The world is divided into two important parts. One half of the world is rich and the other half is poor. In the poor part, a lot of people never get enough to eat. In the rich part, a lot of people eat too much. In one part, children are hungry and in the other, a lot of people are fatter and fatter and have to go on diets or do some exercise to lose weight. For example, a dog or a cat in North America eats better than a child in the poorer countries.

The poor countries have some difficult problems. Sometimes the land is too poor to grow anything on. The land can get better, but people have to do a lot of things first. More experts should go there to teach people how to enrich their land and how to find water.

But rich countries have problems too. They are not always pleasant places to live in. Sometimes the air is too dirty to breathe and the rivers are too dirty to swim in or to take water. The roads and the streets are full of people and buses. Cars usually move very slowly. Noise is terrible. A lot of people do not have houses to live in. People must do something about these problems. We should do something to make the air and the rivers clean and build more houses. But it will take a long time.

Different lives in the world

Saving Historic Sites

Around 1, 800 years ago, Chinese artists carved（雕刻）Buddha statues（佛像）into rocks in mountains, such as Longmen Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes and Mogao Grottoes. These grottoes have been through earthquakes, floods and wars. In the 21st century, they are facing a new danger: tourism.

The carved rocks in the grottoes are ancient. They slowly corrode（腐蚀）because of the acidic（酸性的）content of air and water. When they are open to the public, they corrode faster. Researchers also found that the carbon dioxide（二氧化碳）that visitors breathe out has made the air more acidic. Even the body heat can increase the grottoes’ temperature. All of these things can harm the grottoes.

Bad behavior can cause harm to grottoes as well. During the National Day holiday in October, some visitors like to draw or write things on walls. Others like to touch the statues. Because too many tourists touched it. This makes it impossible for the grottoes to keep their look.

To provide better protection, grotto workers have been asked to control the number of visitors. Tourists are also being encouraged to book tickets online and stay away from busy hours when visiting. The new policy aims to protect not only grottoes, but also visitors. Fewer people means a lower risk. People can enjoy the grottoes in a safer and more pleasant way.

When Cash Daniels was given “The Conservation Kid” for his efforts to protect the environment in 2021, he was only 12 years old. He got interested in environmental problems a few years ago, when he found plastic on a beach. It got him thinking about the influence that plastic pollution has on the environment, especially on rivers and oceans.

In his research, Cash found that rivers are at the heart of the problem. According to a 2021 report from Science Advances, far more rivers than thought—at least 1, 000 of them—are carrying large number of plastic into our oceans. This hit close to home for Cash. He lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The city sits on the Tennessee River, one of the most polluted in the world.

This information motivated（激发）Cash to take action. He made it his mission to clear litter from public spaces and local waterways.

At first, he and his parents worked together to pick up litter near the Tennessee River. But Cash soon realized that he would need more help.

So he organized community cleanup outings. Finally, he and other volunteers removed more than 11, 000 pounds of litter from the river.

Cash has also teamed up with businesses to recycle aluminum cans （铝罐）. So far, he has recycled more than 2, 000 pounds of them. The money he earns from that supports river protection efforts.

Cash enjoys getting people, especially other kids, involved in environmental activism. He wrote a children’s book called One Small Piece, which he has read to students in his community. In it, he spent much time explaining the problem of pollution and how streams, rivers, and oceans are interconnected.

In January 2022, together with his friend Ella Grace, he founded Cleanup Kids. So far, The Cleanup Kids has had more than 50 members across the US, Canada, and Australia. The group encourages children to pick up and recycle litter, as well as to raise awareness（意识） among young people to understand how much human life depends on the nature. The goal for the young volunteers is to collect 1 million pieces of litter by the end of 2022. “Kids may be a small percentage of the population,” Cash says. “But they are 100% of the future.”