We have been used to wearing masks(口罩) in public since February. About 300 million masks are used and then thrown away every day in China. Where do these masks go? You might think they just go in a rubbish bin. But that's just the first stop on the masks' journey.

After the masks are thrown into the bins, rubbish trucks empty the bins and take the rubbish to landfills(垃圾场). Next, the masks will be taken to rubbish incinerators(焚化炉) and burned. Burning masks might not seem to be very good for the environment. Won't it cause pollution?

The answer is "no", according to China Daily. The main material of most masks is polypropylene(聚丙烯).It's non-toxic(无毒的). After burning，it changes into water and Co₂.

In fact, burning the masks can bring some benefits(益处). The process of burning the rubbish can produce electricity. Burning one ton of rubbish can produce more than 400 kilowatt hours(度) of electricity. Some people make a prediction that there will be 162, 000 tons of used masks in China this year. Burning all of them can produce more than 64 million kilowatt hours of electricity. This is enough to make an electric car drive about 370 million km, which is 9,250 times as long as the earth's equator.

At last, the slag(残渣) from burning masks can be recycled to make bricks(砖块)or fill the roads.

Not only Kate's brother English, but also he likes maths.

Once there were many thousands of Gourma Desert (荒漠) elephants in Mali, a country in west Africa. Now, there are fewer than four hundred.

Why did the number of the elephants drop so quickly? On the one hand, the elephants' main lake, their only water source(来源), dried up. On the other hand, the land which the elephants lived on was overused by humans.

To protect the elephants' living environment, the Mali Elephant Project (MEP) was started in 2007. MEP met with local people and helped them make rules of using land and water. As a result, the situation became better and there was more food, forest and grassland.

However, from 2012 to 2016, poaching(偷猎) and illegal trade in the elephants increased rapidly. Eighty-three elephants were lost in 2015 alone, and another fifty-one elephants were killed in 2016."If this situation goes on, all the Gourma elephants will be killed by. 2020," said a member of MEP.

Luckily, the voice of MEP was heard. More organizations (组织) have joined together to educate the local people that trading elephants is against the law. Elephant poaching has dropped to a very low level. The local people have learned to live peacefully with the elephants, one of the wildlife treasures in the world.

Want to save the earth? Plant a tree!

What's causing global (全球的)warming? Is it man-made? Or are temperatures simply changing naturally? Whatever the case, we can at least try to slow things down, But how?

The Wilderness Project has an idea. . If the earth has more trees, greenhouse gases will be reduced, and this will help stop global warming.  and improve air quality (质量). . In Belgium, the Organization for Forests works with farmers to help them plant more trees. In Spain, the Canopy Project plants one tree for every Spaniard (西班牙人) in order to improve the environment. In Germany, a teenager named Felix Finkbeiner has been leading a global movement to plant more trees. .

Now, lots of people all over the world have already been planting more trees. In fact, if everyone plants one tree, just one, it will do great good to our environment.

So what can you do to help? , although you need to get advice on how to look after it. Or you can join a tree planting project such as the ones mentioned above to help save the earth.

So, go on, plant a tree... and save the earth!

water pollution, factories shouldn't pour waste water into those rivers directly.

A couple in India is running a quite different school. It is founded for poor kids and it gets them to have sense of being eco-friendly.

The school has a special rule. The students can replace school fees(学费) with plastic waste. People there used to burn plastic waste during winter to keep warm. This made the classrooms full of harmful smoke and gases. In order to help clean up the environment, the school began to accept plastic waste instead of school fees.

It also taught the students and their family about the bad effect(影响)of plastic. They were shocked to learn that burning plastic was harmful to their health and the environment.

"The idea is to train students to live an eco-friendly life," said the couple." The whole recycling program is carried out by the students, from start to finish."

Now, the students not only pick up rubbish on their way to school, but also go house to house to collect plastic waste in their free time. The school accepts nothing but plastic waste from students as schooling, which has made the neighborhood cleaner than before.

The school has always been different. Here the students teach each other. Younger children learn from the older ones. And studying for them is fun and meaningful." Our students learn more to earn more-we pay them based on their skills and knowledge, and fine (罚款) them for their bad behavior. Also, money increases with teaching skills. The students are strongly encouraged to behave like model students," said the couple.

In these small villages around the school, slowly, change is happening. The couple decide to create 100schools like this across the country in the future.

Animals need our help!1we're talking about wild animals, farm animals suffering overcrowding on a factory-style farm, the homeless pets at our local animal shelter, or the animals in our own home and yard, animals really need our help.

There are many different things we can do to help2, from volunteering our time to changing the way we live. But one of the3things we can do each day is to learn more about them and what they need. 4 us, animals cannot start a petition(请愿), or share their problems on Facebook. They need us—our voice, our time, our creative insight(了解)into what could help5 how it could get done. So the more we learn about animals and the issues that6 animals, the more we can help them.

To help the animals, why not begin with a creek(小河) clean-up? Fish, frogs, and many other wild creatures7 clean water in our rivers. But trash 8along riverbanks finds its way into the water due to winds or winter storms. Heavy rainfall associated with storms may cause water levels to9. Then we can help! Pick up everything in the path, including trash. 10, contact our local water department, park service, or fish and wildlife office to find out about upcoming opportunities for the creek clean-up. If they don't have one, discuss organizing our own. This could be a great project.