Going green is more than just a fad (一时的流行). Understanding the link between a clean environment and human life is not a new concept. In fact, it was noticed as early as ancient Rome and medieval Europe. However, it was only in the late 1960s that environmentalism grew to become a political and grassroots movement, influencing ordinary people around the world.

The movement has been able to influence governments across the world to be responsible towards the environment in a variety of ways, such as limiting the burning of fossil fuels and managing how harmful waste is thrown away.

Fast-forward to today and we see how green-living has entered so many areas of our everyday lives, from choosing the appliances that use less water and energy to using reusable bags instead of plastic bags and even buying clothes made from recycled sources. For many of us, making small environmentally-conscious decisions, such as bringing a reusable container to take away food, is how we change our normal habits one step at a time. However, there is a growing community of people who embrace a zero waste lifestyle and make great changes to the way they live to reduce their carbon footprint.

Living a zero waste lifestyle means doing one's best to achieve the aim of not sending anything to a landfill (垃圾填埋场). People who adopt this lifestyle cut down on their waste by reducing what they need and want. They reuse what they own and send few things to be recycled.

Despite what this movement is called, experts say true zero waste is difficult to achieve. This is because waste unavoidably comes about whenever an item is created, transported or repurposed (改换用途), either through emissions or energy. The idea, really, is to change mindsets and habits to lessen our negative impact on the environment as far as possible.

2 . Scientists in South Africa have found that ceramic (瓷的) nest boxes can protect endangered African penguins from climate change.

In the past, the penguins laid eggs in holes dug into centuries-old layers of their own droppings, most of which was shipped by traders to the United Kingdom as fertilizer (肥料) in the 1800s. Since then, many penguins have nested in the open, exposing their eggs and themselves to the burning heat.

Because penguins evolved to keep heat in cold water, they can easily overheat on land. Typically, penguins leave their nests regularly to cool off in the sea. But without proper holes, this leaves their eggs unprotected. Since 1900, the African penguin population has dropped from three million to only 48,000.

Fortunately, a team of researchers seem to have found a way. Over the past years, the team has put more than 1,500 handmade ceramic nest boxes in five areas where the penguins live, including Bird Island in Algoa Bay, South Africa, which is home to nearly half of the world’s remaining African penguins. Looking like small round houses, the double-walled ceramic nests can keep African penguins cool.

“The nests are so useful,” says Welman, a zoologist, “Even if adults had to leave nests for some reason, their eggs would never be at any risk of overheating.” Christina Hagen of Bird Life South Africa, who was not part of the study, says finding effective conservation solutions is important given the decreasing population of African penguins.

The main threat to African penguins is overfishing of anchovy and sardines, the penguins’ favorite food. Scientists and conservationists are pushing the South African government to close commercial fishing around the five African penguin breeding (繁殖) colonies until populations recover. But without protection from rising temperatures, those efforts alone may not be enough. Ceramic nests could help to give these beloved penguins a fighting chance.

3 . Ashtyn Perry, with other 35 students from Springville, was planting baby sequoias in an area where a wildfire happened last year. The 13-year-old girl has a higher purpose: to plant baby sequoias that could grow into giants and live for thousands of years!

Last year, a wildfire broke out in the California mountain community of Sequoia Crest and destroyed dozens of its signature giant trees. To save the trees, a lot of measures have been taken, including replanting baby sequoias. The efforts are part of a project led by the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, a nonprofit, to plant offspring from some of the largest and oldest trees. Their purpose is to archive the genetics of ancient trees, breed them and replant them.

Sequoias have massive trunks and can grow 90 meters tall. They grow naturally only in a 260-mile (420 kilometers) belt of forest in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. The giant sequoia is the world's largest, and one of the best fire-resistant trees. Thick bark protects its trunk, and its canopy (树冠) is so high that it is out of reach of flames.

In recorded history, large sequoias had never damaged by fires before 2015. Destruction of the majestic trees hit unprecedented levels last year, when approximately 10% to 14% of the estimated 75, 000 trees larger than 4 feet (1.2 meters) in diameter burned, and thousands more were potentially lost this year.

An initial assessment was recently released last week, saying that climate change and a century of policies that emphasize extinguishing wildland fires are to blame for the fire. In fact, letting some burn can reduce the buildup of undergrowth around the trees and prevent bigger future fires. Hotter droughts have led to more intense fires that have burned through fuels accumulated through fire suppression.

To protect the trees, many measures are being taken, including replanting 150 of the 7-year-old seedlings. Ashtyn said she'd like to return once a year to see how they're growing, and she hopes they become giants.

7 . A United Nations group of experts predicted that global warming would reach extreme levels by the early 2030s. The likely result: ever-worsening weather disasters and related events—hunger, extinction of some plant and wildlife species and the spread of infectious diseases.

There is still time to avoid these disasters, but the window for action is closing quickly. Yet the reality is, few countries are on track to meet their existing goals to address climate change. Luckily, there is one bright note in this otherwise black picture: individual innovators are stepping up to try to find solutions to fight climate crisis using technology in new and creative ways.

