2 . Earth Day falls on April 22 each year to inform people about environmental problems and inspire them to act. It first came into being in 1970, followed in 1972 by World Environment Day. It has been celebrated ever since, slowly but surely picking up steam. Interestingly, it remained a grassroots affair for 20 years before spreading out to 140 countries in 1990. Now, it is celebrated around the world. Humans still face many challenges, such as climate change and plastic pollution. But we can all make a difference.

When Claire was in the seventh grade, she learned about plans to expand and modernize her middle school. As a follower of Earth Day, she wanted to help. Claire asked the school board to add solar panels to the project because, she explained, clean energy would contribute to a truly modern school, and help her school pursue sustainable development.

The board liked the idea but said it could contribute just $25,000, one-fifth of the cost. So Clarie turned to the community, looking for a solution. Her friends and neighbors shared her enthusiasm. Soon Claire organized a group of kids and adults, who set to work raising the rest. They wrote grant (拨款) requests, put on a talent show and asked for donations, even going door-to-door for them at Halloween. And they appealed to charitable foundations too. One donated more than half the cost!

After two years of hard work, the group paid for the solar panels, which now supply one-fourth of the school’s electricity needs, saving the district thousands of dollars. “My favorite part about this project was that one person could start something small and then the project could grow and have a big impact on the community,” Claire said “There are always going to be barriers and hard parts. When there’s a challenge presented to you, use it as a learning moment and an opportunity to overcome it.”

You can be a hero for the environment, so find out what can be recycled where you live.

Humans are not the only ones who like to use tablet computers. The nonprofit organization Orangutan (猩猩) Outreach has started a program     1     (call) Apps for Apes using Apple’s iPad. Orangutan Outreach     2     (start) by Richard Zimmerman and is based in New York City. He began the organization six years ago with the goal of     3     (protect) orangutans in the wild.

The organization started Apps for Apes one year ago. The program introduces the Apple iPad to orangutans in zoos. Apps for Apes has three     4     (goal). The first goal is to provide interesting activities     5     orangutans. The second goal is to raise     6     (aware) among zoo visitors about how smart these animals are. The third goal is to urge people to visit Orangutan Outreach’s website, redapes. org, to learn how they can help protect orangutans in the wild.

“The young orangutans are very curious, and they go to it     7     (immediate), ”said Mr. Zimmerman, adding that the iPad is a perfect device for the animal because of the touch screen technology. With some assistance, the orangutans are able to use different apps to listen to music, play games     8     do other activities.

The program,     9     was first launched at the Milwaukee County Zoo, has expanded to more than 10 other zoos as well as     10     rescue center for apes in the United States and Canada, and is growing worldwide.

6 . I’ve reported about tigers on the news, however, nothing could have prepared me for what I found in India. I didn’t know what to expect, so when I saw my first tiger in the wild, I was shocked what a beautiful and powerful creature it is!

But they live with a price on their heads—a single tiger skin is worth up to £8, 000, and their bones possibly more. Another problem is that farmers need to clear a large number of areas of the forest for their cattle. This means deer are losing their living places. As a result, tigers are losing their natural prey, so they end up eating the cattle.

Tigers are not easy to live close to. I met a farmer who had been mauled by one. But despite that, he told me everything had its place in the world and he had no right to kill the tiger. He was really kind.

Those who work for the Tigers Forever Project realize that to ensure their survival, tigers don’t only need space. They need space away from people.

They are working to stop the conflict(冲突)between tigers and people by separating them. I visited a new town. People had been moved to it from a settlement in the forest. And it really has worked. It has given tigers a better life and better opportunities for the children of the resettled people.

Only 2,500 tigers are now left in the wild in India. Three out of eight tiger sub-species have already disappeared. Tigers that once lived across Asia only survive in 7% of their original living places now.

7 . “It is necessary for us to go to places that still look like the ocean as it was 500 years ago,” says Enric Sala, former professor at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. However, in most parts of the world, marine conservation is stymied by opposition from fishing, oil, and mining interests. A mere 7 percent of the world’s ocean has protection—mostly weak rules, and only 2.5 percent is highly protected. Outside of these zones, the ocean’s story is a continuing failure.

A few remaining parts of the ocean are the last wild places of the sea—the marine equivalent of the remotest old-growth forest in the Amazon—still unaffected by overfishing, pollution and climate change. Enric is working with the National Geographic Society and together launched the Pristine Seas project in 2008. Over the past 14 years, Pristine Seas has helped create 28 marine reserves, making up two-thirds of the world’s fully protected marine areas—covering more than two million square miles in all.

Now Sala and his team have set an even more ambitious goal: to see more than a third of the world’s ocean conserved for the purpose not just of sustaining biodiversity but also of replenishing(补充)fish stocks and storing carbon.

Pristine Seas worked with native Palauans(帕劳人)to give an ancient conservation tradition a modern change. For centuries, Palauans have used what they all “buls”, a Palauan word which means closure, to preserve and rebuild their reef fish stocks. Over the years they have created 35 reserves to protect marine life around their islands, some of which ban fishing permanently.

Sala and his team calculate that a 14-fold expansion of the fully protected part of the ocean, from 2.5 percent to 35 percent, would provide 64 percent of the biodiversity benefits while increasing the global fish catch by almost 10 million metric tons. Even that may sound impossible, but the alternative is awful. For now, we still get to choose.

8 . Canada’s new Dark Vessel Detection program is using advanced satellite technology to find illegal fishing ships that attempt to steal fish from waters around the world. Illegal fishing is a major contributor to the decrease of fish and their habitat destruction.

It is said that illegal fishing accounts for about 30 percent of fishing activity worldwide. It means that u to 26 million tons of fish are caught at a cost to the global economy of more than $ 23 billion a year. Illegal fishing occurs both on the high seas and within the 200 mile limits of coastal states. It has an especially negative effect on coastal populations in undeveloped areas.

Now, the government’s Fisheries and Oceans Canada, in partnership with the Department of National Defense and MDA (Canada’s space technology maker), has started a new program that has already led to fines on five foreign ships. The $7 million Dark Vessel Detection program uses satellite technology to locate and track ships. Some illegal fishing ships have switched off their location transmitting (传输) equipment, in an attempt to avoid surveillance (监视) and control.

The program offers state-of- the-art satellite data to small island nations and coastal states around the world. The local economies of those places are often influenced by illegal fishing. Finding illegal fishing ships from space will allow these small island nations to focus on their investigations and protect their fish.

“Illegal fishing threatens the health of our fish population and takes resources (资源) away from hard- working, legal fishermen,” said Bernadette Jordan, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, “This state -of the art system will help Ecuador and small island nations in the Pacific region deal with illegal fishing. Such illegal activity will do great harm to the Galapagos Islands and the food and economic security of its people,” she added.