The benefits of trees Pauline Lee Why is Phoenix warmer than Sun Lakes? Its skyscrapers, dense buildings and many asphalt streets absorb sun rays to warm up the metropolis. More cars are there to emit CO2 which blanket the city and absorb heat from the sun. In 2017, Phoenix had its warmest year since…
Tag: Conservation Corner
Features, June 2018
Conservation Corner
Pauline Lee In 2000, Terry Wahls, a young, athletic doctor, began to develop multiple sclerosis (MS). Even with proper medical attention, she became wheelchair bound within four years and appeared destined to a limited life. However, she researched modern nutritional studies dealing with the brain, nerves and muscles, experimented on herself by taking added…
Features, March 2018
Conservation Corner: Lights and our living world
Pauline Lee Our bodies operate optimally when we maintain regularity in our sleeping and waking hours. This regularity correlates to the 24-hour dark and light cycles in nature, also known as the circadian rhythm. With modern improvements in providing inexpensive artificial light, man has increasingly disturbed the dark cycle not only for himself but…
Features, February 2018
Conservation Corner
Recycling treasures Pauline Lee Isn’t it easy to spend $5, $10, $20 or more to buy a book, a CD or DVD, or a jigsaw puzzle as a treat for yourself or someone special? All these objects are well made and can tolerate being used multiple times. Thus, it’s no wonder some conservation-minded residents in…
Features, January 2018
Conservation Corner
South Phoenix Community Farm Pauline Lee Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a movement across the country to connect local farmers with their community. In our metro area, Spaces of Opportunity (Spaces) was created in 2015 by two non-profits, Desert Botanical Garden and Cultivate South Phoenix, to use urban farming in the southwest part of Phoenix…
Features, December 2017
Conservation Corner
Pauline Lee The first two parts of Our Changing Environment have shown us that life is fragile and can survive only in conditions with limited variability. Five mass extinctions of life when over 90% of living species became extinct occurred between 66 to 500 million years ago due to natural catastrophic events. Afterwards, new species…
Features, November 2017
Conservation Corner
Our Changing Environment Part 2: Pauline Lee In recent decades, natural disasters such as drought, floods, extreme storms on land and along seacoasts and wild fires have disrupted human lives, destroyed natural environment and harmed all living species. According to climate scientists, such catastrophes, occurring with evermore ferocity and greater frequency, are caused by increasing…
Features, October 2017
Conservation Corner
Mass extinction events on Earth – Part 1 Pauline Lee In the beginning of the 19th century, people didn’t even believe living species could become extinct. Thus, when Lewis and Clark explored the unknown American Northwest, Thomas Jefferson was surprised no live mastodon was found, even though their bones had been found in New York.…
Features, September 2017
Conservation Corner
Pesticide – Part 2 Pauline Lee Man has made chemicals to eliminate insects, animals or weeds that are considered to be pests by us. There are many pest control companies out there such as https://www.adamspestcontrol.com/ who will get rid of pests in our homes for us. Unfortunately, these pesticides also harm man, other beneficial beings…
Features, August 2017
Conservation Corner
Pesticides – Part 1 Pauline Lee In 1962, Rachel Carlson made the world aware that pesticides can be detrimental to our health and our environment, documented in her book, Silent Spring. These man-made chemicals were created to kill unwanted pests that spread diseases or reduced crop yields in farms. The chemicals, however, killed pests and…