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Are Palm Trees Native to Arizona? A Closer Look

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Palm Trees
Palm trees against a clear blue sky, at Palm Springs California

When you think of Arizona, the image of palm trees might come to mind, swaying gracefully against the backdrop of a brilliant sunset. With thousands of these iconic plants scattered throughout the Valley, it’s easy to assume that they are native to the region. However, the truth may surprise you: most palm trees found in Arizona are not indigenous to the state.

The Palm Tree Landscape of Arizona

Arizona is home to a variety of palm trees, including date palms, queen palms, and Mexican fan palms, which have become ubiquitous in urban landscapes and resorts. Landmarks such as the Royal Palms Resort in Phoenix, Palm Valley Golf Club in Goodyear, and the Mission Palms Hotel in Tempe all pay homage to the Aracaceae plant family. They serve as a symbol of the desert oasis, offering a visual representation of relief from the arid climate.

The One Native Palm

The sole native palm tree found in Arizona is the California fan palm (Washingtonia filifera). This hardy palm is only found in rugged Palm Canyon at the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, nestled between Quartzite and Yuma. Interestingly, even this species is believed to have arrived in Arizona through natural means, such as coyote or bird droppings, thousands of years ago.

A curator of botany at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum once noted that this palm is the state’s only naturally occurring variety, with pockets of growth found in southern California and northern Mexico as well. He suggests that palm trees hold an iconic status in landscaping because they symbolize survival in a hot, dry climate, making them a desirable choice for garden designers.

The Origins of Popular Varieties

While the California fan palm may be the only native species, many popular varieties of palm trees have their roots elsewhere:

  • Mexican Fan Palms: These are the most common variety in Arizona and originate from northern Mexico. They are known for their long, towering trunks and the pesky seed pods they produce each summer.
  • Queen Palms: Native to Brazil and Argentina, queen palms are graceful but can be temperamental when faced with Arizona’s scorching summers and winter frosts.
  • Date Palms: Hailing from the Middle East and North Africa, date palms are recognized for their thick trunks and sweet fruit, which is about 50% sugar by weight. However, they also come with dangerously sharp spikes that require careful maintenance.
  • Royal Palms: True to their name, royal palms exude luxury and are native to south Florida, the Caribbean, and tropical regions of Mexico.

So, the next time you relax by the pool, sipping a cold drink and admiring the palm trees around you, take a moment to appreciate the visionaries who brought these non-native varieties to Arizona. While they may not be indigenous to the region, they have certainly become an integral part of the southwestern landscape, offering beauty and a touch of the exotic in the heart of the desert.

Related Link:

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-contributor/2016/03/22/palm-trees-native-arizona/82106610

STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site focuses on delivering inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world.

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Space and Tech

Blue Origin New Shepard Completes 28th Mission to Space

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New Shepard
The NS-28 Crew (left to right): Sharon Hagle, Marc Hagle, Emily Calandrelli, J.D. Russell, Hank Wolfond, and Austin Litteral.

On November 22, 2024, Blue Origin marked a significant milestone in its spaceflight journey by successfully completing the 28th mission of its New Shepard program. This flight represented a technological triumph and an inspiring step forward for space tourism, showcasing the continued dedication to making space accessible to all.

A Historic Crew

This mission featured a remarkable crew of six astronauts, including well-known science communicator Emily Calandrelli, along with seasoned space travelers Sharon and Marc Hagle, Austin Litteral, James (J.D.) Russell, and Henry (Hank) Wolfond. Notably, both Sharon and Marc Hagle took to the skies for their second journey on New Shepard, demonstrating their commitment to the exploration of our universe.

With this latest flight, New Shepard has successfully transported a total of 47 individuals to the edge of space, with three astronauts having enjoyed the unique experience of flying twice. This achievement underscores Blue Origin’s growing role in the burgeoning field of commercial space travel.

A Mission with Purpose

Phil Joyce, Senior Vice President of New Shepard, expressed the profound impact of space travel on astronauts. “It’s always moving to witness an astronaut crew return from space changed by their experience on New Shepard,” he shared following the mission’s successful conclusion. Joyce emphasized the importance of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) in inspiring future generations, a core value driving Blue Origin’s mission.

The experiences of returning astronauts not only transform their perspectives but also resonate with audiences on Earth, igniting a passion for exploration and innovation. The flight serves as a reminder of the boundless opportunities that await those who dare to dream of the stars.

