Shi Guangyin was born in Dingbian County, Shaanxi Province in 1952. He is a hero of the sand control.

In his childhood, his 5-year-old friend was killed by the strong sand. In order to avoid the sand, his family moved nine times. So he decided to fight against it to the end.

In 1972, the 20-year-old Shi Guangyin led the villagers to plant popular trees and willow trees. After three years, he managed more than 10,000 mu of desert sand and successfully set up the first desert oasis in his hometown.

In the spring of 1986, he led the villagers to fight the desert named “Wolf Sand” for the third time. By developing sand barriers (屏障) to stop the hit of sand, about 80% of the plants were able to keep alive all the time.

On March 12, 2008, his only son died in a car accident while fighting against the sand. He continued his action against the sand although he was in great pain.

What he did completely changed the terrible environment of “Sand drives people back”. Today, the nearly 100 km long green barrier has been created, the desert is full of laughter of animals, and the villagers’ pockets are getting fatter and fatter.

Shi’s grandson is now also taking up the important task. Both of them appeared at the 2024 CCTV Spring Festival Gala. They hope that more and more young people will work on the sand control, so that more deserts will be decorated with green all year round.

Around the world, people are more and more worried about the environment. Many people now prefer products and companies (公司) that care about the earth and cause less pollution. This need for green products has led large companies to change their business.

Before, customers used cheap plastic (塑料) bags, and then threw them away. But now most supermarkets and stores usually provide reusable shopping bags for them. This causes less waste.

They also offer more local products, because less energy is needed for carrying them from one place to another.

To help lower air pollution, big car factories are looking for other ways to control the amount of oil. Cars that use much less oil are very popular. Many companies are also developing fully electric cars. They produce no air pollution at all. Both kinds of cars have another advantage: They are cheaper to run and people don't need to worry about oil prices.

The airline companies face an even greater green challenge. Airplanes use much more oil than cars. So many airlines are now developing planes that can run on some other kinds of oil. They create less pollution and cost less. The companies are also developing a new kind of planes, and some of them use only solar panels (太阳能板) to fly!

Green businesses used to be popular with only a small group of people. But now, more and more companies have to show they care about the environment. Many products are marked “green” in order to look nice. However, people still have to be careful when choosing green products. It’s important to make sure the products are as environmentally friendly as the businessmen say.

When your pens broken, the battery (电池) in your toy runs out, or you have some leftover food, what do you do with these things? You will probably throw them all into one bin (垃圾箱). But actually, all of these pieces of rubbish need to be sorted (分类) separately (单独地).

Rubbish sorting is a big thing all over the world. In recent years, some Chinese cities have been working hard on it.

Shanghai is asking all of its residents (居民) to sort their rubbish into four groups: wet, recyclable (可回收的), harmful (有害的) and dry.

Wet waste is also known as household waste. “They are things you don’t want but pigs can eat,” Guangzhou Daily joked. Paper, metal, glass and other things that can be reused are recyclable waste. Harmful waste incudes things like medicine, batteries and fluorescent bulbs (荧光灯泡). Finally, any waste that is not wet, recyclable or harmful will go to the “dry waste” bin.

Many other Chinese cities are also using this way to sort their rubbish. For example, Shenzhen has been sorting its rubbish into the same four groups since 2012. Students there also have to learn waste sorting at school.

China is working hard on waste sorting. There is still a long way to go. But it’s never too late to learn how to sort your rubbish rightly and protect the environment.