2 . Baggy has become the first dog in the UK—and potentially the world—to join the fight against air pollution by recording pollutant levels near the ground.

Baggy wears a pollution monitor on her collar so she can take data measurements close to the ground. Her monitor has shown that air pollution levels are higher closer to ground level, which has helped highlight concerns that babies and young kids may be at higher risk of developing lung problems.

Conventional air pollution monitors are normally fixed on lampposts at about nine feet in the air. However, since Baggy stands at about the same height as a child in a pushchair（婴儿车）, she frequently records pollution levels which are much higher than the data gathered by the Environment A gency.

The doggy data research was the idea of Baggy's 13-year-old owner Tom Hunt and his dad Matt. The English youngster noticed that pollution levels are around two-thirds higher close to the ground than they are in the air at the height where they are recorded by the agency. Tom has since reported the shocking findings to the government in an attempt to emphasise that babies are at higher risk of developing asthma（哮喘）.

Matt Hunt said he was "very proud" of his son because “when the boy gets an idea, he keeps his head down and gets on with it, and he really does want to do some good and stop young kids from getting asthma."

“Tom built up a passion for environmental protection at a very early age," Matt added. “He became very interested in gadgets（小装置）. About one year ago, he got this new piece of tech which is like a test tube. One Sunday afternoon, we went out to do some monitoring, and he said, why don't we put it on Baggy's collar and let her monitor the pollution？'So we did it."

Tom said, "Most of the time, Baggy is just like any other dog. But for the rest of the time she is a super dog, and we are all really proud of her."

6 . The idea of turning recycled plastic bottles into clothing is not new. During the last five years, a large number of clothing companies, businesses and environmental organizations have started turning plastics into fabric to deal with plastic pollution. But there’s a problem with this method. Research now shows that microfibers could be the biggest source of plastic in the sea.

Dr. Mark Browne in Santa Barbara, California, has been studying plastic pollution and microfibers for 10 years now. He explains that every time synthetic clothes go into a washing machine, a large number of plastic fibers fall off. Most washing machines can’t collect these microfibers. So every time the water gets out of a washing machine, microfibers are entering the sewers and finally end up in the sea.

In 2011, Browne wrote a paper stating that a single piece of synthetic(合成的) clothing can produce more than 1, 900 fibers per wash. Browne collected samples from seawater and freshwater sites around the world, and used a special way to examine each sample. He discovered that every single water sample contained microfibers.

This is bad news for a number of reasons. Plastic can cause harm to sea life when eaten. Studies have also shown that plastic can absorb other pollutants.

Based on this evidence, it may seem surprising that companies and organizations have chosen to turn plastic waste into clothing as an environmental “solution.” Even though the science has been around for a while, Browne explains that he's had a difficult time getting companies to listen. When he asked well-known clothing companies to support Benign by Design-his research project that seeks to get clothes that have a bad effect on humans and the environment out of the market, Browne didn’t get a satisfying answer. Only one women’s clothing company, Eileen Fisher, offered Browne funding.

7 . Angela never liked seeing plastic waste washed up on the shore near her home. She had been_______ to call on her community to clean it up, to change the _______, so she tried to set up an organization called Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea. Her_______ proved quite a success.

Here's how it _______.Volunteers help clean up 300 miles of shoreline. Then, _______ only plastics from the beach cleanup, Angela and many other volunteers create sculptures of sea _______·She explains, "I mean to create sculptures that make people take a look and _______: 'How can there be this much waste on the beach?' _______ these sculptures will make people consider what they have _______ in their daily life and realize how so much plastic ends up in the oceans." So far, about 10,000 ________volunteers have collected 21 tons of waste and helped create more than 70 works of art. Four traveling ________ have demonstrated the art works in 18 places of the country. One of the sculptures, Turtle Ocean, received a ________ honor. It was admitted into the National Museum.

The Washed Ashore team is now working on sculpture of a dolphin, with ________ for more sculptures.“Until we ________ plastic on the beach, the work will continue. These sculptures are a(n)________for clean oceans. ” Angela says seriously.

