Although environmental problems have existed for centuries, some people still care little about our environment. Problems like ice melting, electronic waste are lighting up news programs and becoming part of an ongoing dialogue about the environment.

As a teenager, what do you think all the problems mean for your future and for the future of the planet? For our October 2016 writing contest, we want you to really consider what you think about environmental problems.

Use these questions to help focus your essay

  What environmental problem do you think should cause the greatest alarm and action?

  Do you think that you have a personal responsibility to help solve environmental              problems or do you feel helpless against the struggle?

  What do you think could help a specific environmental problem?

Don’t try to answer all these questions. Use one of them to make a personal essay.

The title of the essay

When you hand in your essay, title it as: Environmental Problems: _______.

Include the phrase “Environmental Problems” as the beginning of your essay title, but then make the rest of your story title unique. Examples:

  Environmental Problems: Trashy Behavior and the Plastic Bottle

 Environmental Problems: We Can’t Exist If We Refuse to Change

Rules:

(1) This is a non-fiction essay contest.

(2) Essays are 500 words or less.

(3) Essays must be your original work.

The deadline:

Midnight Oct. 30, 2016

Results:

The winner will be posted on our writing contest website or on Teen Trend Report after Nov. 26, 2016.

In the modern age . human society runs on energy. Most machines need electricity to operate. Humans can not live without electricity even a single day both in their daily life and work. They have many different ways to create electricity. But some ways are harmful to the environment.

     For example, fossil fuels(化石燃料) are the most common kind of energy. They include coal, oil . and natural gas. First , people have to dig them from the ground. This can sometimes harm the environment. However. scientists are creating cleaner and better ways to do that these days. So the environment is not harmed as much as before. But when people burn these fossil fuels ,they can give off a lot of harmful gases. which is considered to be one of the greatest causes of global warming. This might harm the environment .

    Tidal（潮汐）energy is another way to make electricity. This uses the ocean tides to make electricity. But some kinds of tidal energy can kill many fish and other sea animals. Also dams (犬坝) can create lots of clean energy. But dams create lakes and change the way that rivers run. So they can do great harm to the balance of nature around the lakes and along the rivers.

    Nuclear（核）energy is a very powerful form of energy. It is cheap. It is also very clean. But many people are afraid of it because it uses radioactive materials. Also , there have been some very serious accidents in the past which caused great harm both to human and nature. But the technology is much better these days. So many countries arc starting to use nuclear energy more.

Nauru-21 km²

                      Located east of Australia，Nauru is the smallest island country in the world. It is also a country with the most overweight people in the world，with 97% of its men and 93% of women being overweight.

Tuvalu-26 km²

Located in the Pacific Ocean(太平洋)，west of Australia.          There are about 10，000 people，with 8 km of roads，and only 1 hospital

on main island. Since itˈs a difficult place to get to, in 2010，only about

2，000 visitors came to Tuvalu.

Vatican-0.44 km²

The worldˈs smallest country is the Vatican , also known as the Holy See. This country fits within the Italian capital city of Rome . It is also home to the biggest church(教堂)in the world-St.Peterˈs Basilica , and holds some of the most important art works.

                     Located on the French Riviera, Monaco is home to the largest number of rich people per capita(人均)in the world. With a population of over 36，000，Monaco is the worldˈs most densely(密集地)populated country. People there are mostly French-speaking. The most popular event is the Formula 1 race，held there every year.

Have you ever heard of the expression “birdbrain”? People use it to talk about someone who is stupid, but crows(渡鸦) prove that this is unfair. Now it has been discovered that crows may understand analogies(类推法).

It was once thought that only humans could understand analogies, which help us to solve problems creatively and make scientific discoveries.

To testthis ability in animals, scientists do RMTS tests. If a pair was AA, for example, then picking BB to match it would be correct.

Monkeys have learnedRMTS, but scientists wanted to know if crows could do it, too. An international team led by Edward Wasserman in the US first trained two crows to match things by color, shape, and number in what is called IMTS, then moved onto RMTS.

For theIMTS test, the birds were put in a cage with a plate that had three cards and two cups in it. The card in the middle was the sample card. The cups on either side were covered with the other two cards: One was the same as the sample（in the color, shape, or number of shapes pictured）, while the other wasn’t. The cup with the card that matched the sample card had some food to eat.

In the second partof the experiment, the birds were tested with RMTS tests. A card with two same-sized circles, for example, meant they should pick the test card with two same-sized squares and not two different-sized circles. The birds did well in the more difficult test and picked the correct card more than three quarters of the time, Science New reports.

Wasserman was surprised that crows were able to solve the problem without any training in RMTS. “What the crows have done is surprising,” he said.