Looking Ahead

As Blue Origin continues to pave the way for a future where space travel is a reality for many, they invite those interested in joining the adventure. If you’ve ever dreamt of soaring to the edge of space as an astronaut or wish to send a payload on a future mission, visit BlueOrigin.com for more information. Additionally, fans of the mission can commemorate this remarkable flight by visiting the Blue Origin Shop, where exclusive merchandise from today’s mission is available.

In conclusion, the success of New Shepard’s 28th mission underscores Blue Origin’s commitment to advancing space tourism and exploration. Each flight not only carries passengers but also hope for a future where space is accessible for everyone. As we look to the stars, let us continue to inspire one another to reach for new heights!

Stay tuned as Blue Origin prepares for its next groundbreaking adventure!

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Blue Origin says that if you’re interested in flying on New Shepard as an astronaut or flying a payload on a future mission, visit BlueOrigin.com. You can also purchase commemorative merchandise from today’s mission at the Blue Origin Shop

https://www.blueorigin.com

The science section of our news blog STM Daily News provides readers with captivating and up-to-date information on the latest scientific discoveries, breakthroughs, and innovations across various fields. We offer engaging and accessible content, ensuring that readers with different levels of scientific knowledge can stay informed. Whether it’s exploring advancements in medicine, astronomy, technology, or environmental sciences, our science section strives to shed light on the intriguing world of scientific exploration and its profound impact on our daily lives. From thought-provoking articles to informative interviews with experts in the field, STM Daily News Science offers a harmonious blend of factual reporting, analysis, and exploration, making it a go-to source for science enthusiasts and curious minds alike. https://stmdailynews.com/category/science/


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The Bridge

3 innovative ways to help countries hit by climate disasters, beyond a loss and damage fund

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climate
People climb to the top of a bridge damaged when Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique in 2019. Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images

Erin Coughlan de Perez, Tufts University

These days, it’s hard to escape news stories discussing how climate change is contributing to extreme weather disasters, including the recent U.S. hurricanes. Aid agencies are increasingly worried about the widespread damage.

A growing question as these disasters worsen in a warming world is how to pay for recoveries, particularly in poorer countries that have contributed the least to climate change.

I am a climate scientist who researches disasters, and I work with disaster managers on solutions to deal with the increasing risk of extreme events. The usual sources of disaster aid funding haven’t come close to meeting the need in hard-hit countries in recent years. So, groups are developing new ways to meet the need more effectively. In some cases, they are getting aid to countries before the damage occurs.

Disaster aid funds aren’t meeting growing need

Countries have a few ways that they typically send money and aid to other countries that need help when disasters hit. They can send direct government-to-government aid, contribute to aid coordinated by the United Nations, or support disaster response efforts by groups like the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

However, the support from these systems is almost never enough.

In 2023, the amount of humanitarian funding through the U.N. was about US$22 billion. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that countries hit hard by disasters actually needed about $57 billion in U.N. humanitarian aid. This does not even include the costs borne directly by disaster-affected people and their governments.

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To help address damages specifically from climate change, the global community agreed at the U.N. climate conference in 2022 to create a new method – a Loss and Damage Fund. Loss and damage is generally defined as consequences of climate change that go beyond what people are able to adapt to.

The goal of the fund is for countries that historically have done the most to cause climate change to provide funding to other countries that did little to cause it yet are experiencing increasing climate-related disasters.

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So far, however, the Loss and Damage Fund is tiny compared to the cost of climate-related disasters. As of late September 2024, total pledges to the Loss and Damage Fund were about US$700 million. According to one estimate, the costs directly attributable to climate change, including loss of life, are over $100 billion per year.

One goal of the 2024 U.N. climate conference, underway Nov. 11-22 in Azerbaijan, is to increase those contributions.

Sending aid before the disasters hit

In response to these growing needs, the disaster management community is getting creative about how it helps countries finance disaster risk reduction and response.

Traditionally, humanitarian funding arrives after a disaster happens, when photos and videos of the horrible event encourage governments to contribute financial support and a needs assessment has been completed.

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However, with today’s technology, it’s possible to forecast many climate-related disasters before they happen, and there is no reason for the humanitarian system to wait to respond until after the disaster happens.

A woman in a Red Cross vest speaks with villagers.
In 2015, the Uganda Red Cross used early storm forecasts to send workers to distribute thousands of water purification tablets, water storage containers and other items to people in rural areas likely to be flooded by the storm. Denis Onyodi/URCS-Climate Centre, CC BY-NC

A global network of aid groups and researchers I work with has been developing anticipatory action systems designed to make funding available to countries when an extreme event is forecast but before the disaster hits.