8 . My husband and I always wanted to go to the Caribbean but didn’t know much about the islands or how we were going to afford it. By chance, a friend of ours in Australia mentioned “pet sitting” and that it is something you can do all over the world.

We quickly created an account on a pet sitting website and began searching for options. There were only a couple of sits available in that part of the world, but we tried our luck, sent a request, and to our surprise, landed a three-month job in Grenada, so our year was going to be taken up with Caribbean pet sits.

Inspired by a Canadian couple, we decided to start our own travel blog. We began by writing about The British Virgin Islands, highlighting the beautiful beaches. However, for every photo album of a beautiful beach, there were 10 photos of trash (垃圾). It was hard to ignore the plastic pollution issue, especially on such primitive and remote beaches. So, we began to share photos of the trash we saw and how much we could pick upon our daily dog walks.

The more we looked into plastic pollution, the more we realized the severity of the global plastic pollution. From that point, we used our platform to create awareness and highlight ways to say no to plastic and travel plastic-free. We changed our daily routines, our way of living, and even our diets to accommodate more organic foods and little to no plastic packaging.

It’s been over three years now and we continue to do what we can. This journey has led us to some amazing places, working with great brands and even organizing a country-wide beach clean-up campaign in Grenada.

Our aim now is to keep on going. We love connecting with like-minded people. It’s been amazing few years that was sparked by a conversation about pet sitting. Who would have guessed?

9 . Vitamin B could help lessen the effects of the most dangerous type of air pollution，according to a new study published recently. In the first study of its kind，a team of international researchers looked at the damage caused by one of the pollutants that has the most severe impact on health: PM2.5.

Particulate matter，or PM，is a type of air pollutant consisting of small particles of different sizes. PM2.5 has a diameter of fewer than 2.5 micrometers，about 30 times smaller than a human hair. These particles are so small that they can go into our respiratory system (呼吸系统), resulting in lung and systemic inflammation (炎症) and stress.

The team found that something as simple as a daily vitamin B supplement could potentially reduce the impact of the tiny particles on the human body，although they stressed that the research was in its early stages and the sample size was small.

For this study，10 volunteers were initially exposed to clean air and given a placebo (安慰剂) to check their responses. The group then took another placebo for four weeks before being exposed to heavily polluted air from downtown Toronto，where an estimated 1，000 cars pass every hour. The bad air was delivered to the volunteers through an “oxygen－type” face mask. The experiment was then repeated，with each volunteer taking a vitamin B supplement daily made up of 2.5 mg of folic acid，50 mg of vitamin B6，and 1 mg of vitamin B12. B6 can be found in liver，chicken and nuts，and B12 in fish，meat，eggs，milk and some cereals.

The researchers found that four weeks of vitamin B supplements reduced the damage of PM2.5 exposure by 28%－76%. The results highlight how prevention at an individual level could be used to fight the harmful effects of PM2.5.

10 . One of the problems damaging our planet is the number of things we throw away. A more recent addition to the list of things we throw away is e-waste —   electronic items that are broken and not recycled.     1    , but also because we lack the skills to repair them even if we know their value. Many millions of tons of televisions, phones, and other electronic equipment are abandoned each year. A UN report claims the 50 million tons of e-waste generated every year will more than double to 110 million tons by 2050, making it the fastest growing waste stream in the world.     2    .

Recently, there’s a growing trend for repair events and clubs which could be part of a solution to the growing amount of electrical and electronic junk. The BBC visited a Restart Project in London, which is one of many found around the world. One of its operators, Francesco Calo, said that “This project makes total sense.     3    . Besides, it helps people who cannot afford to get rid of items that have developed a fault.”

    4    . An experiment at the University of New South Wales involves extracting (提取) these materials from electronic gadgets (小工具). Apart from just being recycled, the European Union, for example, is trying to encourage manufacturers to reuse some extracted electronic components.     5    . With phones typically containing as many as 60 elements, this could be part of the solution to our appetite for new technology.