Most artists have a favorite material they like to work with. For Kristen Alyce, it happens to be trash (废物). The eco-conscious designer uses her talent to transform garbage like empty drink bottles and Skittles wrappers into wonderful outfits (全套服装) that sell for thousands of dollars.

Kristen says the idea came to her after she saw how much waste she and her three college roommates produced on a daily basis. The Fine Arts student began to dream about transforming the bags and packages into beautiful clothes. Her first dress made of plastic bags and rolled magazines was unusual, funny and even fascinating. However, she only made it to test how she could create a beautiful dress with trash.

The young designer did not consider starting a commercial business until she spent a week working at Couture Fashion Week in New York City. There she observed the excitement caused by new looks and decided to see if her unusual idea would result in as much enthusiasm. She began by creating a line of 12 garbage-inspired dresses. They were a big success and Garbage Gone Glam was born!

Today the company produces a wide variety of outfits that range from cocktail dresses to ballgowns. Kristen, of course, doesn’t search for trash cans as her material any more. Since the designer can work with anything from brochures to yellow pages, from directory pages to candy wrappers, finding “trash” is never a problem.

However, if you think the garbage-inspired women dresses come cheap, think again. The price for ready made creations sold on the company’s site varies from $500 to $1,500. Those seeking custom (定制的) dresses have to pay as much as $2,000. Though those may appear expensive, the designer says that she has no shortage of customers. In fact thanks to so many requests she now even has trash-inspired outfits for men that include jackets, ties, trousers and even board shorts! While most of the outfits are hard enough to bear various wearing methods, whether they can be cleaned is a little unclear.

   Dragging a sleigh loaded with enough presents for the world’s children can be no easy skill. But, since ancient times, the Christmas Eve duty has been performed by a team of beloved reindeer.

Soon, however, Santa Claus may have to start looking around for a stronger type of animal, as newresearch shows the species is becoming increasingly puny. A 16-year survey on the arctic Norwegian islands, Svalbard, found the reindeer there have declined in weight by an alarming 12 percent.

The reduction in average body weight is being blamed on global warming. In the research presented lately at a meeting of the British Ecological Society in Liverpool, scientists have explained how upward temperatures are robbing female reindeer of nutrients during important periods of pregnancy.

Snow in Svalbard typically covers the ground for eight months of a year, which, combined with low temperatures, limits grass growth to June and July. But as summer temperatures increase by around 1. 5℃, grass has become more productive, allowing female reindeer to gain more weight by autumn and therefore to have more babies. However, winters have brought with them greater rainfall which freezes when it settles on the snow. Reindeer can often access the poor food sources beneath the snow by clearing it away with their antlers (鹿角) , but they cannot break through the hard ice. As a result, female reindeer are becoming starved, causing them to lose their babies or give birth to the much lighter young.

Despite the findings, reindeer appear to be suffering less from the effect of climate change than some other arctic species. Last week the scientists warned that a third of the world’s polar bears could disappear in the next 40 years.

Who is willing to drink the polluting water? It can cause us to be ill but even to die. We can’t wait for the moment to protect our water sources. The water we use coming from the ocean, lakes, rivers or streams. But many of these water sources are getting serious polluted. Towns and cities pump sewage（污水）into the water. Many people are throwing all kinds dirty things into the water. Factories poured waste material into the water. Therefore, water sources have become so badly polluted that some of the water is fit to drink or use it. Now it is high time when we should do something to protect our water environment from being polluted.

   Ryan Hickman is only seven years old, but he’s already been saving for his college fund with profits he’s making from his recycling business.

When Ryan was three-and-a-half, he went with his dad to the local recycling center and made money from a few bags of cans and bottles. When he learned money can be made from that, Ryan decided recycling was his future.

“We had gone to the center with a couple of bags, and he really loved the actual act of putting all the cans and bottles into the machine and getting the money from it, and that kind of act got him hooked, ” described Damion Hickman, Ryan’s father.

Ryan told his parents that he wanted to give empty plastic bags to all the neighbors and hoped they would save their recyclables for him. Not only did the neighbors save their cans and bottles for Ryan but so did their co-workers, families, and friends. Soon after, Ryan started his own business, Ryan’s Recycling, and has since recycled over 200,000 cans and bottles. Every week, he and his family sort through bags of recyclables and they take them to the local recycling center where they are sorted and weighed.

So far, Ryan has saved more than $ 10,000 for college from his profits and he also sells T-shirts on his website and donates the profits to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach. “For the sea lions to get food and medicine,” he said.

Ryan has an important message for everyone, “If you already recycle, just keep on recycling. If you don’t recycle, start recycling.” Always a great businessman, Ryan added, “If you want to buy one of these T-shirts, it’s $ 13 on ryansreecycling.com.”

   Green Consumer Day is observed worldwide every year on September 28. The_______is to purchase only eco-friendly products as a way to________the impact consumerism has on the environment.

But we should NOT consume products even on Green Consumer Day.

Creating any product_______the use of energy; let's not_________climate change. For the most part, that energy is going to come from fossil fuels-coal, oil and natural gas._______coal or drilling for oil and natural gas creates environmental nightmares, while burning fossil fuels is the biggest_______of climate change. Unless a product is made using 100 percent_______energy, it will have a carbon footprint. We all know how_______the planet is heating up, so our goal should be to shrink our footprints, rather than expand them．

Manufacturing_______uses a lot of water. No matter how______a product is, water will be needed to clean the materials and clean it again_________the product is made. Many parts of the world are suffering from________ We can help conserve our precious water resources by buying fewer products, even if they're_____

Most products will still_________in trash. We don't need more solid waste! Even if the eco-product we buy is not disposable, the packaging it comes in will get thrown away.

Why go shopping when you could be out_________nature? Shopping can be a pretty stressful way to spend an hour or two. Wouldn't you rather take a walk, have a picnic or otherwise have fun with friends and family?

Buying more stuff adds to our_______and doesn't make us any happier. Most of us_______to have even more things than we can use. Adding to the load just increases the________of the mess we need to address. Plus most people________that spending time with family and friends makes them much happier than acquiring_________, even if it's green.