Doctors have studied sleep for many years. It is said（据说）that a lot happens when people sleep. It is reported that people have five stages（阶段） of sleep and that people may go through each stage about every 90 minutes. During the first two stages, you sleep lightly. That is, if someone calls you or puts his hands on you, you wake up quickly. Your body rests quietly. Your heart beat slowly. You breathe more slowly than when you are awake. During stages three and four, you sleep deeply. You don’t hear sounds. Light don’t wake you up. Your heart beats more slowly than in stages one and two. The last stage of sleep is called Rapid Eye Movement. During REM sleep, you breathe faster, and your heart beats faster than in stage one through four. Your eyes move rapidly（快速地） under your eyelids（眼皮）. All of this happens because you are dreaming. What doctors have proved（证明）is that everyone dreams.

What will our homes be like in the future? Here are some predictions:

◆Do you want to take a shower when you get home? You’ll be able to let your smart water heater (热水器) to start heating up when you’re on your way home.

◆Did I turn off the oven? Did I close the window? Everyone may have a moment like that. But in the future, your home will check these for you.

◆In your home of the future, all of your devices(设备) can work together to make your life more comfortable. When you turn on the lights in the morning, your windows will open at the same time. The lights will slowly turn off by themselves after the sun appears.

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◆Your home may have dangers. The hackers (黑客) could open your door and cause a mess(造成麻烦) at your home through your phone or other devices. Your home will tell you about it but you can’t arrive in time. So people will have to be careful of their personal information.

Can you imagine a world without the Internet? It’s surprising to think about it.

Now, China has more than 162 million Internet users, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. This is the second highest number of the user in the world after the United States. Today, 66% of Chinese “netizens（网民）” are teenagers. “They spend about thirteen hours every week online,” said Qian Hulin, an Internet expert. Doctor Song in Beijing Xuanwu Hospital said about 14% of Chinese netizens who are teens often lasted over ten hours to play online games.

The main reasons why teenagers surf the Web are to search for information, to communicate（交流）with others and to have fun. On the Internet, teenagers can find out almost anything, and surfing the Web can help students with their homework and widen（拓宽）their knowledge.

Li Dong, a teacher at No.41 Middle School in Shijiazhuang, likes her students to use the Internet. “When we talk in class, students who surf the Net usually know more background information than the others,” she said.

In addition，people can use the Internet to write letters or stories and send e-mails. Many teens talk with their friends online. It is cheaper than phoning somebody far away and also much quicker.

Astronauts have already visited the moon and lived on space stations. They' ve never been to another planet, but they might visit Mars soon. The astronauts will spend about six months traveling to the planet, then about two years on the planet and about six months traveling back to the earth. They' ll be away from the earth for about three years, so they' 11 need a lot of food !

   It' s very expensive to take food into space. It costs about 120,000 dollars to carry something that weighs one kilogram. So an apple on Mars could cost 20,000 dollars! Of course, they will need to take quite a lot of food with them to feed the astronauts for three years. This amount of fresh food can not stay fresh, and is very expensive to take, so they need to find food that is not very heavy.     

   At the moment, astronauts on space stations eat dried food. It's very light, so it doesn't cost a lot of money to carry it into space. But astronauts stay healthier and happier if they eat fresh food. In the future, astronauts on Mars may grow vegetables like lettuce, spinach and carrots.

   Astronauts on Mars will probably have special machines. They' ll use these machines to change beans into foods that taste like meat or cheese because it won' t be possible to keep animals in space.

You can be proud of yourselves, even if you can only make one or two of these green changes. The goal here is to limit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which are closely connected to the big problem of global-warming (全球变暖).

   WAY 1: Bring your own cup to Starbucks. You’ll get a 10-cent discount, and it’s one less paper cup to end up in a dustbin. The store won’t create more waste when they throw away a cup.

   WAY 2: Turn off your computer. When in standby mode, your PC is still using energy. Turning off a monitor (显示器) for 40 hours a week may only save $ 5 a month, but it reduces CO₂ by 750 pounds.

   WAY 3: Reuse plastic bags. Instead of throwing away 100 billion plastic bags a year, try and get a second, third, or tenth use out of them. Better yet, next time you shop, try a reusable bag. The amount of oil it would take to make just 14 plastic bags would run your car for one mile.

   WAY 4: Use recycled paper in the bathroom. Most of the toilet paper we use is made from trees found in forests. If every family replaced(替换)one roll of toilet paper with a recycled one, 424,000 trees would still be standing.

   WAY 5: Plant a tree. Adding green to your garden is beautiful and earth-pleasing. Just one tree will help make cleaner air and save the environment from 5, 000 pounds of hot carbon dioxide each year.