1 . Many news reports focus on climate change these days. Extreme heat, wildfires, floods, homeless polar bears... How do you feel when reading worrying news about climate change? You may believe that people are becoming insensitive to the warming planet, accepting that it is only getting worse.

A research team at Pennsylvania State University, US, reported otherwise. To record how the news can impact people’s emotions, participants were first exposed to negative news stories about climate change for three days. They then continued to read negative news headlines for seven days. In the first three days, the participants experienced greater fear and less hope, which can potentially hurt an audience’s belief that they can do anything to tackle the problem.

However, during the seven-day-long exposure, the fear peaked and then held steady (稳定的). “We saw the opposite pattern in our second study. The more exposure people had to these threatening news stories each day, the more likely they are to think that they can make a difference in tackling climate change,” Christofer Skurka, the paper’s lead author told the Pennsylvania State University website.

According to the researchers, one possibility is that when the public hears about climate change threats, they may convince themselves that they have control over the situation. They will then believe that their actions may make a difference.

Knowing that everyone is able to help is only the first step. According to a study that analyzed information from 430 different studies, what motivates people the most to change their behavior is social comparison. For example, if a person’s neighbors follow a low-carbon lifestyle, such as driving electric cars, the person may feel social pressure and become more likely to follow this behavior. This happens because people usually judge their own behavior and follow social norms (规范). Another effective motivation is providing financial rewards to consumers, helping them save money.

“There are so many routes to our goals,” Matthew Goldberg, the co-author of the study, told Scientific American. As Goldberg pointed out, future research like this can help policymakers decide how best to encourage people to ward more climate-friendly habits.

2 . On Christmas Eve, a team of reindeer (驯鹿) will help Santa Claus deliver gifts to children all around the world. The reindeer, led by their fearless leader Rudolph, won’t be the only ones doing something special. Back in the highest Arctic, their cousins have a remarkable ability changing their eye color.

During the summer months, when the days are long and the sun is bright, reindeer’s tapetum lucidum (荧光膜), a mirror-like layer at the back of their eye, appears golden, which helps bounce the majority of light off the eyes, effectively acting like a pair of natural sunglasses. As winter comes, and the days become shorter and darker, the tapetum lucidum turns blue to absorb more light, allowing reindeer to improve their night vision and see clear in low light conditions.

With these adaptations, reindeer can adapt and thrive in one of the harshest environments on Earth. Unlike humans, reindeer can see well into the shorter Ultra Violet (UV) range. This UV vision enables them to spot food and predators more effectively in the snowy landscape. Lichens, a key part of their winter diet, absorb UV, so they show up dark against UV-reflecting white snow. Wolf and polar bear fur also absorb UV, so instead of disappearing against snow they pop out in high contrast, allowing reindeer to spot potential threats from a distance.

Reindeer change their eyes by adjusting their tapetum lucidum, which is made of collagen fibers. In winter, the collagen fibers become packed tighter, causing the tapetum lucidum to mainly reflect blue light. This change happens when reindeer dilate their pupils (瞳孔). In summer, the reindeer’s pupils return to a smaller size, which helps reindeer reduce the amount of light entering the eye.

But their unique adaptation may hurt them. Today, the increasing use of artificial lighting, especially during the winter months, poses a potential threat to their sensitive eyes. It can make reindeer lose their way, affecting their ability to survive in their challenging environment. So it is crucial for us to be mindful of our use of electricity and make efforts to minimize light pollution to ensure the well-being and survival of these magnificent creatures.

As a human in the 21st-century industrialized world, there’s a good chance that microplastics are pumping around in your veins(静脉), as indicated by a small first-of-its-kind study in Environment International.

According to a report on the study, scientists from Vrije University Amsterdam recently developed a method to    1     (accurate) measure concentrations of microplastics in human blood for the first time. Just as     2    (suspect) in the past, microplastics from the outside world are ending up in the bloodstream of humans. The team tested the blood of 22 people and concluded that 17 of the samples contained tiny amounts.

“Up to now, we    3    (prove) plastic exists in our bloodstream,” study author Marja Lamoree said. “This dataset is the first of its kind and must be expanded    4     (gain) insight into how widespread plastic is in our bodies, and how    5    (harm) that may be. With this insight, we can determine whether    6    (expose) of our bodies to microplastics poses a threat to health.”

Human bodies are riddled(充斥)with microplastics,    7     wider evidence for the effects of microplastics    8    human health is still inadequate. However, with    9    large number of studies finding that microplastics can be found in our bodies, it’s a question    10    needs some definite answers soon.

5 . Naturalist Enzo Suma, who is now 40, lives in Puglia, a region in southern Italy whose long coastline faces the Adriatic Sea. Floating waste accumulates in this relatively enclosed part of the Mediterranean, unlike the open ocean, where the waste tends to be spread over a vast area. Feeling concerned about that, Suma makes it a habit to pick up the washed-up waste along the shore, especially after big winter storms.

One day, Suma was walking along the beach near his home when he discovered a bottle of Coke. Suma noticed on the bottle that the price, clearly printed on the bottom, was in lire, a currency (货币) that hadn’t been used in Italy since it was replaced by the euro in 2002. Could a plastic container have well survived in the Mediterranean, he wondered, for about two decades?

That led him to founding the Archeoplastica museum. It has a collection of about 500 unique pieces recovered from Italian shores and the Coke bottle is the first one of them. All collection demonstrates the unsettling life force of plastic waste in the environment. “Seeing that a product people may have used 30, 40, or 50 years ago remains still unchanged, you’ll feel different. It’s a great shock,” Suma said to a reporter. So Suma often exhibits selected pieces from the Archeoplastica collection at local schools around his hometown of Ostuni.

