1 . Thanks to its harsh environment, Antarctica remained largely untouched by humans for many millennia, allowing a thriving (旺盛的) ecosystem to evolve. However, since the 1990s, the last true wilderness on the planet is becoming an increasingly popular destination for adventure-seeking tourists. Now, a new study declares that the visitors may be leaving behind harmful bacteria which could devastate the area’s native bird population.

Humans can infect animals with illnesses such as the flu. Researchers, however, believed that the Antarctic animals were immune to the danger due to the continent’s extreme weather. However, microbiologist Marta Cerda-Cuellar was not convinced.

She and some colleagues decided to examine waste samples from Antarctic birds for evidence of human bacteria. To ensure the waste was not polluted, the scientists had to collect it from the birds themselves.

The results of their study revealed the presence of several types of human bacteria in the bird waste. This included a common strain (品种) of bacteria that causes food poisoning in humans. The researchers say the bacteria strains were resistant to commonly-used human antibiotics (抗生素)，indicating they were brought in by the visitors, rather than migratory birds (候鸟).

“These strains, which are a common cause for infections in humans and livestock, do not usually cause death outbreaks in wild animals,” says Gonzalez-Solis. “However, the emerging or invasive pathogens (病原体) that arrive to highly sensitive populations could have severe consequences and cause the local collapse and extinction of some populations. “The researcher also fears the presence of these bugs could foreshadow the arrival of other, more deadly, pathogens as the number of tourists people increases.

Experts believe the only way to prevent the mass destruction of the birds is to impose stricter regulations or, at least, put the ones already in place into effect. For example, while the Antarctica Treaty requires visitors to carry their waste back home to safeguard the pristine environment, the regulation is rarely enforced. Nowadays, some officials are taking steps to save the vulnerable birds before it’s too late.

2 . Tips for Green Travel with Kids

Travelling doesn’t mean letting go of all the eco-friendly choices we work so hard to achieve in our daily life. Here are a few tips for green travel with kids.

Booking nonstop flights whenever possible will reduce carbon emissions (碳排放). If the closest local airport doesn’t have nonstop flights to a certain place, check with other local airports to see if nonstop flights are available.     1    

It’s easy when travelling to pull in to fast food restaurants for snacks.     2     My kids love to help plan snacks. I let them create their own snacks for the trip at home.

    3     At the airport, keep your reusable bottles empty until you have passed through the security (机场安检区). Fill them up on the other side of the security checkpoint. Single-use plastic water bottles create unnecessary waste and the plastic can be harmful to your health.

    4     In addition, opening a few windows and turning off the air conditioner (空调) are also good ways to save energy. You should also help your children keep their good, green habits while travelling. Sometimes vacation can mean more than one shower each day-once in the morning and again after getting out of the pool. Pay attention to the number of showers (淋浴) and the length of showers.     5    

There comes a time when the old must give way to the new. Finding and     1     (keep) the right balance between progress and the protection of cultural sites can be     2     big challenge.

In the 1950s, the Egyptian government wanted to build a new dam across the Nile     3     (control) floods, produce electricity and supply water to more farmers, but the proposal led to     4     (protest).

After listening to the experts’ opinion, the government turned to the United Nations for help. Then a committee     5     (establish) to limit damage to the Egyptian buildings and prevent the loss of cultural relics.     6     (final), a document was signed, and the work     7     (begin) in 1960.

    8     the project ended in 1980, it was considered a great success. Not only had the countries found a path     9     the future that did not run over the relics of the past, but they had also learnt that it was possible for countries to work together to build a better tomorrow. The spirit of the Aswan Dam project is still alive today.   If a problem seems too difficult for a single nation, the     10     (globe) community can sometimes provide a solution.

5 . Used electronics are piing up fast: they are filling up landfills with dangerous pieces of waste. Some e-waste is relatively large, such as air conditioners; other e-waste is more unnoticed, such as smart labels that contain disposable batteries and other equipment.

“It’s these small batteries that are big problems,” says University of California, Irvine, public health scientist Dele Ogunseitan, who is a green technology researcher and adviser for major tech companies and was not involved in developing the battery. “Nobody really pays attention to where they end up.” Researchers at the Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology are working to address this problem. Their new paper describes a water-activated paper battery developed from environmentally friendly materials that could eventually present a sustainable alternative to the more harmful batteries common in low-power devices.

The paper battery has the same key components as standard batteries but packages them differently. Like a typical chemical battery, it has a positively charged side and a negatively charged side. A traditional battery’s components are covered in plastic and metal; in the new battery, however, the positively and negatively charged sides are inks printed onto the front and back of a piece of paper. That paper is filled with salt, which dissolves (溶解) when the paper becomes wet. When the paper is dry, the battery is shelf-stable. Once the paper is wet, the battery starts working within 20 seconds. The new battery’s operating performance declines as the paper dries. When the scientists rewet the paper during testing, the battery regained function and lasted an hour before beginning to dry out again.

That future may not be so far off. It is hard to predict a time line for manufacturing such items at scale, but the head of the study says he is in contact with potential industry partners and believes these batteries could make their way into products within the next two to five years.

