1 . Humankind has tried to improve its standard of living since the very beginning of civilization (文明). Back then, and today, providing food was the basic task for a person.     1     People feel the need for not only some primary things, such as bread and shelters, but also for various facilities and luxuries. Providing humanity (人类) with these things is connected to the use of natural resources, which requires energy. In turn, the common sources of energy we use today cause pollution, so economic growth is almost inevitably connected with environmental damage.

    2     The first of these is the fact that in order to produce more goods and products, at a faster rate, the construction of large industrial plants is required. These plants produce a lot of waste, which may cause negative long-term health effects to nearby populations of animals, or people.

The traditional energy sources, which are commonly used nowadays, are considered to be the greatest polluters to the environment. There also exist so-called eco-friendly sources of energy.     3     Of course, during this time people have to make some sacrifices to support these undertakings (企业) .

In order to produce practical energy, a transformation of the natural site is often inevitable (不可避免的).     4     Application of wind energy would block airflow’s natural speed. Consequently, the pressure balance that is brought about by this current will be affected, and it is important to remember that the environment and weather conditions are directly affected by atmospheric pressure.     5     This is the embarrassment mankind has to deal with. A good balance between economic development and sustainability is forever what humankind has to keep in mind

2 . Scientists have calculated the total amount of plastic ever made: 8.3 billion tons. Looked at another way, that’s as heavy as 25, 000 Empire State Buildings or one billion elephants. And incredibly, almost all of it has been made in the last 65 years.

______ Much plastic is in the form of packaging which is used just once and then thrown away. According to a major new study from the University of California, 9% of this is recycled, 12% is completely burnt and 79% goes to landfill. And because most plastic is not easily disposed of, once it’s in the ground, it stays there.

It’s a situation that has led the paper’s lead author, ecologist Dr. Roland Geyer, to say that we are “rapidly heading towards ‘Planet Plastic’”. The team behind this report also estimate that eight million tons of plastic waste are escaping into the sea every year. This has caused concern that plastic is entering the food chain, through fish and other sea life which swallow the smaller fragments.

Of course, the reason why there’s so much plastic around is that it’s an amazingly useful material. It’s durable and adaptable, and is used for everything from yoghurt pots to spaceships. But it’s exactly this quality that makes it a problem. The only way to destroy plastic is to heat or burn it — although this has the side effect of harmful emissions.

So what’s the alternative, other than using less plastic? Oceanographer Dr. Erik van Sebille from Utrecht University says we’re facing a “tsunami” of plastic waste, and that the global waste industry needs to “get its act together”.

Professor Richard Thompson, a marine biologist from Plymouth University, says it’s poor design that’s at fault. He says that if products are currently designed “with recyclability in mind”, they could be recycled around 20 times over.

3 . A new study suggests classic paintings by well-known Impressionists Joseph Turner and Claude Monet may have been influenced by air pollution during the Industrial Revolution.

Scientists don’t know exactly how polluted the cities were during that time for lack of data. However, researchers say that examining the works of Turner and Monet can give a picture of long-term environmental change with the air pollution.

The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by authors from Harvard and Sorbonne universities, analyzed 60 oil paintings by Turner from 1796 to 1850 and 38 paintings by Monet from 1864 to 1901. Scientists successfully measured painters’ representation (再现) of nature, focusing on the colors as well as differences in local weather patterns which influenced coloring. They significantly found that paintings composed in Britain generally feature a greyer blue sky than works in other parts of Europe.

Researchers particularly believe changes in local sulfur dioxide (二氧化硫) emissions from burning coal may explain changes in the color contrast and intensity (亮度) of Turner’s and Monet’s works, even after taking into account the artistic trends and subject matter of the time.

Generally, artists can historically accurately represent their environment. Turner and Monet were chosen because they are famous for their landscape and cityscape paintings and also because they were active during the Industrial Revolution, when air pollution grew at a rate never seen before.

Additionally, researchers say that since the air in London was much polluted, the cities would appear grey and dull to the eyes as well as in photographs. By comparing the paintings of Turner and Monet to photos from the era, they were able to determine the painting works were definitely influenced by the change in emissions.

4 . Plastic straws (吸管) have been a major problem in global discussions of environmental damage. Maybe because of their small size, the production cost of straws is low. In many countries, straws are offered freely after buying soft drinks. Therefore, plastic straws are one of the most used plastics and pollutants in the world.

The plastic straw is light and small. Due to their small size, plastic straws are often eaten by sea animals. Environmentalists have shown that the death of many sea animals is caused by eating plastic straws. The other damaging characteristic of plastic straws is that they are made of materials which cannot degrade. That means the materials cannot be changed into small harmless ones.

The most effective way of dealing with the environmental pollution caused by plastic straws is the reuse or banning (禁止) the use of plastic straws. Being plastics, the straws can be made into new items. Many organizations around the world change used straws into new products. In Africa, local communities collect used plastic straws and use them to make mats and bags. Another way of dealing with environmental pollution caused by plastic straws is placing a ban on their production and use. Experts advise governments to ban using plastic straws to save the environment. A few countries in the world, such as Rwanda, Macedonia, China, Kenya, have already banned the use of plastic bags and are expected to include plastic straws to save the environment. A few countries in the world, such as Rwanda, Macedonia, China, Kenya, have already banned the use of plastic bags and are expected to include plastic straws and bottles. But it will be a long way to do this effectively.

There are few environmentally friendly and biodegradable products to take the place of plastic straws. These products include paper straws and bamboo straws. However, such straws are usually expensive as their production cost is high. It’s still a question whether they can entirely take the place of plastic straws.