“The playful side of the work allows you to arrive at the less beautiful side of things,” Suma acknowledged. “Plastic is a kind of useful substance. But it’s unthinkable that a water bottle, made from a material designed to last so long, can be used for just a few days—or even minutes—before becoming garbage. Clean the beaches. Clean the oceans. Recycle. But if we are still throwing out plastics, none of those are going to be long-term solutions.”

7 . Recycling is a great way of doing your bit for the environment and helping to protect the earth’s precious resources. However, a new study has revealed that our desire to be sustainable maybe doing more harm than good. According to waste company Biffa, this is because of “wish-cycling” — assuming that items such as disposable coffee cup sand pizza boxes will be recycled if put in the recycling bin. In fact, pollution from those items or other non-recyclables can result in recyclable items that have been put in the correct bin going to landfill. David Heaton, a business director at Biffa, said: “Pollution happens when items are disposed of in the wrong bins or haven’t been cleaned before being recycled.”

Experts at Biffa analyzed the amounts of non-target and non-recyclable materials that entered UK material recycling facilities between 2016 and 2020. It was found that, in 2016, the average pollution rate of recycling waste was 13.4 percent, rising over four years to 17 percent by the end of 2020. This shows that, even as people are becoming more eco-conscious, wish-cycling is increasing both in households and businesses.

The Biffa experts say that one of the best ways to prevent pollution of recycling is to clean recyclable waste before putting it in the bin. They suggest cutting off the top of old pizza boxes and only recycling that part to avoid pollution from the grease (油脂). Check the on-packaging recycling label to check it can actually be recycled When it comes to plastics, Biffa recommends checking the resin code, the number in the plastic triangle, to know whether it should go in the recycling bin. In general, resin codes 1, 2, 4 and 5 are recyclable, while 3, 6 and 7 are not. Larger items, like electronics, furniture and batteries, can also be recycled but often can not go in household recycling bins as they need specialist separating. These will need to be taken to recycling centers or sustainable waste management companies.

“It’s vital as a nation that we get better at effective ‘pre-cycling’— sorting waste correctly before collection to reduce pollution rates,” added Mr. Heaton.

9 . Environmentalists warn that gas stoves in our kitchens are bad for the climate and our health. First, there is unburned natural gas that can escape before the flame burns or leak from the stove, which is more than 90 percent methane(甲烷). Second, a burning stove can create pollutants to harm the lungs.

The big surprise in one new study, conducted by environmental scientists at Stanford University, was the amount of unburned gas that leaks into kitchens when a stove is off. They found that more than three quarters of methane that escapes from a stove does so when it is not in use, most likely through imperfect pipe fittings. With 40 million gas stoves across America, Jackson and his co-authors estimate that the heat-trapping potential of the methane they release annually is roughly equal to the carbon dioxide released by half a million gas-powered cars.

The Stanford study also looked at the amount of nitrogen oxides produced when using the stoves. The second study looked at the non-methane components of unburden gas from stoves. They found 21 dangerous chemicals. The amounts were small, but Michanowicz worries that, with winter coming and lots of us working at home, we’re reducing air exchange, which means indoor pollution will be great.

Not surprisingly, the American Gas Association has criticized both studies. Richard Meyers, a vice president of the association, said that the authors identified no health concern. As for the Stanford study, Meyers says the nitrogen oxides were measured improperly, using plastic sheets to create small spaces around the stoves. Stanford’s Jackson replies that the team’s health risk assessments were based on measurements in open, untended kitchens.

The team suggests that governments provide support for people to switch to electric ranges. Several US cities are reducing the use of natural gas(for stoves and heat) in new construction. As for me, weather permitting, I’ll open a window.

10 . Car tyres produce particles (微粒) when picking up speed or stopping, which are considered by environmental scientists to be one of the most significant sources of microplastics in the ocean. Rainfall and wind carry them into rivers and the sea. They are also released into the atmosphere, where they can circulate into the ocean and back again. A 2020 study suggested windblown microplastics are a bigger source of ocean pollution than rivers.

While it is difficult to pin down the exact composition of microplastics, there is plenty of research which points to tyre dust making up a significant portion. In 2017, a global model found tyre wear to be the second largest source of primary microplatics in the ocean, at 28%. And in 2019, a report by scientists across Europe concluded abrasion (磨损) from car tyres was a large source of microplastics. While there remains a lack of data on risks to the environment and human health, the scientists concluded that if future emissions remain constant or increase, the ecological risks could be widespread within a century.

Tyre-wear particles are ubiquitous. The average tyre loses 4 kg over its lifetime, and tyre particles have been found everywhere from the deep sea to the atmosphere, even in the Arctic and the Antarctic.

The study of microplastic is just beginning. Fewer than 100 scientific papers about them have been published to date, all of them in the last decade. Edward Kolodziej, a professor at the University of Washington, cites two studies from China showing that tyre dust is an important contributor to urban air pollution. “There’re unknown chemicals present in these things that are ending up in our lungs.”

Experts call for more transparency from the tyre companies. “But the formula is what gives a manufacturer competitive advantage. Sharing ingredients is difficult and complicated. Very few people, except manufacturers, know what’s in the tyres,” said Allen. “When it comes to microplastic, we don’t know what a safe level is and we may have already passed it.”