Between 20 and 40 per cent of planet Earth is covered in grasslands, across every continent except for Antarctica. Grass is a low-growing, flowering plant with groups of narrow leaves growing from its base. Strong roots typically hold this plant's leaves firmly to the ground.

One of the most common sights along stretches of grass is grass-eating animals. This is because many large animals rely on extensive grasslands to survive, and grass grows well with this regular trimming (修剪). The plants gain their energy from sunlight and require healthy cells to do so. If the leaves aren't cut, the tips die and start to rot. When they are damaged with a clean cut, however, the cells are caused to grow quicker and produce new, healthy tissue. This is also why cutting your garden's grassland regularly can make your grass look thicker and healthier.

Humans rely on grass for food, too. Many grasses, such as w heat or corn, are harvested as a main part of some diets. Meanwhile, grass is used indirectly to produce food in the form of livestock (牲畜). Cattle farmers require grass in their fields to feed cows and sheep before they are turned into meat for human consumption.

One of the most debated questions is how long ago grass evolved. Because grass doesn't preserve well as a fossil, a definitive answer is hard to come by. Until recently, many scientists estimated that grass began to grow on Earth between 50 and 65 million years ago.

However, within the last decade, a piece of 100-million-year-old amber (琥珀) was found that appeared to contain the oldest grass fossil to date. Studies of fossilized dinosaur faces (粪便) also suggest that some dinosaurs lived at the same time that grass grew on the planet, incorporating it into their diets.

Dreamers change the world. Donnel Baird, a person who inspires, protects and restores dreams and closes equity gaps, was named the "Dreamer of the Year" for the first time. And no one dreams bigger than Donnel Baird, the CEO and founder of BlocPower.

As a child, Baird grew up in Brooklyn without having a working heating system, so on cold days in winter, people would use their ovens to heat up their apartments. They often opened up the window to release poisonous chemicals, so they wouldn't breathe them in all night. So early on, he was exposed to neglected energy systems and the kind of health and environmental impact that they could have. Baird's early life undeniably fueled his drive for innovation.

"I started BlocPower several years ago with the vision of bringing clean energy to the low income communities where I'd grown up and where I'd been a community organizer," Baird said. America's home-energy industry is dire. Around one-third of the American households struggle to pay their energy bills, and nearly 30% of the US greenhouse gasses come from heating and cooling. BlocPower renovates buildings with solar panels, electric heat pumps, and other green tech to lower energy bills and reduce planet-warming emissions.

And the results are apparent. Since its founding in 2014, BlocPower has worked with over 5,000 American families to green their homes, saving them about 30% on their energy bills each year. BlocPower holds the belief that the solution to the global climate crisis will come from the people who have been most ignored and most devalued. They go into those communities and build up a human and green infrastructure(基础设施) that shows the rest of American society how to resolve the climate crisis.

"My name is Donnel Baird. I am the CEO of BlocPower and I dream fearlessly every day. And we're going to do that in time to resolve the climate crisis so that our children and grand-children can have a shot at enjoying their life," said Baird in the press.

Time is running short to address climate change, but there are possible and effective solutions on the table, according to a new UN climate report released in March.

Only swift, dramatic, and sustained emission (排放) cuts will be enough to meet the world's climate goals, according to the new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) , a body of climate experts that regularly summarize the state of this issue.

"We are walking when we should be running fast, "said Hoesung Lee, IPCC chair, in a press conference announcing the report in March. To limit warming to 1.5℃ above preindustrial levels, the target set by international climate agreements, annual greenhouse-gas emission will need to be cut by nearly half between now and 2030, according to the report. It calculates that the results from actions taken now will be clear in global temperature trends within two decades

"We already have the technology and the know-how to get the job done, "said Inger Andersen, executive director of UN Environment Programme, during the press conference. "Stopping climate change will still be complicated, and long-term emission cuts may largely rely on technologies, like carbon dioxide removal, that are still unproven at scale. In addition to technological advances, cutting emission in industries that are difficult to transform will involve many factors. " 

But in the near term, there's a clear path forward for the emission cuts needed to put the planet on the right track. There are some of the tasks with the lowest cost and highest potential to address climate change during this decade, such as developing wind and solar power, cutting methane (甲烷) emission from fossil-fuel production and waste, protecting natural ecosystems that trap carbon, and using energy efficiently in vehicles, homes, and industries.