1 . Look, let’s be honest-there’s no such thing as a “green” vacation. You’ll leave a carbon footprint, no matter what.     1     Here are a few questions to ask:

Is it a B Corp?

B Corps are businesses that meet a strict set of standards by the nonprofit B Lab. They include requirements for governance, workers, customers, community and the environment.     2     You’ll see some fairly well-known brands, like Intrepid Travel. But you won’t find the names of any major airlines, car rental companies or hotel chains-at least, not yet.

Does the company have any other environmental certifications?

Third-party certifications from Green Key, LEED and WELL can be signs that a travel company means business about the environment. Transportation companies may also offer verified certifications from organizations like Terrapass or the Gold Standard Foundation.     3     However, it’s a good start.

    4    

If the company claims to be green, don’t just take its word for it. Listen to what it says. If you see nothing but models on its Instagram channel or ads for online discounts on its site, perhaps it’s a shade of fake green. “A company’s social media strategy is generally a reflection of its current ethos and goals,” explained Julia Carter, founder of Craft Travel.

How deep is its commitment to the environment?

    5     For example, the Travel Corporation publishes an annual impact report that maps its progress against 11 sustainability goals developed by the United Nations. Many cruise lines also publish detailed reports that allow you to check their commitment to the environment against several objective standards.

3 . Sargassum is a kind of floating seaweed (海草) that has been growing in size every year. It looks pretty in the ocean. However, sargassum can almost completely block out sunlight. Important kinds of seagrass suffer when light is blocked by seaweed. As sargassum piles up on beaches, it makes it hard for mother sea turtles to lay eggs, and nearly impossible for baby turtles to return to the sea.

So much sargassum piles up on beaches, and it breaks down slowly, giving out a bad smell like rotten eggs. “Even when governments clear the seaweed from beaches, they face problems of getting rid of it. Heavy machines can put turtle nests in danger. Some people have thought about using sargassum as a fertilizer (肥料), but it contains harmful heavy metals. So far, removing these harmful metal s costs too much to make it worth doing,” said the scientist Steven Kelley.

Sargassum grows faster in warming oceans, so climate change is definitely part of the problem. But scientists believe the unusual growth of the seawood is also caused by huge quantities of fertilizers washed into the ocean from farmlands.

Scientists and students are working hard to figure out how to deal with sargassum. Some suggest using sargassum as a building material, or possibly a fuel. One unusual solution is to drop it deep in the sea by using robots. Sargassum takes in huge amounts of carbon dioxide (二氧化碳) as it grows. Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is one important part of fighting the climate crisis. Sargassum could deal with this carbon dioxide in the deep ocean. Scientists are still testing this idea to see if it will work.

For now, scientists say the quickest solution is to stop filling the ocean with fertilizers. It is wise for farmers to change the way they farm. Moreover, the seaweed’s growth can have serious effects on islands that depend heavily on tourism and fishing. Island communities play a role in cleaning up the seaweed and promoting responsible tourism. At the same time, officials have to work towards changing policies to solve the issues.

6 . A new study by the world’s top scientists says that humans need to cat less meat and dairy and change the way we farm to save the planet from climate change. Climate change means the global changes in the Earth’s average temperature, mostly caused by humans.    1    .

Burning fossil fuels (化石燃料) (coal, oil and gas) to power our homes, cars and factories is a major cause of climate change, yet the report says that limiting the use of fossil fuels will not be enough on its own to stop the harm being done to the planet.    2    The two-year study was carried out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) —an organization that advises governments on climate change. It was prepared by 107 top scientists from 52 countries.

In the past 100 years, the planet’s population has increased from 1.9 billion to 7.7 billion.    3     Raising animals creates a number of problems. Firstly, it uses far more water and other resources than farming crops. Secondly, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air.    4     Farmed animals also produce a lot of methane (沼气), another greenhouse gas that causes climate change.

    5    especially in places where a lot of these foods are eaten, such as Europe, the UK and the US, it doesn’t completely rule out eating meat and dairy, but says we should try to cut down.

7 . Vast lands of America are dominated by corn, nearly 100macres of it, stretching from Ohio to the Dakotas. What once was forest today produces the corn that feeds people, cattle and, when made into ethanol (乙醇), cars.

