Last winter, the smog occurred a lot of time. It brought much inconvenience to our daily life or did great harm to our health. Many traffic accidents had happened just because of the heavy smog weather. In addition, quite a lot of flights had to put off and a great number of people stayed at home to keep them away from the harmful air. Some people suffered of bad coughs, sore throats and other serious diseases cause by the smog. I think whomever lives on the earth should try to play the part in the environmental protection. I support the idea that we can try to drive more and buy environmentally friendly products to improve the air quality.

2 . Taking in dirty air does great harm to our health. Air pollution lowers the average life spans by a year worldwide and in more polluted parts of Asia and Africa, dirty air shortens lives up to twice that much. Scientists shared their new findings in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. The study used data gathered in 2016 as part of a project known as the Global Burden of Disease and was the first major country-by-country look at the connection between the length of life and what’s known as fine PM.

Air pollution has been linked to many health problems. Most earlier studies had looked at how tiny air pollutants affected rates of illness or death. Joshua Apte is an environmental scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. By looking at life expectancy (预期寿命), his team had hoped to make the threat easier to understand. PM2.5 is what scientists call tiny particles (颗粒) of pollution in the air. Higher levels of PM2.5 can cause health problems and cut months, if not years, from the average length of life. This analysis shows how pollution affects life expectancy in different parts of the world.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends limiting PM2.5 to 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air. Apte’s group calculated how holding pollution to this low level would help people. In countries with very dirty air, meeting this standard would lengthen people’s lives. However, in countries whose air already meets this standard, the study shows no gain in life expectancy. In other words, meeting the WHO standard won’t reduce health costs resulting from dirty air because even below 10 micrograms per cubic meter, pollution still causes serious risks. Meanwhile, the scientists compared how other threats including smoking and cancer shorten the length of life across the globe.

5 . Every minute, every single day, about a truckload of plastic enters the ocean.     1     And to date, only 9% of that has been recycled.

We buy a bottle of water, drink it for a few minutes, and throw its permanent packaging (包装) “away”. We eat potato chips, finish them, then throw their permanent packaging “away”. We buy produce, take it out of the unnecessary plastic wrap, then throw its permanent packaging “away”.

The cycle is endless, and it happens countless times every single day.     2     As far as we try to toss a piece of plastic out — whether it’s into a recycling bin or not — it does not disappear. Chances are, it ends up polluting our communities, the ocean or waterways in some form.

For years, we’ve been told the problem of plastic packaging can be solved through better individual action.     3     But the truth is that we cannot recycle our way out of this mess.

Recycling alone will never stop the flow of plastic into the ocean; we have to get to know the source of the problem and slow down the production of all the plastic waste. Think about it: if your home was flooding because you had left the tap on, your first step wouldn’t be to start mopping. You’d first cut the flooding off at its source — the tap.     4    

We need corporations — those like the Coca-Cola company, Unilever, Starbucks and Neatle that continue to produce throwaway (一次性的) plastic bottles — to step up and take responsibility for the mess they’ve created.     5     We will continue to do our part, but it’s time for the world’s largest corporations to do theirs.

When I was a child, I hoped to live in the city. I think I would be happy there. Now I am living in a city, and I miss my home in the countryside consisted of clean air and the green mountains. Fortunately, the environment has been polluted on the development of industrialization. Lots of studies have shown that global warming has already become a very seriously problem. The airs we breathe in is getting dirtier and dirtier, that causes many diseases. We must draw conclusion and find ways to protect our environment. If you fail to do so , we’ll live to regret it .

8 . In the middle of winter, when snow is falling in many parts of the United States，scientists have sounded a warning to people who plan to spend many hours in the sun this summer. The warming is: The sun's summertime rays are more dangerous than once thought.

A team of scientists from 80 nations recently reported to the United Nations that a layer of ozone in the atmosphere，which protects humans from harmful levels of ultraviolet radiation, will be thinner over the United States this summer. The thinner layer allows more ultraviolet rays from the sun to reach Earth. The extra amount of ultraviolet radiation could cause an increase in the number of cases of skin cancer.

Scientists first became concerned about the ozone layer in the mid-1980s when a hole was discovered in the layer above Antarctica during the winter. The hole was caused by chemicals used in refrigerators and air conditioners. When these chemicals are sent out into the atmosphere, they produce gases that destroy the ozone.

Concern about the protective ozone layer rose more recently when data from satellites and ground stations showed that ozone levels were dropping over areas other than Antarctica. Low ozone levels were recorded in the spring and summer over the United States and over other populated areas in the world.

Although many countries have already begun stopping the use of ozone destroying chemicals, the new findings are expected to advance the timetable for a total ban of the chemicals.

Yours,

Li Hua

10 . Dyson, a company best known for its innovative(创新的) line of vacuums and fans, is apparently also interested in providing urbanites with a convenient way to filter(过滤) air pollution. The company recently applied for a patent (专利) in the UK for a pair of headphones that takes in polluted air through ear cups and directs the filtered product to an integrated mouthpiece. Dyson’s engineers behind the invention describe it as a more convenient alternative to traditional face masks.

“In locations with particularly high levels of air pollution, many people have recognized the benefits of reducing their exposure to these pollutants and have therefore taken to wearing face masks with the aim of filtering out at least a portion of the pollutants present in the air before it reaches the mouth and nose,” the inventors write in the invention summary. “However, as these face masks typically cover at least the users mouth and nose, they can make normal breathing more laborious.”

So how does Dyson imagine this equipment working? As you might have guessed for a company that specializes in innovative ways to move air, the ear cups contain small fans that spin at 12, 000 rotations per minute. This provides enough suction(抽吸) to draw in about 1.4 liters of air per second. The air is then filtered to remove pollutants and pushed to a partially-transparent mouthpiece at the front of the user. As a way to reduce the noise of the fans, the headphones also include adaptive noise canceling with an integrated microphone and speakers.

While it’s unknown whether this patent will ever develop into an actual product, it's unfortunately something that many people could use. In its “state of Global Air 2019” report, the non-profit Health Effects Institute ( HEI) listed air pollution as the fifth leading cause for death worldwide, ahead of malnutrition, alcohol use, and physical inactivity.

So are Dyson’s air-purifying headphones straight out of some dystopian(反乌托邦的) science fiction films? You bet. But it’s increasingly our reality that much of the world is living and breathing in cities where that unthinkable future is already playing out. Necessity in the face of such awful man-made pollution will eventually push something similar to market. Whether humanity takes the hint(暗示) and does something to make them useless is sadly less certain.