The answer to protecting and saving marine(海洋) wildlife can start with cutting back on something Americans use every day—plastic drinking straws. Actor Adrien Grenier, best known for playing Vincent Chase in 2015 movie Entourage, has launched a campaign to reduce the amount of single-use plastic usage in this country in order to protect and save marine wildlife and the environment. Plastic drinking straws are among many single-use plastic products contributing to the shocking loss of marine life, but they’re a great place to start because they’re something Americans are using by the hundreds of millions without any awareness that they’re so damaging.

According to Ecocycle, an international environmental organization, Americans use more than 500 million straws daily, which are enough to fill 127 school buses each day, and they can’t be recycled. They means plastic straws end up in landfills or oceans, where fish and other marine wildlife mistake the small bits for food and swallow them. After seeing a photo of a whale beached on the shore with a belly full of plastic, Grenier felt the inspiration to launch the Lonely Whale Foundation, hoping to inspire and educate others on the challenges facing marine life.

Along with stopping the use of straws, Grenier hopes to educate consumers on the dangers of other single-use plastic items such as grocery bags and water bottles. While many Americans use these plastic products in their daily life, there are more sustainable alternatives that can help protect the environment. Ecocycle recommends the use of straws made from stainless steel, glass, and even bamboo instead of plastic. You can buy a number of these environmentally friendly straws online and in stores.

Unknown to many Americans perhaps, the Japanese are huge fans of racing. They crowd racetracks throughout the country, especially near major cities like Tokyo. The country has some of the finest breeding farms and racehorses in the world.

Japanese racehorse and Japanese racing success has increased dramatically. While Japan is enjoying its new success in racing, it was not always or need not always be that way. The idea that effort is greater than outcome extends to horseracing. There is no finer example of this than the near-legendary story of Haru Urara, a horse whose name means “Glorious Spring”, but whose racing career was anything but glorious.

Haru Urara was born in 1996. Her father was NippoTeio, a highly successful racehorse whose wins included Tokyo’s famous horseracing competition of Yasuda Kinen, and whose mother was named Heroine. Her great-great-great grandfather was Canada’s famed Northern Dancer, considered the foundational sire of North American Thoroughbred racehorses.

Her owner NobutoBokulo tried to sell her when she was young and was surprisingly unsuccessful. So, with seemingly wonderful racing bloodlines, he trained her to race.

She started her racing career with a fifth-and last-place finish on Nov.17, 1998 at Kochi Racetrack on the Japanese island of Shikoku. Of course, it is not unusual for a new racehorse to finish poorly in a first outing. What followed, however, was definitely unusual.

An iron horse, Haru Urara raced as often as twice a month over the next four and a half years-and never won a single race. By 2003, her losing record totaled 80 and that is when her story was picked up by media in Japan and eventually around the world. People respected the fact that, while she never won, she ran with all her heart. The “Haru Urara Boom” as it came to be known touched even the most unrelated areas of Japanese life.

A new speciality is available in Wyoming. It is fresh and cheap—but probably a little smelly. Last month it became legal for Wyomingites to collect roadkill that they accidentally hit themselves. Not all animals are fair game. Grizzly bears, some grey wolves and endangered species are forbidden.

Although some may feel embarrassed at the idea of pulling a deer off the road and onto the dinner table, the law has several benefits. First, roadkill is a source of fresh meat for poor rural communities who may not otherwise be able to afford it. PETA, a radical animal-rights group, argues that eating roadkill is healthier and more moral than buying meat raised for slaughter (屠宰). Second, allowing residents to harvest roadkill themselves may cut down on the time the creatures spend on the road.

Not everyone is licking their lips. Some opponents fret that people will end up eating rotten meat. “It’s really the burden of the person who chooses to collect roadkill if they eat it or not,” says Sara DiRienzo, of Wyoming Game and Fish. Others show the concern that the laws will encourage hunters to use the roadkill programme as cover for killing animals they should not.

After almost a decade of failing to pass the bill, Dan Zwonitzer, its frequent sponsor, credits his success to recent support from his colleagues in the legislature (立法机关). State lawmakers from rural Wyoming managed to turn the roadkill-harvest programme into a libertarian cause célèbre. “There were some complaints from people who had hit animals or had seen other people hit animals, says Mr Zwonitzer, “and they were like, ‘Well, heck, it’s dead...I don’t want the government telling me I can’t take something I accidentally hit if the meat is good’.” He adds that he is not about to collect roadkill himself. But for those so willing, there are cookbooks offering ways to serve up moose or mule deer.