This can allow countries to provide cash for people to use for evacuation when a flood is forecast, open extra medical services when a heat wave is expected, or distribute drought-tolerant seeds when a drought is forecast, for example.

Insurance that pays out early to avoid harm

Groups are also developing novel forms of insurance that can provide predictable finance for these changing catastrophes.

Traditional insurance can be expensive and slow to assess individual claims. One solution is “index insurance” that pays out based on drought information without needing to wait to assess the actual losses.

African nations created an anticipatory drought insurance product that can pay out when the drought starts happening, without waiting for the end of the season to come and the crops to fail. This could, in theory, allow farmers to replant with a drought-resilient crop in time to avoid a failed harvest.

A smiling woman holds up a bowl of ground cassava. Bowls and storage bags of the food item surround her.
A woman in Ivory Coast prepares a dish made from manioc, or cassava, a drought-tolerant crop. Sia Kambou/AFP via Getty Images

Without insurance, disaster-affected people usually bear the costs of disaster. Therefore, experts recommend insurance as a critical part of an overall strategy for climate change adaptation.

Boosting social protection systems

Another promising area of innovation is the design of social services that can scale up when needed for extreme weather events.

These are called climate-smart social protection systems. For example, existing programs that provide food for low-income families can be scaled up during and after a drought to ensure that people have sufficient and nutritious food during the climate shock.

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This requires government coordination among the variety of social services offered, and it offers promise to support vulnerable communities in the face of the rising number of extreme weather events.

Future of the Loss and Damage Fund

To complement these innovative disaster risk finance mechanisms, aid from other countries is crucial, and the Loss and Damage Fund is a key part of that.

There are still many areas of debate around the U.N.’s Loss and Damage Fund and what counts as true financial support. There have been discussions over whether investing in a country’s resilience to future disasters counts, whether existing financial systems should be used to channel finance to countries in need, and what damages are truly beyond the limits to adaptation and qualify.

The new Loss and Damage Fund is only of a part of a mosaic of initiatives that is seeking to address climate disasters.

These novel mechanisms to finance disaster risk are exciting, but they ultimately need to be created in conjunction with investments in adaptation and resilience so that extreme weather events cause less damage when they happen. Communities will need to plant different crops, build flood drainage systems and live in adaptive buildings. Managing climate risk requires a variety of innovative solutions before, during and after disaster events.

Erin Coughlan de Perez, Professor of Climate Risk Management, Tufts University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The Bridge is a section of the STM Daily News Blog meant for diversity, offering real news stories about bona fide community efforts to perpetuate a greater good. The purpose of The Bridge is to connect the divides that separate us, fostering understanding and empathy among different groups. By highlighting positive initiatives and inspirational actions, The Bridge aims to create a sense of unity and shared purpose. This section brings to light stories of individuals and organizations working tirelessly to promote inclusivity, equality, and mutual respect. Through these narratives, readers are encouraged to appreciate the richness of diverse perspectives and to participate actively in building stronger, more cohesive communities.

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The Bridge

Federal judge rules that Louisiana shalt not require public schools to post the Ten Commandments

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Federal judge rules that Louisiana shalt not require public schools to post the Ten Commandments
Controversy over displays of the Ten Commandments on government property is nothing new, but only one case about schools has reached the Supreme Court. AP Photo/Dave Martin

Charles J. Russo, University of Dayton

Do the Ten Commandments have a valid place in U.S. classrooms? Louisiana’s Legislature and governor insist the answer is “yes.” But on Nov. 12, 2024, a federal judge said “no.”

U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles blocked the state’s controversial House Bill 71, which Gov. Jeff Landry had signed into law on June 19, 2024. The measure would have required all schools that receive public funding to post a specific version of the commandments, similar to the King James translation of the Bible used in many, but not all, Protestant churches. It is not the same version used by Catholics or Jews.

Officials were also supposed to post a context statement highlighting the role of the Ten Commandments in American history and could display the Pilgrims’ Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, a federal enactment to settle the frontier – and the earliest congressional document encouraging the creation of schools.

The law’s defenders argued that its purpose was not only religious, but historical. Judge deGravelles, though, firmly rejected that argument, striking down HB 71 as “unconstitutional on its face and in all applications.” The law had an “overtly religious” purpose, he wrote, in violation of the First Amendment, according to which “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Regardless of the Ten Commandments’ impact on civil law, there was a clear religious intent behind Louisiana’s law. During debate over its passage, for example, the bill’s author, state Rep. Dodie Horton said, “I’m not concerned with an atheist. I’m not concerned with a Muslim. I’m concerned with our children looking and seeing what God’s law is.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has said she intends to appeal the judge’s ruling.