Now, the nation’s airlines want to power their planes with corn, too. United Airlines signed a deal with a Nebraska ethanol company to buy enough sustainable fuel, to power 50,000 flights a year. The government could decide on its tax incentives (税收激励) for the industry as soon as December. “Mark my words, the next 20 years, corn farmers are going to provide 95% of all the sustainable airline fuel,” President Biden said in July.

The airlines’ ambitious goal would likely require nearly doubling ethanol production, which airlines say, with great expectation, would decrease their greenhouse gas emissions. If they succeed, it could transform America’s Corn Belt, stimulating farmers and ethanol producers, but potentially further damaging one of the nation’s most important resources: groundwater.

Corn requires a lot of water to grow and it can take hundreds of gallons to produce a single gallon of ethanol. But as airlines take the idea of ethanol, the vital groundwater faces serious risks. “We’re on track to massively increase water usage without any real sense of how sensitive our groundwater is,” said Jeffrey Broberg, who is concerned about groundwater in Minnesota, a major corn state.

The Department of Energy said in a statement that “water use is a critical part of the conversation surrounding bio-energy sustainability”. It pointed to a 2022 department study that concluded that the United States could significantly reduce pressure on groundwater by shifting fuel production away from water-intensive crops like corn, instead growing more crops that don’t require irrigation (灌溉), like various types of straw, grasses and trees. Hopefully, a better approach will be soon studied and adopted.

9 . Some exhibitions and new displays create lots of waste. So museums are increasingly aware of the role they have to play in dealing with that. At Manchester Museum, John Miller and Robert O’Conner have developed their own approach to creating a circle from the exhibition, to exhibition changeover, and back to the museum workshop, reusing materials in any way they can.

Holding different exhibitions and displays means that museums are often left with structures (结构体) that won’t be used again. At the end of an exhibition, John and Robert carefully take down and cut all materials into workable units, ready to be reused wherever needed. When Pinc College based at Manchester Museum needed new classrooms, the workshop team were able to use completely recycled materials to build them.

While it’s easy to think of new as being better, reusing materials doesn’t mean you can’t create beautiful displays. Last year, the museum placed Illuminating Nature, a surprising window display showing some objects under UV light. Almost every part of it was reused. The only thing that needed to be bought was the UV lights, proving you don’t need to spend much to create something impressive.

No matter how many materials you try to reuse there will always be something left over. Why not keep an eye out for charities or local groups who would welcome a donation? As with many museums, paint is often bought for an exhibition. And there will be a few extra cans left over. Manchester Museum usually takes them to Betel UK, a charity that supports people losing their jobs. The paint is used by Betel UK in their workshops for people to learn special skills and then refresh furniture (家具) which is then sold in their shops.

The impressive efforts of John and Robert are a shining example of a museum team that is establishing best practices and proving its determination to build a greener world. Their work inspires other teams to move away from the growth-model thinking that’s been influential in museums for the past twenty years.

10 . New research from the University of Portsmouth has shown a marked increase in shipping in the North East Atlantic. Scientists now warn that more monitoring is required to help protect sea life.

Researchers at the University of Ponsmouth have discovered that rates (率) of shipping in the North East Atlantic area rose by 34 per cent in a five-year period. The research is the first detailed survey of shipping activity in the North East Atlantic. Researchers used data from over 530 million vessel (船) positions recorded by Automatic Identification System(AIS). They looked at the change in shipping between 2013 and 2017 across ten different vessel types. In total the study area covered 1.1 million km², including waters off Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany,Iceland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal. Spain, and the UK.

Lead author, James Robbins said: “This change is likely to put more pressure on the marine (海洋的) environment, and may influence the protection of at-risk species. Renewed monitoring effort is needed to make sure that protective measures are enough to save species under threat in a changing environment.”

Some of the greatest shipping increases were found in areas close to the Spanish coast. The Espacio Marino de la Costa da Morte saw a rise of 413 percent in vessel activity. It is an area used to protect seabirds.

Dr. Sarah Marley, Visiting Researcher at the University of Portsmouth, said: “Shipping is the most widespread human activity in our oceans, carrying a set of threats-from unnoticeable effects like underwater noise pollution to serious results when ships hit whales.”

Professor Alex Ford. from the University’s Institute of Marine Sciences, said: “Given the well-documented effects that shipping can have on the marine environment, it is necessary that this situation continues to be monitored-particularly in areas used to protect vulnerable (脆弱的) species which may already be under pressure.”