On a recent late fall afternoon at Teddington, the white branches of trees overhung the banks of the Thames, leaves slowly turning yellow. Green walnuts covered the ground. The shallow water ran fast and cold over the rocky bottom, but it was littered with the white shells of dead mussels.

Mussel populations in the river Thames in the UK dropped by as much as 99 per cent between 1964 and 2022. The reason isn’t clear, but the researchers involved suspect it is down to the effects of pollution, habitat loss and climate change.

To shed light on the long-erm trend, Isobel Ollard and David Aldridge at the University of Cambridge found the earliest study available on these mussel populations, a survey on the Thames in Reading, Berkshire, dating from 1964.

In 2022, the pair collected samples and found that the number of duck mussels per given area had decreased to just 1.1 per cent of 1964 levels. The painter mussels had fallen to 3.2 per cent of 1964 levels, and they found no living samples of the depressed river mussels at all. Mussels collected in 2022 were also smaller, reaching between 65 per cent and 90 percent of the length they would have been in 1964 at the same age.

Ollard says this will be having an impact on the ecosystem, because mussels provide important functions in freshwater environments. They can filter (过滤) around 8-10 gallons of river water each day, making the whole river a better environment for fish, plants and bugs. Mussels also benefit the people who use their rivers as a source of drinking water.

While no zebra mussels and Asian clams were found in the 1964 survey, she saw the populations of both rose in the latest survey, but still not enough to make up for the drop in shellfish numbers. “Pollution may be to blame for the overall fall,” Ollard says.

When things around the house stop working, what do you usually do with them? You probably just throw them away. This has led to the modern nickname: the throwaway culture. There are many reasons for this. In some areas, it’s difficult to find people who can make repairs, and fixing things can be quite expensive. And sometimes it s often easier to just buy a new one.

In 2009 Martine Postma from the Netherlands decided there must be a better way. Her solution was Repair Cafes: places where people can take damaged items (物品). There they will find tools and volunteer experts who are willing to help with repairs.

Postma’s first Repair Cafe opened on Oct.18, 2009, in Amsterdam, and was a huge success. News of the cafe spread, and people began asking how they could start their own. In 2011, Postma set up the Repair Cafe Foundation. This organization guides those hoping to begin their own neighborhood repair group. Today, there are about 2,000 Repair Cafes around the world with meetings held once a month. Everything is free, but donations are thankfully accepted.

The cafes not only provide help with repairs, but they also strengthen community ties. Neighbors get to know one another as they work together on projects. In addition, valuable knowledge is passed along and remembered. Items are kept rather than thrown away. If a broken item weighs a kilo, it’s been estimated (估计) that 2,000 Repair Cafes prevent 35,000 kilos of trash every month. That adds up to about 420,000 kilos per year!

Ginko Lee is the organizer for a repair group in Pasadena, California. In an interview, she described how exciting it is watching people who really want to help one another. She has often heard visitors say,“This is the kind of world I want to live in!” Ms. Lee said,“Everyone is a giver and a receiver in Repair Cafes.”

The United Nations said 26 percent of the world’s population does not have enough safe drinking water in a report released Tuesday. Richard Connor is the main editor of the UN World Water Development Report 2023. He told reporters at the release that the estimated cost of meeting the UN’s goals for water is between $600 billion and $1 trillion.

The report warned that water use around the world is growing one percent a year “and is expected to grow at a similar rate to 2050...”Connor said, the increase in demand is happening in developing countries. That is because urban areas and industries are using more and more water. Worse still, agriculture alone, Connor said, uses 70 percent of the world’s water supply and has to be better planned.

The report also said that seasonal lack of water will increase in Central Africa, East Asia and parts of South America. That is in addition to areas that already have water shortage such as the Middle East and the Sahara area of Africa. The report said this is the result of temperature increases in the Earth’s atmosphere. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is responsible for the latest water report. It said, “10 percent of the global population lives in countries with high or critical water stress. And 3.5 billion people live under conditions of water stress at least one month out of the year.”

The report also commented on weather events. It said floods in tropical areas near the Equator(赤道)have increased by 2.5 times. But Connor said weather conditions involving lack of rain, or drought, were more difficult to settle.

Connor added that the biggest producer of pollution is untreated wastewater. In his opinion, 80 percent of wastewater around the world is untreated, which contributes to water stress too, and in developing countries, it is “pretty much 99 percent.”