1 . Ways to Cut Your Carbon Footprint

Your carbon footprint, which drives more global warming, is associated with everything from powering our homes to getting around, producing our food and making all the stuff we buy. There are dozens of things we can do to cut our carbon footprint.

Reduce food waste. About one-third of all food gets wasted each year. Producing food that won’t be eaten wastes valuable resources, including energy. It also creates a lot of greenhouse gases. Someone could cut their food carbon footprint by 12 percent by not wasting purchased food.    1    

    2    Most U.S. electricity comes from a mix of sources, including fossil fuels. Unless a home is fully powered by renewable sources, such as wind and solar, people will need to use less electricity to cut their energy carbon footprint.

Jacket your home with insulation (隔热材料). When it’s chilly out, a thick jacket holds in our body heat to keep us warm.    3    Thick insulation in the walls, roofs and floors keeps heat inside in winter and outdoors in summer. Roughly four in every five U.S. homes would save energy costs and cut greenhouse gas emissions if they added more insulation.

    4     People who use traditional vehicles can make up the largest part of the carbon footprint. That’s why people should walk more, ride bikes or take mass transportation. If you need to use a car, consider an electric vehicle (EV). Once they hit the roads, EVs don’t emit planet-warming gases.

Buy less new stuff. Everything we buy also contributes to our carbon footprints. So a key way to shrink those footprints is to buy fewer new things. Shopping for the secondhand goods cuts much pollution.    5     And recycle wherever you can.

An art exhibition on the theme of Nipponia Nippon was held in Shanghai as part of efforts to promote the harmony     1     human and nature as well as communication among China, Japan and South Korea.

Nipponia Nippon, or Zhuhuan in Chinese,     2     (know) as an auspicious (吉祥的) bird in oriental culture. In 1981, only seven wild Nipponia Nippon were found in Hanzhong of Shaanxi Province,     3     unveiled (拉开……的帷幔) the protection and breeding of the bird. China then sent some birds to Japan and South Korea in the     4     (follow) years, an act which gifted the bird its nickname “friendship ambassador”.

People from the three countries have deep affection for the bird, which     5     (become) a symbol of friendship. Since 1985, these birds from China have been settling down in Japan and South Korea. This has not only created     6    (condition) for the protection and rebuilding of the bird community in the two countries,     7     also created the opportunity to build a new bridge to promote     8     (ecology) civilization construction based on the cooperation of the three countries.A seminar of the same name was held recently. During     9     event, experts from the three countries shared their experience and views on     10     (protect) the bird and bilateral cooperation.

5 . Companies like Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) are part of the Green Hydrogen Coalition focusing on renewable energy to create hydrogen (H₂). Solar power will be used to replace almost 25 percent of the company’s current natural gas production, with plans to change four natural gas power plants to green hydrogen. Hydrogen is a clean-burning gas that can be used in power generation, energy storage, and as automotive fuel.

Meanwhile, fuel cell and hydrogen producer Plug Power has started more than 165 fueling stations in its gas network. Plug Power believes that nobody will buy so-called blue or gray hydrogen made from natural gas, which is associated with high levels of carbon dioxide emissions if there is a ready supply of green H₂. Blue hydrogen uses carbon capture and storage technology that is still too expensive and inefficient after decades of research to remove all carbon emissions. And Cornell and Stanford University researchers say both blue and gray may be worse for the climate than burning gas or coal.

Transport is just one of many industries aiming for rapid decarbonization (脱碳). Rocketing natural gas and oil prices have made driving too expensive for already taxed households. So a switch to green hydrogen makes sense, rather than extracting (提取) it from expensive and environmentally damaging fossil fuels. The U.S. Department of Energy is currently researching onboard storage tanks that will allow vehicles to drive more than 300 miles on one fill.

Hydrogen promises to revitalize (使得到复兴) and decarbonize heavy industries like shipping, steel, and chemicals, not just domestic transport and home heating, and that makes it a green, flexible replacement for fossil fuels. If the Department of Energy hits its target of reducing H₂ production costs by 80 percent to around one dollar per kilogram in a decade then a hydrogen strategy looks like the right call.

To stop plastic waste reaching the ocean, an Italian firm has invented     1     seems to be a perfect tool to pick up litter before it gets there. Almost 80 percent of ocean waste comes from 100 of the world’s     2     (large) waterways. So, stopping waste at source is a solution that can be     3     (whole) workable.