6 . Plastic is everywhere in our environment, especially in the ocean. Actually, a large amount of plastic waste is floating around the world’s oceans today, waiting to be eaten by some fish or oyster, and finally perhaps by one of us.

Because plastic wasn’t invented until the late 19th century, and its production only really took off around 1950, we have a mere 9.2 billion tons of the stuff to deal with. Of that, more than 6.9 billion tons have become waste. And of that waste, a surprising 6.3 billion tons never made it to a recycling bin. No one knows how much unrecycled plastic waste ends up in the ocean. In 2015, Jenna Jambeck, an engineering professor, caught everyone’s attention with a rough estimate: between 5.3 million and 14 million tons of plastic waste each year just come from coastal regions.

Meanwhile, ocean plastic is estimated to kill millions of marine (海洋的) animals every year. Nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by it. Some are stuck by abandoned things made of plastic. Many more are probably harmed invisibly. Marine species of all sizes, from zooplankton to whales, now eat microplastics. We are closely related to oceans so the consequences of throwing plastic away may return to affect us some day.

“This isn’t a problem where we don’t know what the solution is,” says Ted Siegler, a Vermont resource economist, “We know how to pick up garbage. Anyone can do it. We know how to deal with it. We know how to recycle.” It’s a matter of building the necessary systems, he says, ideally before the ocean turns into a thin soup of plastic.

7 . In many ways, life has become far more comfortable and convenient in the past few decades.     1     Here, we look at three of the most serious environmental problems we are currently facing.

Air Pollution

The main cause of air pollution is the burning of fossil fuels by vehicles and power plants. Other human activities, such as construction and the burning of waste, also contribute to air pollution. The effects on our health can be very serious.

You can easily contribute to reducing air pollution by only using a car to make journeys when it’s absolutely necessary.     2    

Global Warming

Global warming is the increase in the temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans. It’s caused by the build-up of carbon dioxide and other pollutants in the atmosphere. These trap the Sun’s heat and warm up the planet.

Global warming has already caused a wide range of problems.     3     Countries around the world have faced extreme weather conditions, such as hurricanes, floods and heat waves.

Overflowing Landfills

Landfills are used for waste disposal (处理) in many countries around the world. However, these landfills are now nearing their limit. When this happens, the chances of dangerous chemicals in the waste entering our water supply increase.

The amount of waste in landfills in China has risen sharply over the last ten years.     4     Some cities, such as Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai, among others, are leading the way and have promised to send “zero waste to landfill!”.

    5     They believe that, although recycling waste is effective, the most effective way of solving the problem of overflowing landfills is to encourage people to take responsibility for reducing the waste they produce themselves.

8 . Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but has brought new peoplems. One of the biggest is pollution. Pollution come in many ways. We see it, smell it, drink it and even hear it.

Men have been polluting the earth. Many years ago, the pollution was not so serious because there were not so many people. When the land was used up or the river was dirty in one place, men moved to another place.

Air pollution is now the most serious. Air makes people sick. And lots of people now are trying to use something to clear the air. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us become angry more easily.

Many countries are making rules to fight air pollution. They stop people from burning coal in houses and factories in the city, and from putting dirty smoke into the air.

Pollution by SO² is now the most dangerous kind of air pollution. It is caused by heavy traffic. It is true that if there are fewer people driving, there will be less air pollution.

Although most of the pollution is caused by us, we are the ones who can change the situation. The earth is our home. We must take care of it. And we must pay more attention to the information in pollution at the same time.

10 . Have you ever had the feeling that you can’t think when there is too much noise around? Did you ever think a fish could experience that feeling too? A recent paper published in Science titled “Soundscape (声景) of the Anthropocene Oceans”, combined over 10,000 scientific papers, confirming that undersea life knows that exact same feeling, more often than not. Anthropogenic (人为的) ocean noise, also known as underwater noise pollution, has created a dramatic impact on marine life due to “human-caused” activity within and neighboring our oceans.

Disney Pixar’s animated film Finding Nemo educated us about the ocean, and specifically within the ordinary world of a clown fish. A fact many may not know is that clown fish spend the first part of their lives as larvae (幼体), drifting with the current of the ocean until they become strong enough to swim against it. Once they are powerful and strong, they head home in sheltered coral reefs. There is only one drawback-the fish can’t physically see the reef, but they can hear it. The only problem is, if they can’t hear it, will they ever make it home?

Our anthropogenic ocean noise, such as cargo ships, ship and boat propellers (螺旋桨), surfing, deep sea mining, etc. are causing destruction of marine life. According to Time, sound is the sensory signal that travels the farthest through the ocean. Anthropogenic noise drowns out the natural soundscapes, putting marine life under immense stress. Altogether, this stress then affects their general health, disrupts their behavior, physiology, reproduction and, in extreme cases, causes death. Marine life can adapt to noise pollution, however, only if they can escape it. This only renders further complications of forcing species to leave their traditional breeding regions or their families.

Now, what if we told you there is already a solution? Multiple solutions, ideas and designs are currently in the works or already exist to reduce and reverse the damage of anthropogenic ocean noise. As Time explains, from wind-powered ships to noise-reducing propellers, floating wind turbines and “bubble curtains” that muffle construction noise, the solutions are already available and in some cases, cost-effective. The authors of the paper hope it will catch the attention of policymakers, who historically speaking, have ignored the matter still to this day.

Of all the challenges ocean creatures are battling, luckily sound pollution is the easiest compromise (妥协方案) humans can make. Once the noise has decreased, marine life will be able to better manage everything else it is up against.