Going green seems to be a fad(时尚)for a lot of people these days. Whether that is good or bad, we can’t really say, but for the two of us, going green is not a fad but a lifestyle.

On April 22, 2011, we decided to go green every single day for an entire year. This meant doing 365 different green things, and it also meant challenging ourselves to go green beyond the easy things. Rather than recycle and reduce our energy, we had to think of 365 different green things to do and this was no easy task.

With the idea of going green every single day for a year, Our Green Year started. My wife and I decided to educate people about how they could go green in their lives and hoped we could show people all the green things that could be done to help the environment. We wanted to push the message that every little bit helps.

Over the course of Our Green Year, we completely changed our lifestyles. We now shop at organic(有机的)stores. We consume less meat, choosing green food. We have greatly reduced our buying we don’t need. We have given away half of what we owned through websites. Our home is kept clean by vinegar and lemon juice, with no chemical cleaners. We make our own butter, enjoying the smell of home-made fresh bread. In our home anyone caught doing something ungreen might be punished.

Our minds have been changed by Our Green Year. We are grateful for the chance to have been able to go green and educate others. We believe that we do have the power to change things and help our planet.

For more than 100 million years sea turtles (海龟) have covered huge distances across the world’s oceans, making them among the oldest creatures on the planet. However, they are on the list of endangered species.

Different from some animals like snakes, the sex of the baby sea turtles, called hatchlings , is determined by the environment after fertilization (受精). The temperature of the eggs during a certain period of development is the deciding factor in determining sex, and small changes in temperature can cause very big changes in the sex ratio (比例). Often, eggs at low temperatures (22—27℃) produce males, while eggs at higher temperatures (30℃ and above) produce females. At temperatures in 29℃, which is good for a balanced sex ratio of turtle hatchlings. If temperature reaches 36℃, no hatchlings will be produced.

Climate change has a powerful effect on turtle nesting (筑巢) sites. It changes sand temperatures, which then affects the sex of the hatchlings. Scientists have found that unusually warm temperatures caused by climate change are upsetting the normal ratios, resulting in fewer male hatchlings. The past four hottest summers in Florida have seen only female sea turtles. And an Australian study has shown a similar effect in which 99% of the hatchlings are female.

In addition to rising temperatures, turtles are also facing the threat of too much plastic in the oceans, along with a number of other threats. “Plastic pollution is a problem for turtles as they can mistake plastics for food easily. Even a single piece of plastic can kill a turtle,” Dr Couper, working at the Queensland Museum, said. “We have collected some plastics taken from turtles’ stomachs to show people what kinds of things are showing up on beaches. I want it to be an eye opener.”

Japanese researchers placed electronic devices(装置)on seals(海豹)in Antarctic waters to collect surprising information about the environment there. Japan’s National Institute of Polar Research started the research project in 2017. The team recently reported its results in a study in the publication Limnology and Oceanography.

Eight Weddell seals were fitted with the devices,which have antennas(天线)to send electronic signals.The 580-gram monitoring devices were attached(缚上;系上)to the animals’heads. They were designed to measure data such as water temperatures and sea salt levels.

Investigative teams on ships have difficulty reaching important research areas in Antarctica. These include areas along continental shelf formations where ice is attached to the shore, the National Institute of Polar Research said in a statement. Nobuo Kokubun led the project. Since the seals are active year-round, Kokubun added, “I thought we should have them collect the data.”

He told Reuters that the research also helps scientists follow the seals’ behaviors and learn about their relationship to the environment. “During the summer, we can go to Antarctica on icebreakers to conduct actual research activities, so that we can collect data there.” Kokubun said. ”But during the winter. such things cannot be done in so many places.“

Information gathered from the seals showed that one of the animals traveled as far as 633kilometers from Japan’s Showa Station in Antarctica. Another dove to a depth of 700 meters.Kokubun said the scientists learned from the data that warm seawater from the upper levels of the open sea reached Antarctica from March through the winter of 2017. The water flowed below the ice, bringing in sea creatures like Antarctic krill, an important food for seals.

Kokubun and his team plan to keep finding new ways to further examine the effects of climate change on Antarctic coastal areas. Next, he hopes to make the device small enough to fit on other animals at the South Pole, such as penguins,“The advantage with penguins is that they come back to the same place and we can collect data from them immediately,”Kokubun said.