Hollywood is going green again. The Academy of Motion Pictures announced on Jan. 7 that food served at Oscar events will be almost entirely plant-based. Both the annual lunch for Oscar winners and the finger food served before the actual ceremony on Feb. 9 will be 100% plant-based. Reuters also reports that “the menu for the Governors’ Ball, a great event held immediately after the Oscar ceremony, will be 70% plant-based and 30%, fish and meat.”

Additionally, drinks in plastic containers will no longer be served at any Oscar events. The Academy explained in a statement that, “For the past seven years, the Oscars show has had a low carbon mark. We continue to expand our sustainability plan (可持续发展计划) with the final goal of becoming carbon-free.”

Lorenzo Soria, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, said he wasn’t sure how the vegan (严格的素食主义的) menu would be received but was “pleasantly surprised” by the attention it produced. Though many questioned if long-time vegan and actor Joaquin Phoenix played a key role in the push to vegan, Soria says the change was supported by multiple actors in the industry.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) issued (发布) their guests a set of fashion guidelines this year, along with their own plant-based menu and eco-friendly travel tips. Sadly, this attempt wasn’t successful. “It was a strange disconnect,” journalist Hannah Marriott writes. “Perhaps BAFTA issued the advice too late for the celebrities to come on board?”

If you consider fashion production, shipping and use is responsible for around 10% of the world’s annual carbon emissions, this was more than a missed moment. Hopefully, both the entertainment industry and celebrities themselves will continue to use their global platform for good in the coming years-whether it’s food, fashion or flights.

Scientists have found something strange has been happening among sensitive bird species in the Brazilian Amazon in recent years. Not only were the birds declining in number, but their bodies were also shrinking in size. “We found that size was not only shrinking for those sensitive species-it was declining for everyone, “said researcher Vitek Jirinec of Louisiana State University. Jirinec’s findingsare contained in a new study published in the journal Science Advances last Friday.

The study examined 77 species over a 40-year period, during which time the rainforest had become warmer. It found they were rapidly evolving perhaps because smaller birds remove heat more efficiently as they have more surface area in relation to volume. Brian Weeks of the University of Michigan explained it this way: “You could imagine lots of little ice cubes in a glass of water, as opposed to one big ice cube, and the little ice cubes melt faster because smaller things have larger surface area-to-volume ratios(比)，so they exchange heat more quickly. “Weeks didn’t work on this particular study, but he did research the size of more than50 species of migratory (迁徙的) birds in North America a few years back. He too found that nearly all of them were shrinking decade by decade.

The two studies strengthen the idea that birds all over the planet, migratory or not, may be changing shape due to a warming climate. Weeks said these sorts of changes should concern all of us. “All around the world, people depend on natural systems. Complete natural systems provide more economic benefits to humanity than the entirety of the world’s GDP, so they matter to you whether or not you know it, Weeks said. Jirinec thought the timing of his paper’s publication could not be more fitting. The study came out on the same day as the conclusion of the UN climate change conference in Glasgow. So those results really stressed the common consequences of the actions for the planet.

From lettuces (生菜) farmed on New York’s skyline to thick corridors of trees occupying Colombian roadsides, green initiatives are running wild in cities around the world.

Replanting initiatives have sprung up since the start of the 21st century as urban development goals have shifted and alarm about global warming has grown.

In nine cities around the world, thanks to planting schemes on walls and roofs, the temperature can be reduced by 3.6 to 11.3 degrees Celsius (摄氏的) at the hottest time of day, according to a report by the French Agency for Ecological Transition. Green spaces have also been shown to improve health and well-being, including by reducing stress, anxiety and depression, improving attention and focus, bettering physical health, said Stephanie Merchant of Bath University’s department for health. “However, it’s about where they are created in relation to the needs of the local communities,” she added.

So, are all urban replanting projects worthwhile?

“For a scheme to be seen as effective, it must fulfill as many functions as possible,” said the economist and urban planner Jean Haentjens. In addition to lowering the temperature, he said it should also preserve biodiversity, improve well-being, raise awareness, be appealing to residents and suitable for its social context.

The Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm in New York grows more than 45 tonnes of organic produce a year. Covering three rooftops, totalling more than 22,000 square metres, the farm cultivates a wide variety of vegetables. But it has to limit the soil depth to about 30 centimeters and irrigate (灌溉) the soil a little more frequently, because it dries out very quickly. Another question is whether pesticides (杀虫剂), which scare off birds and insects, are used when the aim is to boost biodiversity. For Jean Haentjen, it represents “an interesting route”, depending on the context. “But we can’t make it the model of tomorrow,” he said.