With forests and grasslands burning across the planet, the     1     (important) of forests has come back into the world’s focus. China has become the recognized leader in the greening of degraded (退化的) grasslands    2     deserts, as proved by a number of     3     (award). In December 2019, the United Nations recognized China’s Ant Forest Program as Champions of the Earth.

Ant Forest uses technology    4     (encourage) green behavior in users of China’s popular Alipay platform. Through this APP, customers can collect “green credit” for actions     5     save carbon emission or energy. As soon     6     enough credit is collected, the company will plant a real tree.

China’s efforts have made the country the largest contributor in the global greening area. In 2019, forests     7     (plant) in an area of 70.67 billion square meters. The national forest coverage rate reached 22.96%. China’s example     8     (clear) shows the impact that an alliance ( 联合) of government, company, financing and local communities can have if all pull together to work on a common goal. These     9     (success) cases have been studied for possible emulation ( 仿效) by other countries     10     (affect) by expanding ( 扩张) deserts, such as Pakistan, Sudan or Niger.

7 . You can help protect the planet! Try some of the following tips and get green.

    1     Set out cans and bottles for neighborhood pickup, or exchange them for cash at a recycling ( 回收利用) center. Choose rechargeable batteries ( 充电电池), then recycle them when they die.     2     Sharing books is a great way to reduce waste and reuse materials.

Improve the outdoors. Plant a leafy tree that loses its leaves in fall on the south side of your home. Its shade ( 树荫) will cool your house in the summer.     3     Trees also help clean the air we breathe. They produce oxygen and reduce carbon dioxide.

Don’t litter. Rubbish thrown carelessly outside often washes into rivers, lakes and finally into the oceans.     4    

Cut down on waste. If you have a dripping faucet (滴水的水龙头) in the house, ask your parents to replace the washer inside it. If you stop a faucet from leaking one drop each second, you can save 2, 700 gallons of water a year. Don’t pile (堆满) food onto your plate.     5     Enough food to feed 49 million people ends up in landfills in the United States each year.

8 . In Copenhagen, I travel everywhere by bicycle. Here, cycle lanes are safe, separated from the road. The city’s cycle network is praised by the whole world.

Copenhagen’s city government reported in 2019 that 62% of its citizens are now commuting (通勤) to work or school by bike — an increase from 52% in 2015 and 36% in 2012, when the city started a 14-year plan to improve the quality, safety and comfort of cycling. Those bikers ride about 800, 000 miles a day. According to local reports, there are more bikes (675, 000) than people in Copenhagen, and five times as many bicycles as cars.

The three-hour cycling trip is saving me 1.1 kg of CO2 compared to a bus tour. We arrive at Tivoli Gardens, built in 1843. The world’s second-oldest funfair is doing its bit to protect the environment, with measures including charging visitors extra (向游客额外收费) and providing reusable drinking cups, a move that has saved 10 tons of waste per year. Other parks across the world, I think, may consider following suit.

The next day, I avoid adding a further 2.4 kg to my footprint by experiencing Copenhagen’s canals (运河) by electric GoBoat rather than an engined boat.

“We’re not 100% carbon-neutral (碳中和的) as this would require us to put in more money and we’re a new company,” says GoBoat co-founder Kasper Eich-Romme. “But our boats are usually packed with eight people — the greatest number, while traditional canal tours run CO2-costly boats that could fit 100 - plus people, sometimes with only 5—10 people on board.”

Finding hotels that are reducing carbon use is becoming ever easier, too, especially in Copenhagen, where 70% are eco-certified (生态认证的). Hotel Kong Arthur, a stately building facing Copenhagen’s lakes, is among those leading the charge. It has been carbon-neutral since 2007 and employs simple touches to help guests play their part: there’s no air conditioner — instead, rooms are cooled simply by opening the windows.

9 . “Will they be bothered ( 打扰) by our presence?”; “They’re so big and look so dangerous. How are we going to feel once we’re in the water?” These are just some of the questions in our minds before cameraman Nick Porter and I set out to film whale sharks, the largest living fish, off the coast of Qatar.

I have always been passionate about wildlife. When I was a child, I wanted to be a marine biologist (海洋生物学家) but somehow ended up becoming a reporter. Now I am in Qatar and finally I have a chance to tell the story of the rich wildlife of Qatar, including the whale sharks.

After long and careful planning, we start the two-hour trip out to sea. Finally, we see them. There are hundreds. More and more of the harmless giants ( 巨物) surface with their mouths wide open as they skim (掠过) the top of the sea.

It’s time to join them. Nick and I jump into the water. Neither of us is nervous. I notice one and swim towards it, forgetting that Nick still doesn’t have fins on his feet, so he can’t really swim as fast as I can. But right now, I just want to be close to this unbelievable animal.

So I end up alone, next to a huge whale shark — huge compared with me, at least. This one is probably six or seven metres long, but they can get much bigger. There is so much to take in. Being so close for the first time, I get quite emotional.

Nick has now gotten his fins, and we swim together. He is filming and is as excited as I am.

After two hours, we return to the boat. Everyone is on a high. Whale sharks are endangered — unsurprisingly, mostly by human activities. They need more protection. The more people know about the beauty we have a privilege (荣幸) to host, the more we will want to protect it. It’s a privilege we should all work together to protect.

I’m 28 and live in Aix­en­Provence in the south of France. I have walked 975.5km(605 miles)for the environment, from Aix­en­Provence to Paris, picking up all the rubbish left on roads: 810kg in total. I left my home on July 12 with my green bin, wanting to raise awareness of the state of the planet and its climate change problem.

Over 57 days, I managed around 17km of walking a day. I picked up 61kg of recyclable plastic, 3,977 cigarette packets and 2,083 cigarette butts (烟蒂), 117kg of glass, 162.5kg of metal and 325kg of non­recyclable waste.

I got the idea to do a walk for the environment during a trip to Latin America. I had gone to Brazil for the World Cup, and then I took a bus to see my friend Lola, who was studying in Peru at the time. The whole way, I found it amazing that so much rubbish was collected up along the roads. The plastic bags, cans, boxes, empty bottles...a total shock. Lima was playing host to the COP 20 climate summit, which was the precursor (前身) to the climate summit (顶点) in France.

After the UN climate summit in Paris, I’ll keep going with an organisation called Petra Patrimonia. We’ll be able to do so much if we can keep recycling and sorting (分类；整理) our rubbish properly. It’s a strategic step in promoting clean energy. Lola and I will also fight against the plant to be built in Gardanne, which apparently needs wood from Canada to work.