Steven Stein likes to follow garbage trucks. His strange habit makes sense when you consider that he’s an environmental scientist who studies how to reduce litter, including things that fall off garbage trucks as they drive down the road. What is even more interesting is that one of Stein’s jobs is defending an industry behind the plastic shopping bags.

Americans use more than 100 billion thin film plastic bags every year. So many end up in tree branches or along highways that a growing number of cities do not allow them at checkouts(收银台). The bags are prohibited in some 90 cities in California, including Los Angeles. Eyeing these headwinds, plastic-bag makers are hiring scientists like Stein to make the case that their products are not as bad for the planet as most people assume.

Among the bag makers’ argument: many cities with bans still allow shoppers to purchase paper bags, which are easily recycled but require more energy to produce and transport. And while plastic bags may be ugly to look at, they represent a small percentage of all garbage on the ground today.

The industry has also taken aim at the product that has appeared as its replacement: reusable shopping bags. The stronger a reusable bag is, the longer its life and the more plastic-bag use it cancels out. However, longer-lasting reusable bags often require more energy to make. One study found that a cotton bag must be used at least 131 times to be better for the planet than plastic.

Environmentalists don’t dispute(质疑) these points. They hope paper bags will be banned someday too and want shoppers to use the same reusable bags for years.

What does the word “headwinds” in paragraph 2 refer to?

The air is thin and we have to rest several 【小题1】(time) on the short hike from camp.【小题2】our left，snow-covered mountains disappear into clouds that seem almost close enough【小题3】(touch).On the plain in front of us, we can just make 【小题4】a herd of graceful animals. This is 【小题5】we’re here - to observe Tibetan antelopes.

Tibetan antelopes live on the plains of Tibet, Xinjiang, and Qinghai. 【小题6】(watch) them move slowly across the green grass, I 【小题7】(strike) by their beauty. I’m also reminded 【小题8】 the danger they are in. They are being hunted 【小题9】(illegal), for their valuable fur.

My guide is Zhaxi, 【小题10】villager from Changtang. He works at the Changtang National Nature Reserve. To Zhaxi the land is sacred and 【小题11】(protect) the wildlife is a way of life.He says. “Actually,we’re trying to save 【小题12】(we).”

The1980s and 1990s were bad times for the Tibetan antelope. The population dropped 【小题13】 more than 50 percent. Their habitats were becoming 【小题14】(small) as new roads and railways were built

In order to save this species from 【小题15】(extinct),the Chinese government placed 【小题16】under national protection Zhaxi and other volunteers watched 【小题17】the antelopes day and night to keep them safe 【小题18】attacks. Bridges and gates were added 【小题19】 (let) the antelopes move easily and keep them safe from cars and trains.

The measures were 【小题20】(effect). The antelope population has recovered and in June 2015, the Tibetan antelope 【小题21】(remove) from the endangered species list. The government,however, does not intend to stop the protection programmes, 【小题22】 the threats to the Tibetan antelope have not yet disappeared.

I think about the antelopes and 【小题23】 Zhaxi told me. Much is being done to protect wildlife, but 【小题24】we really want to save the planet, we must change our way of life. Only when we learn to exist in harmony with nature can we stop being 【小题25】 threat to wildlife and to our planet.

The oceans occupy most of the Earth’s surface — about 70% — to the point of giving our planet its unmistakable colour. As such, they can tell the state of the Earth’s health: to observe them is to know where we stand.

In terms of climate, the warming and acidification of the oceans have harmful consequences for marine life and for land: there is of course the rise in water levels which threatens communities settling along the coasts. There is also a risk that is even more worrying since the oceans are no longer able to perform the climate regulation function that they have long fulfilled. As far as biodiversity (生物多样性) is concerned, the diagnosis is even more alarming.

We are well aware of these interacting crises, in particular thanks to the work of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. We also know where we must act. However, we still have to reflect matters and cooperate widely in order to manage the unavoidable and prevent the uncorrectable.

COVID-19 affords us this opportunity to come together and set up ambitious programmes of action. This is true for climate; it is true for biodiversity; it is also true for the oceans, as the United Nations Special Envoy for the Ocean, Peter Thomson, explained: “If there were ever a tide in human affairs that should be taken, this is it.”

It is indeed our responsibility to seize this moment. We must firstly learn more about the depths, which remain largely unknown to us and still hold many secrets that only we can reveal. Secondly, we must give free rein to imagination and innovation, which we need in order to deal with this worrying situation. This is why we have made innovation the theme of 2020 World Oceans Day. We must also seize this moment to sound the alarm, perhaps more widely than we have done so far, because no technical solution can replace a widespread, personal understanding of the threats to the oceans, their mysteries and their beauty.