1 . Many people regard sharks as dangerous monsters. But human beings cause a far greater danger to them than they do to us. Although shark attacks do occur, they are quite rare. According to a survey, however, humans kill 100 million sharks every year.     1    

Why should we save the sharks?

Sharks take up the top position on the food chain in the ocean. As sharks die off, the population of the animals that sharks eat will increase. This, in turn, means that the number of the creatures those animals eat will drop.     2     Fish that eat algae (藻类) are also included. This can cause algae to spread so much that it damages coral reefs (珊瑚礁).

    3     The ocean not only produces more oxygen than all the rainforests on Earth combined, but also removes half of the man-made greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. Once sharks die off, the global ecosystem will be upset, affecting all creatures including human beings.

Don’t use shark products

First, vitamin energy drinks and leather goods can be made from shark parts.     4     In addition, shark meat is sold around the world, sometimes under misleading names such as rock salmon or whitefish.

Shark fin soup is a popular dish. However, the process of getting fins is cruel. Fishermen cut the shark’s fins off and then throw the shark back into the water, still alive.     5     Sharks breathe by swimming, so a shark that can’t swim will die.

2 . Scientists have recently developed a method to 3D-print greener buildings using local soil that they say has the potential to revolutionize the construction industry.

Sarbajit Banerjee, a professor of chemistry and materials science and engineering at Texas A & M University, said 3D printing was extensively used and allowed them to print entire architectural facades (正面), although getting such structures to meet existing building regulations remained a significant challenge.

Concrete remains the primary material used in many construction projects but it cannot be recycled and requires a lot of energy to mix and transport. The research team’s aim is to print structures using the type of soil that can be found in any garden.

“While the widespread use of concrete has made housing accessible and enabled the growth of cities, this has come at a considerable environmental cost,” said Banerjee.

The move to 3D-print concrete threatens to worsen this problem. However, we imagine a new example of construction that uses naturally sourced materials. Using such materials will further pave the way for building designs that are specifically adapted to the needs of the local climate.

What’s more, the use of local materials would reduce the need to transport concrete long distances, further reducing the environmental impact of the buildings.

The research team’s plan to replace concrete with the earth beneath our feet depends on their ability to improve the soil’s ability to stand the weight of the whole house, to which Banerjee said “they are making excellent progress”.

Once they have a clearer idea of the limits of the technology, Banerjee and his team plan to further investigate how it might allow for building on other planets. For instance, they have worked on addressing the problem of building all-weather roads in the subarctic (亚北极区). They hope the technology could one day be used beyond Earth, to create settlements on the moon or even Mars.

4 . In 1985, Charlie Burrell inherited(继承)a piece of land in West Sussex, England, which is 3, 500 acres. It had been in his family for more than 200 years. As it was a failing farm, he and his wife, Isabella Tree, were all set to run a traditional farm, but soon realized the costs far outweighed the profits. The land wasn’t suitable for growing crops anymore.

So, in 2001, the couple decided to try something else—an experiment in “rewilding”, or restoring environments to their natural state. They reintroduced native species, including Tamworth pigs, Exmoor ponies, longhorn cattle, and deer. Then they took out all the fences and let the animals wander freely.

In the following years, the land went through an incredible change. The once neat fields were covered with bushes, creating habitats where new plant and animal species could grow.

Now it’s home to many different creatures, including two rare species of bats, nightingales, peregrine falcons, white storks, and even turtle doves, whose numbers have dropped by 98 percent in the UK over the last few decades!

“We were living in a biological desert. Now, ecologists are blown away all the time by just the amount of life here,”Isabella said. “It shows the potential that this kind of project has for changing trends of biodiversity decline.

What’s more, the land is now profitable! Charlie and Isabella offer multiple services there, including walking tours, safaris, photography classes, and rewilding workshops. They also sell meat to control their large animal populations, and even allow visitors to spend a night outside in the tents they set up.

What a promising outcome! This is amazing news for conservationists and shows that our planet can be returned to its natural glory, if only we let it. Now, it’s a beautiful reminder of how ecosystems can be restored by letting Mother Nature take the control.