The company had to get over a few     4     (difficult) before it could test out the invention properly. For example, its device had to allow boats to easily pass through while being able to run 24/7 with no influence     5     the river’s environment. The result is River Cleaning.     6     (attach) to the river bed, River Cleaning is a series of buoys (浮标) that spin on axles (轴) powered by the natural flow of the river, with the ability     7     (collect) different kinds of waste. River Cleaning,     8     about 100 percent scalable (可缩放的), low-cost and low-impact solution, can collect 85 percent of the waste     9     (pass) by it. So, if it is used in all the right places, up to 85 percent of rubbish     10     (prevent) from entering the ocean in the near future.

8 . Not too long ago, 41 -year-old Garrett Fisher flew a small airplane close to the surface of the largest glacier (冰川) in Norway. In that environment, the plane carrying a man who pursues glaciers seemed almost like a toy. Fisher is trying to photograph every glacier on Earth before some of them disappear.

Scientists say many glaciers are getting smaller because Earth’s average temperature is increasing. Information from the European Environment Agency, or EEA, says glaciers in the Alps have lost about half of their volume since 1900 and that by 2100, the size of European glaciers could decrease by between 22 percent and 84 percent. Historical records of the size of glaciers in Europe also show that glaciers are now shrinking (缩小) faster. This has pushed Fisher to combine his love of flying and photography to photograph Earth’s remaining glaciers before it’s too late.

Fisher believes his photographs can be of great value to future generations. So, he has launched the Global Glacier Initiative,a non-profit group to support and show his work. He plans to open his photos to the public for research.

Fisher flew a small plane that has a smell of oil and feels like an old car. It was his choice to have the dangerous flying. “The weather is bad and the flying is technically challenging,” Fisher said. Some people would ask, “Why risk flying over glaciers when satellites have already given pictures of them?” Fisher said that satellite images don’t catch the beauty of glaciers the way his photos can. His photos show the colors, shapes, and shadows as the light from the sun hits the glaciers.

Fisher has paid for his glacier photography with his own money. But it is costly. Money is running out and Fisher is looking for people who will help support his work. He hopes his photos will be a reminder to people. He is trying to obtain the perfect image, which is so beautiful that it can make people and policymakers act.

The emperor penguin(帝企鹅)may not survive climate change—or even this century. For decades, global warming has been melting(使融化)the sea ice     1    the flightless seabirds make their home; and some formerly     2    (freeze) areas have shrunk by 60 percent in just 30 years. These largest penguins are nearly 90 pounds in     3    (weigh) and can stand 45 inches tall. They need the ice     4    (produce) their babies, avoid oceangoing killers, and find food. When sea ice     5    (become) liquid early, the species can disappear. The population is     6    ( present) stable with about 270,000 to 280,000 breeding (繁殖)pairs.

But research suggests those numbers could fall by nearly half in the next 30 years, and that the species will be effectively extinct by 2100. Emperor penguins     7    (list) as a threatened species by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service already, which puts them     8     the protection of the Endangered Species Act. The hope is to protect them by     9    (get) more conservation funding and ways for international cooperation on research. “The listing of the emperor penguin serves as both     10     alarm bell and a call to action,” says Martha Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The habitats of the gray nurse shark have been lost and extensive fishing has led to a huge decline in its numbers. The species     1     (list) as the critically endangered animals by the IUCN now.

Shalise Leesfield, a 16-year-old Australian, devotes     2     (she) to the protection of the gray nurse shark. She took     3     series of actions to protect those sharks, such as establishing the conservation area     4     promoting the legalization of shark protection. Her efforts have already seen the area nominated (提名) as a Hope Spot, a program to identify and protect places that are     5     (essence) to the ocean’s health. Leesfield has also started a petition (请愿书) to have the area declared a marine park,     6     (aim) to offer much greater protection for the sharks and their habitats.

Aged 11, having noticed that the marine environment was     7     (serious) damaged because of plastic pollution, Leesfield started a campaign that called for fishing line collection bins to be installed in her local area. She also     8     (found) “Shalise’s Ocean Support” later which aims to inspire people to take care of the environment.

“I know     9     most people feel about them — scary and fierce, but in fact far from their appearance, they are clever and really friendly to people, ”Leesfield says. She tells what she has done can help change people’s previous beliefs in these sharks, saying that the youth need to get out of the mindset that saving the environment     10     (be) something that should be “left up to the adults”.