酸奶容器). For other numbers, the answer was simpler; a “no” on numbers 3, 4, 6 and 7.