When Beth began working in the fashion industry, she was disappointed to find that many makers tended to largely guess what people would actually buy. As a result, companies overproduced clothes, creating needless waste and environmental pollution.

To reduce unsold products and material waste in the fashion industry, in 2015, Beth began her own company, Unspun, which seeks solutions by making on-demand custom clothing tailored to a buyer’s body using a 3D-body scan. “We will never make clothes before they have a home.” said Beth. Its self-developed 3D-weaving(编织) machine enables customisation using a body scanner.

Unspun launched its first 3D woven items using the innovative tech last year. Since then, the company has produced thousands of pairs of pants, hats, bags in a test run for a large European retailer(零售商).

Unspun doesn’t intend to keep its novel production technique to itself. The company is in the process of building microsites around the world to localize 3D weaving production. For example, the company has set up its office in Hong Kong with a focus on business development, marketing and customer services. “Our goal is to reduce the global human carbon footprint by 1 percent, and the only way to realistically get there is to become a platform, working with forward-thinking brands (品牌) to collectively cleanup the industry,” says Beth.

8 . The food we eat every day keeps us alive, but it can also bring big health and environmental costs. A recent study finds that small shifts in the food choices could have great benefits to both health and the planet.

Because many foods with a high health burden, including processed meats or red meats, have high environmental costs. Reducing just about 10 percent of a person’s daily intake can cut a person’s food-based environmental footprint by over 30 percent. Between growing it, packaging it, moving it around, cooking it, and often wasting it, food production makes up about one-fifth to one-third of all annual greenhouse gas emissions globally. For an average household, food makes up about as much of the greenhouse gas footprint as the electricity.

To learn how to reduce negative impacts of food production and consumption on the planet and the body, researchers first assessed damage related to food. Over the past few decades, scientists have developed ways of doing “life cycle analyses” for specific items and assigned them a hard number to show their environmental impact. Meanwhile, public health scientists were doing similar analyses for human bodies. They carefully examined the links between food and health. They concluded that agriculture is a huge piece of the climate puzzle, and agriculture, food, and diet are all linked.

We can’t stop eating, so what should we do? For some climate challenges, there are relatively straightforward ways. For example, renewable energy sources can already replace much of the energy needed to power buildings, cars, and more.

There’s no substitute for food, but shifting what we eat is possible. If all people on the planet are vegans, greenhouse gas emissions from the food system could be cut by more than half; a planet of vegetarians would trim food emissions by 44 percent.

9 . Mobile Bay in Alabama is home to a strange and unique occurrence. During the summer months, hundreds of fish and crustaceans (甲壳纲动物) from the deep waters of the bay move to the shallow waters. The free seafood is so plentiful and easy to catch with nets or bare hands that locals gather to fill their buckets with it. This natural phenomenon has existed for centuries.

Sarah Van Winkle, a student at the Alabama School of Math & Science, is no stranger to the scene. Growing up there, the rich plants and animals never stop to amaze her.

As the world’s oceans face numerous issues such as pollution, overfishing, and habitat destruction, she intended to figure out whether Mobile Bay was experiencing similar environmental threats in her most recent science project. Sarah studied the environment of Mobile Bay and she even extended the range of the research to the Mobile Tensaw-Delta, and the canals of a living district in Fairhope, Alabama. She analyzed key nutrient and metal levels in the ocean ecosystem.

Through the project, Sarah found that turbidity, an important indicator of water quality, increased sharply. This result showed, clearly that the area is filled with tiny pieces of matter, making the water there quite opaque.

For the project. Sarah was chosen as one of this year’s 24 Society for Science & the Public Community Innovation Award winners. “To me, this honor symbolizes that the ten months of late night readings, weekend field trips, and after-school sessions in the laboratory have truly come to fruition and impacted lives,” Sarah noted.

“Our local ocean ecosystem is in danger of chemical pollution from a variety of sources,” Sarah explained in an interview. “The bay plays a vital role in our community and every local should value what the bay offers. It’s our responsibility to work together to preserve it.”

10 . A Ghanaian man in Africa, who once made glass jewelry (珠宝), is now focusing on more than _________. The glass artist is reducing glass waste and helping his country both economically and _________.

Tetteh got to _________ the art of glass blowing (吹制) during a visit to Europe in 2012, then he became the nation’s only professional glass blower. Later, the beautifully-colored, artistic flower holders or water carriers really _________ him.

Why not _________ more Ghanaian people to make art pieces from glass? With efforts, Tetteh set up his own workplaces in Ghana where, every day, they _________ broken glass from waste centers and turns it into _________ for family use and decoration. Largely _________, after all, Ghana buys about $300 million yearly worth of glass and pottery from other countries.

Tetteh melts the _________ glass from old televisions or bottles and turns the old glass into hot liquid. Using a long pole to remove a ball of melted glass, he starts working to ____________ the glass into colorful items people can use again. Actually, In the past ten years, Tetteh’s ____________ has not only saved the country a lot of money but got the country ____________.

Tetteh, now 44, loves what he is doing. “Glass is my ____________, but Ghana is my heart,” he laughed, ____________ to do something for his country ____________.