Most of us spend our lives seeking the natural world. We go fishing, sit in the garden, have a picnic, live in the suburbs or go to the seaside. The most popular leisure activity in Britain is going for a walk. When joggers jog, they don't run the streets. Every one of them tend to go to the park or the river.

    But despite this, our children are growing up nature­deprived(剥夺). I spent my boyhood climbing trees. These days, children are robbed of these ancient freedoms, due to problems like crime, traffic, the loss of the open spaces and strange new ideas about what is best for children, that is to say, things that can be bought, rather than things that can be found.

    The truth is to be found elsewhere. A study in the US: families had moved to better housing and the children were assessed for ADHD—attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(多动症). Those whose accommodation had more natural views showed an improvement of 19%; those who had the same improvement in material surroundings but no nice view improved just 4%.

    ADHD is one of the great problems of modern childhood. One study after another indicates that contact with nature gives huge benefits to ADHD children. However, we spend money on drugs rather than on green places.

    The life of old people is measurably better when they have access to nature. The increasing concern for the growing population of old people is in quality rather than quantity of years. And study after study finds that a garden is the single most important thing in finding that quality. Even problems with crime and aggressive behaviour are reduced when there is contact with the natural world.

    We need the wild world. It is essential to our well­being, our health and our happiness.

    The online takeaway industry is growing in China along with the rapid development of the Internet economy. But environmental activists complain that the huge volume of plastic utensils (用具), wrapping and containers presents a great challenge to the environment, and that the heavy use of throwaway wooden chopsticks is reducing natural resources.

    On September 1, the Beijing No.4 Intermediate People's Court accepted a lawsuit filed by the Chongqing Green Volunteer League, an environmental non-government organization (NGO), against the country's three largest food delivery platforms—Baidu Waimai, Ele.me and Meituan. The NGO stated that the companies failed to provide customers with the choice to not receive throwaway plastic utensils along with their food deliveries. Meanwhile, these utensils have created large amounts of rubbish and caused serious ecological damage.

    In response, both Meituan and Ele.me, which acquired Baidu Waimai in August, have promised to take measures to reduce plastic waste. Meituan announced that it would appoint a chief environmental officer to oversee environmental issues from plastic waste and upgrade its smartphone app to provide consumers with the option of ordering food without single-use chopsticks, spoons or napkins. Ele.me followed by offering a similar choice and putting forward a plan to introduce suppliers of degradable (可降解的) plastic utensils to restaurants in the long term.

    Is there a possible way out? Combined efforts by delivery platforms, consumers, restaurants and government departments are required to address plastic waste pollution.

    For platforms, promoting environmental protection and introducing this idea to consumers are a meaningful move. Moreover, in the future, they should also make strict rules on the use of plastic utensils. For example, no more than one plastic bag should be used to wrap soup dishes, and all plastic products should be degradable. It is a long and difficult task for them, and the recent reactions from Ele.me and Meituan are just beginnings.

    Considering most takeout food packaging is thrown into garbage bins and then taken away along with other household garbage, sorting of waste also becomes more important. Government departments could play a major role in this, and by recycling some materials, waste pollution could be reduced and resources saved. Furthermore, there have been growing calls that the government should also invest more in developing degradable plastic products or environmentally friendly alternatives.

    Though consumers enjoy the convenience yet also suffer exposure to the pollution, many of them have paid little attention to the plastic waste problem. Environmental groups suggest that consumers change their habits a little by using their own utensils and dishes and refusing unnecessary plastic containers.

    Life gets noisier every day and very few people can free from noise of some sort or another.It doesn't matter where you live—in the middle of modern city，or a faraway village—the chances that you will be disturbed by jet aeroplanes，transistor radios，oilpowered engines，etc.，are almost everywhere. We seem to be getting used to noise，too. Some people feel quite lonely without background music while they are working.

    Scientific tests have shown that total silence can be a very frightening experience for human beings. However，some people enjoy listening to pop music which is very loud，and this can do harm to their eardrums (耳鼓)．The noise level in some disco is far above the usual safety level for heavy industrial areas.

    One recent report about noise and concentration suggested that although a lot of people say that any noise disturbs their concentration，what really affects their ability to concentrate is a change in the level of noise. It goes on to say that a background noise，which doesn't change too much (music，for example) may even help people to concentrate.

The Secret to Happiness

    A new report makes it clear that when it comes to the life satisfaction of UK citizens, the ball is in the government's court. For some time, sensible people have been arguing that governments need to focus less on economic growth and more on the wellbeing（幸福）of citizens. Be careful what you wish for.

