It's 10 o'clock at night, and we've been walking along behind him and his wife, Maria, on the beach in complete darkness for half an hour, hoping that every shadowy form is a green sea turtle that has appeared from the Caribbean to lay her eggs on Tortuguero Beach.

After traveling a long way here to witness the event at the end of the nesting season, we walk behind Castor in dutiful silence, thinking about the impact we could have on a turtle's nesting decision. Although they can't hear well, green sea turtles have a powerful sense of smell. Lights can also disturb them. And if the female feels threatened, she'll likely return to the sea to give up all 100 to 120 of her eggs-a huge sacrifice for an endangered creature.

Earlier that day we read up on threats to the turtles-poisonous waste, plastic bags and fishing hooks among other things. These threats apply, however, only if the baby turtles even make it to the sea in the first place.

"She is there," Castor reports, "making her nest now." A female turtle turns herself around and around in a circle until the top of her shell is nearly even with the sand. Employing her back flippers (鳍肢), she then reaches beneath herself to dig a neat, deep hole for the hundred or more eggs she will lay his evening.

We sit silently on a big piece of driftwood, waiting patiently like family members outside the birthing room. "Come closer!" Castor says, and we bend towards the soft red glow of his flashlight. His right hand holds the massive turtle's left back flipper aside so that the light shines directly into the hole, which is already filled with eggs. Her tail lifts as a soft, slippery egg slides through and goes into the hole, followed by another and another. After laying the eggs, her tail flipper begin to remove sand from the "walls" around her, dragging it over the top of the eggs.

Then Castor signals us to another spot where a nest is hatching (孵化) at the very moment. Dozens of baby turtles desperately move to the surface, trying to drag themselves up out and to the sea. However, a huge driftwood lying in the sand parallel to the sea blocks their passage down the beach. Castor shines his beam toward the water and Maria picks the newborns up and places them on the other side of the wood. If we weren't there at the moment, most of them would have wandered aimlessly toward the jungle and death.

On the way back to the village, I recall my mixed feelings about human impact on the environment, Now I'm home joyous that my presence has helped an entire nest of baby turtles survive the first challenge of their lives.

A wildfire in New Mexico, a state in the southwestern US, has burned for nearly two months, consuming more than 315,000 acres of land — an area about the size of the city of Los Angeles.

“With climate change, it seems like the monsters are beginning to fall,” NASA hydrologist JT Reager told the BBC. “We get warmer temperatures, we get less rain and snow. The reservoirs (水库) start drying up, then in a place like the West [of the US], we get wildfires.”

In recent years, wildfires have wreaked havoc across countries including the US and Australia. These fires destroy homes and businesses, claim lives and also negatively impact the environment.

As climate change worsens, global temperatures increase and so does the risk of wildfires. A recent report from the United Nations Environment Program and GRID-Arendal, a partner organization in Norway, reveals that wildfires are becoming more frequent and severe.

This is harmful to people around the globe. According to the joint UN report, it is estimated that the yearly “economic burden from wildfire for the United States is between $7.1 billion (about 48 billion yuan) and $347.8 billion”.

Another article published in Nature journal on April 19 found that wildfires have created seasonal pollution patterns in the northwestern US. Between 2002 and 2018, carbon monoxide (一氧化碳) levels increased every year for the month of August in the area.

Forest fires are common in China too. In the recent decade, the total number of forest fires in the country every year has increased to more than 2,000 cases, according to The Paper. Greater Hinggan Mountains (大兴安岭) is one of the important forestry bases in China. The National Forestry and Grassland Administration adopted mountain watchtowers, forest cameras and aerial drones (无人机) to prevent forest fires in the summer.

Many experts are calling the growing problem of global waste a worldwide health crisis in since pollution from trash is not only harming the world’s oceans, air and soil but also endangering people’s health as well as the livelihood of all living creatures.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

Such a dilemma raises the question, is there a more responsible way of dealing with trash? Fortunately, there is. 【小题1】One example of this is what’s often called the three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle. Reducing the use of plastic containers as well as reusing and recycling bottles and cans decreases the amount of garbage being sent to landfills. As a result, less money is spent on waste management, and countries’ financial burdens are significantly relieved. Such positive effects on an economy are known as a circular economy.

Circular economy

Traditionally, manufacturers would make a product to be used and disposed of by consumers. This linear (直线型的) model of production offered no help in the fight against global waste. 【小题2】.

Once a product’s value is exhausted, the materials are recycled and returned to manufacturers. The outcome is less waste. One large-scale example of this is happening on the island of Taiwan.

【小题3】

In 1997, Taiwan established its signature 4-in-1 Recycling Program, consisting of communities, government cleaning teams, recycling companies and the Recycling Fund. Residents separate their recyclable waste. The local government collection teams collect it.【小题4】. Importers and manufacturers who are responsible for the recyclable products pay a fee into the Recycling Fund. The Recycling Fund is an essential aspect of the program used to subsidize (补贴) the recycling disposal system, support education and research and development as well as finance recycling efforts in the future.

Turning garbage into gold

By following a circular system, more products than ever are being manufactured using recycled materials. Environmentally-friendly decisions like these help to conserve natural resources, reduce pollution, save landfill space and even create new job opportunities. 【小题5】.