As someone who teaches and researches law around religion and education, with an eye toward defending religious freedom, I believe this is an important test case at a time when the Supreme Court’s thinking on religion and public education is becoming more religion-friendly – perhaps the most it has ever been.

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How SCOTUS has ruled before

Litigation over the Ten Commandments is not new. More than 40 years ago, in Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court rejected a Kentucky statute that mandated displays of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

The court reasoned that the underlying law violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause – “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” – because the mandate lacked a secular purpose.

The justices were not persuaded by a small notation on posters that described the Ten Commandments as the “fundamental legal code of Western Civilization and the Common Law of the United States.”

Twenty-five years later, the Supreme Court again took up cases challenging public displays of the Ten Commandments, although not in schools. This time, the justices reached mixed results.

The first arose in Kentucky where officials had erected a county courthouse display of texts including the Ten Commandments, the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence and a biblical citation. In a 2005 ruling in McCreary County, Kentucky v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky the five-member majority agreed that the display of the Ten Commandments violated the establishment clause, largely because it lacked a secular legislative purpose.

On the same day, though, the Supreme Court reached the opposite result in Van Orden v. Perry, a case from Texas. The court upheld the constitutionality of a display of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the state capitol as one of 17 monuments and 21 historical markers commemorating Texas’ history.

Unlike the fairly new display in Kentucky, the one in Texas, which had existed since the early 1960s, was erected using private funds. The court permitted the Ten Commandments to remain because, despite their religious significance, the Texas monument was a more passive display, not posted on the courthouse door.

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The dome of a white, ornate building rises in the background, and a gray monument with writing sits in the foreground.
The 5-foot-tall stone slab bearing the Ten Commandments near the Texas State Capitol. A challenge to the display reached the Supreme Court. AP Photo/Harry Cabluck

Louisiana’s law

Louisiana’s law would have required public school officials to display framed copies of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms. Posters were supposed to be at least 11-by-14 inches and printed with a large, easily readable font. The legislation would have allowed, but did not require, officials to use state funds to purchase these posters. Displays could also be received as donations or purchased with gifted funds.

The bill’s author, Horton, previously sponsored Louisiana’s law mandating that “In God We Trust” be posted in public school classrooms.

In defending the Ten Commandments proposal, Horton said it honors the country’s origins.

“The Ten Commandments are the basis of all laws in Louisiana,” she told fellow lawmakers, “and given all the junk our children are exposed to in classrooms today, it’s imperative that we put the Ten Commandments back in a prominent position.”

Justifying the bill, Horton pointed to Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, a 2022 Supreme Court decision. Here, the justices held that educational officials could not prevent a football coach from praying on the field at the end of games because he engaged in personal religious observance protected by the First Amendment.

“The landscape has changed,” she said.

New frontier

Indeed it has.

For decades, the Supreme Court used a three-part measure called the Lemon v. Kurtzman test to assess whether a government action violated the establishment clause. Under this test, when a government action or policy intersects with religion, it had to meet three criteria. A policy had to have a secular legislative purpose; its principal or primary effect could neither advance nor inhibit religion; and it could not result in excessive entanglement between state and religious officials.

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Another test the Supreme Court sometimes applied, stemming from Lynch v. Donnelly in 1984, invalidated governmental actions appearing to endorse religion.

The majority of the current court, though, abandoned both the Lemon and endorsement tests in Kennedy v. Bremerton. Writing for the court, Justice Neil Gorsuch ruled that “the Establishment Clause must be interpreted by ‘reference to historical practices and understandings.’” He added that the court “long ago abandoned Lemon and its endorsement test offshoot.”

What that new historical practices and understandings standard means remains to be seen.

More than 80 years ago, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette the Supreme Court decided in a 6-3 opinion that students cannot be compelled to salute the American flag, which includes reciting the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, if doing so goes against their religious beliefs. While H.B. 71 does not require students to recite the Ten Commandments, they would be constantly exposed to its presence in their classrooms, reducing them to what the judge described as a “captive audience” – violating their parents’ rights to the free exercise of religion.

In 1962’s Engel v. Vitale, the Supreme Court’s first case on prayer in public schools, the majority observed that “the Founders of our Constitution [recognized] that religion is too personal, too sacred, too holy,” to permit civil authorities to impose particular beliefs. I see no reason to abandon that view.

This is an updated version of an article originally published on June 4, 2024.

Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education and Research Professor of Law, University of Dayton

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site delivers inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world.

https://stmdailynews.com/


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