Taking a holiday doesn’t mean letting go of all the eco-friendly choices. There are many ways you can have a much-deserved break without harming the environment.

Forget planes. While most forms of transport produce carbon dioxide, planes have a massive carbon footprint because of the huge number of miles they travel. 【小题1】 Many of us ignore the endless beautiful scenery around us. There’s the outstanding beauty of the Mississippi River.

Alternatively, you can drive your car to the Grand Canyon to see its splendor.

Pack with care. 【小题2】 All of their bottles, from shampoo and conditioner to body wash and moisturizer (润肤霜), are now made from recycled plastic that can be repurposed again and again so no new plastic is produced. And their iconic soap bars now also come in plastic-free packaging.

【小题3】 Hotels can be huge producers of greenhouse gases. Think about the water that’s wasted and all the buffet food that goes uneaten. So choose an eco-friendly option instead. Camping and a home stay — where you live with a family in their own home — are two of the best options. But if you insist on staying in the hotel, pick one made from sustainable materials. 【小题4】

Buy gifts responsibly. Bringing back gifts for friends and loved ones is part of the fun of a holiday. 【小题5】 Avoid anything plastic, or if it is plastic, make sure it is 100% recyclable, and make sure your friends will love whatever you give them so it isn’t just thrown in the bin headed for landfill.

Antarctica is the most distant part of the world, but it is a center of scientific discovery and environmental change.

Early explorers were attracted there by the secret of Terra Australis. Others sought money from catching whales. Still others wanted to understand Earth’s pole in order to better sail the seas. I am a geologist (地质学家) who studies the timing and extent of past ice ages. I’ve been very lucky to conduct five season of research there under the protection of the Antarctic Treaty (条约), an international agreement that encourages scientific cooperation (合作) and environmental protection.

Antarctica is the only continent that was actually discovered, because it has no native human population. British explorer Sir James Cook sailed around the continent in 1772-1775, but saw only some outlying islands (离岛). Cook said that if there were any land, it would be “never to give way to the warmth of the sun.” But Cook also reported that Antarctic waters were rich with wildlife.

Today parts of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet are particularly close to collapse (坍塌). Recent research show sea level could rise by 1 meter by 2100 and 15 meters by 2500 if the greenhouse effect continues and the ice sheet experiences a rapid collapse, as it has in the past. Despite the environmental disaster in Antarctica, the continent also shows that nations can cooperate to find solutions. “I believe the Antarctic Treaty System is the world’s most important example of peaceful and scientific international cooperation. Thanks to it, 10% of Earth’s land surface is protected for wildlife.”

Yet in these bad environments, life finds a way to survive—showing that there are solutions to even the most difficult challenges. If Antarctica has taught me anything in 200 years, it’s that we can work together to deal with problems. As Ernest Shackleton once said, “Difficulties are just things to solve, after all.”

A species of iguana (鬣蜥) that went extinct nearly 200 years ago on one of the Galápagos Islands appears to be making a comeback, with some help from a team of conservationists. The last person to spot a Galápagos land iguana on Santiago Island in Ecuador was Charles Darwin in 1835. When an expedition team from California arrived in 1906, the iguanas were nowhere to be found. And though this kind of iguana can still be found on the other Galápagos Islands, it’s believed to have been extinct on Santiago for the past 187 years—until now.

A team of scientists and park guardians discovered new lizards (蜥蜴) of various ages while walking the island in late July, which suggests the species has been successfully reintroduced. And according to Jorge Carrión, director of conservation of the Galápagos Conservancy, the ecosystem is thriving as a result. The evidence is in the details, he explained. Seeing lizards of different ages and coming across unmarked specimens means the iguanas are breeding (繁殖) in their natural environment.

Before joining the Galápagos Conservancy, Carrión worked for the Galápagos National Park Directorate, the caretakers of the islands’ ecosystems and resources. The GNPD is also the authority spearheading the iguana reintroduction project, with funding and assistance coming from the Conservancy. He said the collaborative has released more than 3,000 land iguanas on the island since January 2019.

Conservationists decided to reintroduce the land iguana after carefully considering how a return of the species would affect the ecosystem. These lizards are what’s known as an engineering species, like the Galápagos giant tortoise, in that they play a key role in keeping a healthy balance in an ecosystem.

“This kind of species are key for ecosystem in general,” Carrión said. “In this case it was the justification for the reintroduction of land iguanas, to return the natural dynamic to Santiago Island. When engineer species are not present, many imbalances occur in the ecosystem.”