Boyan Slat has been dreaming of cleaning up the world's oceans for a long time.

In 2010, he went on a diving (潜水) vacation in Greece and was shocked. "I saw more plastic bags than fish in the water," he said.

From then on, Slat began to pay more attention to ocean pollution. He decided to give up higher education and set up the 0cean Cleanup, a non-government organization. Its purpose is to clean up ocean rubbish. He has set up the world's first ocean cleanup system (系统) with his team.

Every year, over 8 million tons of plastic end up in our oceans, and it can take up to 500 years to break down. In 2018, the World Economic Forum predicted that the weight of ocean plastic would match that of all the fish in our oceans by 2050. Sea animals easily get caught in plastic. They can't move. They can even die if they eat it. Smaller plastic pieces can also enter the food chain (链) and end up in our bodies.

Slat's plan was to create an environmentally-friendly, large system to clear out plastic rubbish from the ocean.

After seven years of tests, on October 2nd, 2019, a machine called System 001/B came out. It successfully caught and collected a large amount of plastic rubbish floating in the ocean.

Slat and his team are working to improve System 001/B. Their dream is to clear out 90 percent of all the ocean plastic by 2040.

    When Sally was a child, she went to the city park with her mom on a sunny morning. She felt very unhappy. Her mom saw that and asked why. Sally told her mother that she felt so sorry to see so much rubbish on the ground.

    Her mom looked around. There were pieces of paper, boxes, glass bottles and a lot of other rubbish everywhere. "What can we do? " asked Sally sadly. "I'm sure you will think of something," said her mom.

    As soon as Sally got home with her mom, she painted a picture of the park and wrote a sign in large black letters at the top of the picture. The sign said, "PLEASE KEEP OUR PARK CLEAN". Later, she took plenty of bags and went back to the park with her mom. Sally put up her picture on a big rubbish box.

    The children at the park ran over to see what was going on. Sally handed each of them a bag. "Let's clean up this place," said Sally. Then they began to pick up the rubbish, talking and laughing. Soon, all the bags were full.

    Then Sally's mom led them to put the rubbish into different kinds of rubbish boxes. When they looked at the clean park, they all had a strong feeling of satisfaction.

    From then on, Sally has been keeping doing the cleaning and sorting (分类)rubbish. More and more people joined her to play a part in environment protection.

    Trees are one of the oldest " citizens (公民) " of our Earth. They keep our air clean, reduce noise pollution, improve water quality and provide food and building materials.

    Just like us, trees change a lot as they grow. At 1 to 3 years old, young trees learn how to protect themselves. For example, many trees grow thorns( 刺) to warn animals not to go near. Most young trees have large, deep green leaves so that they can catch enough sunlight and change it into their food and energy.

    When trees are 4 years old, they begin to grow very rapidly and become strong enough to face challenges later in life. At the age of 15, trees become young adults. They grow more slowly and begin to produce flowers and fruit.

    It is not until the tree is 20 to 25 years old that it becomes a real adult. The tree reaches its largest size. The adult tree gives us shade, oxygen and natural beauty; it is also a great place for a tree house, or a place for us to read a book, listen to music and so on. If we give the adult tree proper care, it will go on to live healthily for many years.

    Gradually, trees begin to grow older and older and even die. At this time, they still have their important place in nature. When a tree becomes hollow (空心的) or part of it becomes dead, it provides a home to small animals and is a source of food for many other animals.

    In many ways, the life of a tree is similar to our own life experience. When we are looking at the life of a tree, we learn about that each period of life brings its own form of joy and challenge.

    Enjoy every minute of the life of the trees and take care of the trees!

Governments around the world are pushing for an end to plastic straws (吸管) and bags. More and more businesses are turning to paper products as a choice. Paper is considered by many to be better than plastic. However, it, too, is harmful to the environment.

Firstly, paper bags and straws are made from trees. Trees, as you know, can reduce ( 减少) carbon dioxide (二氧化碳) levels in the atmosphere. They can slow down climate (气候) change. An increase in the use of paper bags can cause more acts of cutting down trees.

Secondly, products made from paper require more energy and water. About 10 percent more energy and four times as much water is used to produce a paper bag than a plastic one. You might say that we can use recycled paper to save that energy and water. This seems to be a good idea. However, it takes even more energy and water to go through the recycling process than to make a brand new paper bag. Products made from recycled paper are also often short-lived.

Thirdly, paper products are heavier than plastic ones. That means they require more oil to transport. Seven trucks are needed to transport two million paper bags, while only one truck is needed to transport the same number of plastic bags. The increased weight also leads to a large amount of waste once the bags are thrown away.

Paper products are actually a lose-lose for both the environment and businesses. They are more expensive than plastic products. A paper straw costs about 5 to 12 cents, while a plastic one usually costs only about 2 cents.

The most environment-friendly solution is to avoid single-use  products altogether. Products like glass water bottles and steel straws can be used over and over again. They are much better than either paper products or plastic products. Through increasing the use of these products, you can greatly reduce your throwaway waste and truly make our Earth a greener place!