6 . It’s important to learn about protecting our environment. Here is a 5R rule for us:

1. Reduce

If you want to reduce waste, you should use things wisely. A large number of trees are being cut down to make paper. If everyone uses a little paper carelessly and throws it out, soon we would not have any trees left. Other things are also being wasted, and people don’t know what to do with the waste in big cities. So it is necessary to reduce the waste.

2. Reuse

You should always think of reusing the usable things before throwing them out. Give your clothes you do not use or the ones which are too small to the poor. In a family, you may pass on such clothes to younger brothers or sisters.

3. Recycle

Bottles, cans and paper can easily be recycled. By doing so, we save lots of time and money. For example, coke cans are sent to a factory, where they are smashed flat and melted and the metal things are made for new coke cans.

4. Recover

When you buy a box of apples, there may be a few rotten apples, you have two choices: one is to throw the whole apples away, or you could cut off the rotten parts and use the good parts. In this way, you are recovering the eatable parts of food.

5. Repair

If one of the legs of your table is broken, you can repair it. If you want to change for better ones, it is better for you to sell the old things or give them to other people who can use them after doing some repair. It is true that North America is a “throw-away” society, but the time has come to change our way of life so that we can protect our environment. Every one of us should try our best.

7 . A method to transform a commonly thrown-away plastic to a resin (树脂) used in 3D printing could allow for making better use of plastic waste. A team of Washington State University researchers developed a simple and efficient way to transform polylactic acid (PLA)(聚乳酸), a bio-based plastic used in products such as filament, plastic silverware and food packaging to a high-quality resin.

“We found a way to immediately turn this into something that’s stronger and better, and we hope that will provide people the inspiration to upcycle this stuff instead of just throw it away,” said Yu-Chung Chang, a postdoctoral researcher in the WSU School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and a co-corresponding author on the work. “We made stronger materials just straight out of trash. We believe this could be a great opportunity.”

Although it’s bio-based, PLA, which is categorized as a number 7 plastic, doesn’t break down easily. It can float in fresh or salt water for a year without degrading (降解). It is also rarely recycled because like many plastics, when it’s melted down and re-formed, it doesn’t perform as well as the original version and becomes less valuable.

“It’s biodegradable and compostable, but once you look into it, it turns out that it can take up to 100 years for it to rot away in a landfill,” Chang said. “In reality, it still creates a lot of pollution. We want to make sure that when we do start producing PLA on the milliontons scale, we will know how to deal with it.”

While the researchers focused on PLA for the study, they hope to apply the work to poly-ethylene terephthalate (PET) (涤纶树脂), which is more common than PLA and has a similar chemical structure and presents a bigger waste problem. They have filed a temporary patent and are working to further optimize (优化) the process. The researchers are also looking into other applications for the upcycling method.

8 . For an industry that thrives (蓬勃发展) on creativity, fashion has been slow to introduce new ideas to reduce its distinctly uncool environmental footprint.

On all three fronts in the planetary crisis — climate change, nature loss and waste—manufacturers and retailers (零售商) of clothing could, and must, do better. Their carbon emissions are huge, thirst for raw materials is unsustainable and waste management systems are rubbish. As just one example, every year we send 350,000 tonnes of clothing to landfill in the UK.

There are growing pockets of green creativity in the industry, but for the most part high-street brands seem to double down on the “fast fashion” business model.

We as consumers must also shoulder a large part of the blame, gladly stuffing our cupboards with cheap, bad and unsustainably produced clothes to be worn a few times and then thrown away. Most people on Earth participate in this wasteful cycle, helping to make clothing one of the most environmentally destructive industries.

Unlike some other damaging consumer choices, such as buying animal products, it isn’t really possible to simply choose out of clothes shopping. But of course there are ways of consuming that are less harmful. If patterns of demand change, such as changing to brands that run buy-back schemes for unwanted clothing, the industry will respond. More powerfully, we can simply choose to wear our clothes for longer. Keeping an article of clothing for an extra year can cut its environmental footprint by 30 per cent.

That, of course, requires a change in our mindsets. But such things can and do happen. A few years ago, plant-based diets were the choice of the unconventional few. Now they are commonplace.

We need the same revolution to happen when it comes to clothing choices. Here’s a make-do-and-mend mindset becoming mainstream—and even fashionable.