Humankind’s growing need for food is running up against thousands of other species’ need for space. By 2050, humans may need to clear an additional 3.35 million square     1     (kilometer) of land for agriculture.     2     (transform) these largely natural habitats would squeeze more than 17,000 vertebrate species from some of their lands. But changing how and where food     3     (grow) can minimize the impacts. “We can feed the planet without messing it up too badly,” says conservation scientist David Williams.

3 . A new study by scientists at Utrecht University concludes that about half of global wastewater is treated, rather than the previous estimate of 20%. Despite this promising finding, the authors warn that treatment rates in developing countries are still very low.

Humans and factories produce vast quantities of wastewater per day. If not properly collected and treated, wastewater may severely threaten human health and pollute the environment.

The authors use national statistics to estimate volumes of wastewater production, collection, treatment and reuse. “Globally, about 359 billion cubic metres of wastewater is produced each year, equivalent to 144 million Olympic-sized swimming pools,” says Edward Jones, PhD researcher at Utrecht University. “About 48 percent of that water is currently released untreated. This is much lower than the frequently announced figure of 80%.”

While the results show a more optimistic outlook, the authors stress that many challenges still exist. “We see that particularly in the developing world, where most of the future population growth will likely occur, treatment rates are falling behind,” Jones explains. “In these countries, wastewater production is likely to rise at a faster pace than the current development of collection and treatment basic facilities. This poses serious threats to both human health and the environment.”

The main problem, especially in the developing world, is the lack of financial resources to build basic facilities to collect and treat wastewater. This is particularly the case for advanced treatment technologies, which can be extremely expensive. However, the authors highlight potential opportunities for creative reuse of wastewater streams that could help to finance improved wastewater treatment practices.

“The most obvious reuse of treated wastewater is to increase freshwater water supplies,” Jones states. Treated wastewater reuse is already an important source of irrigation water in many dry countries. However, only 11% of the wastewater produced globally is currently being reused, which shows large opportunities for expansion.

“But freshwater increasing is not the only opportunity,” says Jones. “Wastewater also has large potential as a source of nutrients and energy. Recognition of wastewater as a resource, opposed to as ‘waste’, will be the key to driving improved treatment going forward.”

However, the authors stress the importance of proper monitoring of wastewater treatment factories, accompanied by strong legislation (法律) and regulations, to ensure that the reuse of wastewater is safe. The authors also acknowledge public acceptance as another key barrier towards increasing wastewater reuse.

4 . How to Deal with FOMO in Your Life

FOMO, or “fear of missing out,” is becoming increasingly common and can cause significant stress in your life. It applies to anything from a party to a promotion at work and affects just about anyone. It always involves a sense of helplessness that you are missing out on something big.

    1     However, while it has been around for centuries, it has only been studied during the past few decades, beginning with a 1996 research paper by Dr. Dan Herman.

With social media becoming popular, FOMO has become more obvious. As more research on FOMO is conducted, we are getting a clearer picture of how it affects us.     2     Aside from feelings of unhappiness, fear of missing out can lead to greater involvement in unhealthy behaviors. For example, the same study in Computers and Human Behavior found that FOMO was linked to distracted driving, which in some cases could be deadly.

Moreover, one study found that the fear of missing out was linked to a greater smartphone and social media usage.     3     They create a platform where things, events, and even happiness seem to be in competition, which may lead you to wonder what you are lacking. Greater engagement with social media can make us feel worse about ourselves and our lives, not better.

    4     Feelings of loneliness are our brain’s way of telling us that we want to connect with others and increase our sense of belonging. Unfortunately, social media engagement is not the way to accomplish this—you might be running from one bad situation right into an even worse one.

Rather than trying to connect more with people on social media, why not arrange to meet up with someone in person? Making plans with a good friend, or doing anything social that gets you out with friends can be a nice change of pace.     5    

The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise. However, its role in learning     1     (debate) by teachers and students. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and     2     (potential) harmful. But the internet has had a major positive impact on the world of education. The future of teaching lies in the possibilities the internet opens up for communication, research, and interactivity. Students value the flexibility and accessibility     3     (offer) by digital education. Educators should welcome these advantages.

6 . My son just turned 14 and does not have a smartphone. When he graduated from Grade 8, he was the only kid in his class without one. He asks for a phone now that he’s going to high school. I say no, he asks why, I explain(yet again), and he pushes back.

“You can choose to do things differently when you’re a parent,” I told him. But sometimes, I wonder if I’m being too stubborn or unfair.

The more I research, the more confident I feel in my decision. Many studies link the current mental health crisis among adolescents to fundamental changes in how they socialize, namely, the shift from in-person to online interaction.