    In response to this demand, from 2011 David Cameron instructed the Office for National Statistics to gather data on people's self-reported happiness and life satisfaction. Little practical good has come from this so far, but a new report by George Bangham for the Resolution Foundation is one of the best attempts to make useful sense of the data. He concludes: "The best prospects for policymakers targeting future increases in national wellbeing lie in raising job quality, raising incomes, particularly at the lower end, and policies to improve security in the housing market."

    The age correlation（相关）turns out to be certainly linked to politics, despite the fact that no political party can make a difference to your date of birth. The happiness of pensioners is not just a function of their age, but of policy. On average, 70-year-old boomers today are the most affluent retirees in history, often owning their own homes and in receipt of generous pensions. People of 70 are not going to be as content in 30 or 40 years' time if they are unable to retire, don't own their homes and have small incomes.

    However, there is one respect in which teens and recent retirees are remarkably similar. Compared to other age groups, they tend to inhabit a sweet spot of having high degrees of freedom. The typical 16-year-old has new freedoms without ever having had any serious responsibilities. The typical 70-year-old, having experienced a lifetime of work and family duties, has a very different kind of freedom, one born from relief.

    Besides, it should not surprise us to find that people tend to be happier when they have fewer worries. But this, too, has important political implications. If the government is really interested in raising overall national happiness, it has to make sure as many citizens as possible feel secure in their health, their housing and their incomes. Different states' records in achieving this is one important reason why Nordic countries repeatedly score highly in international life satisfaction surveys and North America underperforms relative to its GDP.

    Whichever way you look at it, there is no escaping the conclusion that increasing wellbeing across society requires joined-up, long-term policy efforts. This is exactly what the Resolution Foundation recommends.

With the summer heat becoming increasingly unbearable over the years due to climate change,the cooling load in the summertime has also been on the rise.Insulation(隔热) is currently the main solution for blocking heat from entering a building,but by applying an additional material that can delay heat penetration(渗透),it can prevent the indoor temperature from rising and in turn lower the cooling load of the building.

A research team in Korea has developed a new material for building walls that can help reduce the penetration of heat from the outside.The team directed by Dr.Sarng Woo Karng from KIST revealed that they have successfully done it through building walls by applying a phase change material(PCM).One of the most common types is paraffin oil,which is used to make candles.

A solid PCM absorbs heat as it transforms into a liquid phase,so by using a case to hold it when it is in a liquid phase without causing any leakage(渗漏),it is possible to apply them to a building wall to block heat from entering inside.

The problem,however,is that the PCM turns into liquid starting from the outermost layer,and the parts that are hot move upward,while the parts that are still relatively cool move downward.Thus,while the upper part may have completely melted,the lower part will have not,and as a result,heat will penetrate into the building through the area where the PCM is in a liquid phase.In the end,the PCM becomes ineffective in controlling the indoor temperature and is rendered useless.

Dr.Karng's team addressed the non-uniform phase change with bubble injections.Injecting bubbles into the bottom part of the PCM enabled uniform circulation(流动)of the PCM in a liquid phase.Dr.Karng said,"We expect that the insulating wall using the PCM bubble generator used in this study will contribute to reducing the amount of energy used to heat or cool a building.Insulation techniques using the PCM help reduce heat penetration,in combination with the building insulating material,and it can also be used as the outer walls of zero-energy buildings."

In San Francisco, a large group of sea lions move themselves out of the bay waters and hang out on PIER 39, which is a popular tourist destination. According to dock（码头）officials, this is the most sea lions seen in the region in 15 years.

"Over 1,000 sea lions have been counted this week," PIER 39 harbormaster Sheila Chandor told many different media. "The surge in sea lions is usually a good sign of their strong population and healthy living environment," said Adam Ratner, Director of Conservation Engagement at the Marine Mammal（海洋哺乳动物）Center in Sausalito, California.

"California sea lions are sentinels（哨兵）of the ocean," Ratner said. Their population to some extent reflects the health of the ocean. Therefore, seeing a large number of California sea lions is clearly a good thing.

For nearly 35 years, the slippery（滑的）residents have been a star attraction for tourists. That autumn in 1989, PIER 39 had just been repaired, but the ships had not yet been moved back. At that moment, the sea lions' unexpected arrival not only attracted fans but also created enemies. According to a website, some dock residents and workers were scared away by the strong and very unpleasant smell and noise of their new neighbors, while others saw these animals as a bright spot after the destructive Loma Prieta earthquake.

The officials sought help from the Marine Mammal Center to find a way to deal with sea lions. Ratner said that the final decision is to let the sea lions stay and coexist with humans. "The fact proves that this is really a good thing," he said. "This is just a proof of how we can truly work together and think about how we can share our coasts with marine mammals and other wildlife in a way that benefits all the parties involved."