6 . The endangered pandas in the Qinling Mountains might face a new threat: the loss of their food, bamboo, which makes up 99% of their meals.

Adult pandas spend most part of the day eating bamboo and have to take in at least 40 pounds a day to stay healthy. However, a new study published in Nature Climate Change warned that they may soon find their food gone because most of the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains might disappear by the end of the century as a result of rising temperature worldwide.

A team made up of researchers from Michigan State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has studied the effects of climate change on the bamboo in the Qinling Mountains. They have found that bamboo is very sensitive to climate changes. “80% to 100% of the bamboo would be gone if the average temperature rises 3.5 degrees worldwide by the end of the century,” said Liu Jianguo, one of the report’s authors.

He added, “This is how much the temperature would rise by 2100 even if all countries will keep their promises in the Paris Agreement. But you know what is happening all around the world.”

In recent years, China has been trying its best to protect the endangered pandas by setting up more and bigger natural reserves.

“But it is far from enough and the endangered pandas need cooperation from the rest of the world, because their future is not just in the hands of the Chinese,” said Shirley Martin from the World Wildlife Fund but not a member of the team.

The Qinling Mountains, in the southwest of China, are home to about 260 pandas. That is about 13% of China’s wild panda population. In addition, about 375 are living in research centers and zoos in China.

Litter is everywhere, doing great harm to the environment and life on our planet. Jeff Kirschner, who wants to build a litter-free world, started a global community named Litterati     1     (settle) this problem.

The story began with his 6-year-old daughter. One day they were going on a hike     2     the girl noticed a broken plastic tub in a river. She said, “Daddy, that doesn’t go there.” That took Kirschner by surprise. He, like many adults, bad become so used to the rubbish around them that he hadn’t given it     3     second look.     4     his daughter said reminded him of the serious problem our planet faces.

Jeff started to take action. He created Litterati, an app that makes it fun to pick up litter. The idea is     5     (fair) simple: Spot a piece of trash, take a photo, post the photo online and then put the litter into dustbins.

    6     that Jeff was keeping a record of the positive impact he was having     7     the environment, people worldwide started participating in it. Up to now, over 2,500,000 photos posted by 3,500 people from over 40 countries     8     their way to Litterati’s digital landfill.

Litterati is more than an app,     9     is a highly effective solution to a pressing issue. Wherever you live, whatever you do and whoever you are, join Litterati to make the world a cleaner and     10     (health) place to live in!

9 . Garbage sorting (分类) has become a hot topic around China, especially after Shanghai began carrying out a regulation (规章) on July 1.

Beijing has been expected to do the same. At present the regulation gives garbage sorting responsibilities to government departments, property management groups and other organizations. It also gives rules for companies, explaining how they’re responsible for waste collection, transportation and treatment. Citizens are free of responsibilities for the moment.

The long-awaited revision will soon change the situation. “Taking out the trash without sorting it properly will be illegal,” said Sun Xinjun, director of the Beijing Commission of Urban Management. In Shanghai, violators (违背者) are now fined up to 200 yuan for trash-sorting violations. “The maximum fine in Beijing will not be less than that,” he said.

The Beijing city government first promoted garbage sorting in 2009. Authorities have since called on citizens to sort their household waste into four types—recyclable waste, kitchen trash, dangerous waste and others , and leave it in a colored dustbin or trash can. Blue-colored dustbins are for recyclable items, green for kitchen trash, red for dangerous materials and grey for other waste.

To promote the awareness of garbage sorting and expand the base of participants, authorities have employed workers to help citizens. With intelligent devices, those who throw in recyclable waste at given places will be rewarded with bonus points, which can be used to buy daily goods. At some communities, there are no color-coded dustbins. Instead, a scheduled garbage collection service is offered to help improve the environment. In other communities, workers offer a door-to-door service to collect recyclable or kitchen waste.

Beijing Environmental Sanitation Engineering Group has been promoting new garbage sorting facilities such as recycling cabinets and smart kitchen waste trash cans since 2016, Xinhua News Agency reported.

10 . A Plastic Ocean is a film to make you think.Think,and then act.We need to take action on our dependence on plastic.We’ve been producing plastic in huge quantities.Drinking bottles,shopping bags and even clothes are made with plastic.    1     What happens to all the rest?This is the question the film A Plastic Ocean answers.

The film begins as a journey to film the largest animal on the planet,the blue whale.But during the journey the filmmakers make the shocking discovery of a huge,thick layer of plastic floating in the Indian Ocean.    2     In total,they visited 20 locations around the world during the four years to make the film.

In the film there are beautiful shots of the seas and marine life.    3     We see how marine species are being killed by all the plastic we are dumping in the ocean.The message about our use of plastic is painfully obvious.

    4     In the second half,the filmmakers look at what we can do to deal with the problem.

They present short-term and long-term solutions.These include avoiding plastic containers and recycling as much as you can.The filmmakers also stress the need for governments to work more on recycling programmes.

We make a shocking amount of plastic.Over 300 million tons of plastic are produced every year,and at least 8 million of those are dumped into the oceans.The results are disastrous,but it isn’t too late to change.    5