But other parents challenge my perspective. “He must feel so left out!” Then there are the parents who tell me with profound sadness that they wish they had delayed their teenager’s phone ownership longer than they did. They urge me to hold out.

If teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 are truly spending an average of 8 hours 39 minutes per day on their devices, as stated in a 2021 survey conducted by the non-profit research organization Common Sense Media, then what are they not doing? Kids absorbed in their devices are missing out on real life, and that strikes me as really sad.

I want my son to have a childhood he feels satisfied with and proud of. I want it to be full of adventures, imaginative play and physical challenges which he must sort out himself—and emerge stronger—without asking for me at the push of a button.

The easiest and simplest way to achieve these goals is to delay giving him a smartphone.

Some think my son is missing out or falling behind, but he is not. He does well in school and extracurricular activities, hangs out with his friends in person, and moves independently around our small town. He swears (发誓) he’ll give his own 14-year-old a phone someday, and I tell him that’s fine. But recently, he admitted that he missed the beautiful scenery on a drive to a nearby mountain because he had been so absorbed in his friend’s iPad.

If that is his version of admitting I’m right, I’ll take it.

8 . As I read about Sarah Loh’s journey to becoming the first female chief executive of the Australian Football League (AFL) last week, I was encouraged by the resilience (坚韧) she showed to become a leader in her sport, but also disappointed at the unfair treatment she faced to get there.

Loh had to deal with many of the same questions women in sports often face, such as: “How can a woman coach or lead when she has never played sports?” But as an Asian woman, Loh also faced questions with an added layer of racism: “What would a multicultural woman know about football?”

A recent Victoria University survey of 221 diverse women made up of current and former coaches, managers and board members found that half of the respondents were unhappy with their leadership roles and that many aspiring leaders believed their gender and background were barriers.

Women from different backgrounds, races, religions, classes and sexual orientations can sometimes experience multiple layers of injustice depending on the context. In order to address these inequalities, there are practical steps sporting organizations can take to create welcoming and inclusive environments for women in sports at every level.

In recent years, national sporting organizations across Australia have shown an increasing commitment to and engagement in the promotion of gender equality and respect to prevent violence against all women. Recognizing their own profile and influence, they have taken active steps to address the drivers of violence and inequality, including through education and awareness-raising programs such as Carlton Respects.

Sports have an influence way beyond the field, court or green on which they’re played, and they provide an opportunity to set and maintain positive community standards.

While resilience is a great strength to possess as a leader, women of color, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women or those from refugee and migrant backgrounds shouldn’t be required to wear such a thick set of armor (防御) to simply work in sports. Surely respect, equality and safety for all is not too much to ask for.

9 . With the development of technology, “paperless” seems to be the new trend. Instead of writing by hand, people began to use computers to type in order to produce text quickly. Some people said word processing made producing and editing text much easier. Will handwriting be completely replaced by typing?

A 2017 study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology found that regions of the brain associated with learning were more active when subjects completed a task by hand instead of on a keyboard. Not only that, but the study’s authors also found that writing by hand could promote “deep encoding or processing” in a way that typing does not.

In fact, there have been many such studies to arrive at that conclusion. One notable example from 2014 compared students who took notes by hand with those who took notes on laptops. They found that the students using laptops tended to write down what the professor said word for word, while those who took notes by hand were more likely to listen to what was being said, analyzing it for important content and “processing information and reframing it in their own words.” When asked conceptual questions about the lecture, students who had taken notes by hand were better able to answer than those who had typed their notes.

Daniel Oppenheimer, one of the study’s co-authors, told Medium’s Elemental that in order to analyze the lecture, people had to contemplate the material and actually understand the arguments. This helped them learn the material better. The most annoying thing about writing by hand is also what makes it so effective for learning.

Virginia Berninger, a professor at the University of Washington, says, “When we write a letter of the alphabet, the process of production involves pathways in the brain that go near or through parts that manage emotion.” Pressing a key doesn’t stimulate those pathways the same way. She says, “It’s possible that there’s not the same connection to the emotional part of the brain when people type, as opposed to writing in longhand.” “In the same vein, writing in longhand also allows people to really figure out what they mean to say,” Oppenheimer says, “which may help self-expression.”

Our keyboards are great for a lot of things. But sometimes, there’s no replacing the feeling of spreading out a clean sheet of paper, uncapping a beloved pen, and letting the ink flow.

In most countries,     1     (turn) 18 marks the start of adulthood. But what does reaching this milestone, the age of majority, really mean? Will you be     2     (complete) in charge of your own life and able to express yourself in new and exciting ways? What new responsibilities will it bring? Some young people have begun to feel more aware of other people and to develop a     3     (strong) sense of social responsibilities than before.