Fort Scott High School English teacher Emily Rountree has been working this semester to raise money for Charity Water, a nonprofit organization that uses 100 percent public donations to help fund water projects in places without access to clean drinking water. Her goal was to motivate her students to use their writing in class to make a real-world difference. Twelve students got top grades for the project, and their articles will be published both in The Tribune and online. Here is one example:

    Did you know that there are many countries around the world that dont have access to safe drinking water? Just think: that could be you, or someone in your family. My name is Tanner Johnson, and I attend Fort Scott High School. In my English classes, we are trying to raise money for Charity Water. Charity Water is an organization that helps people get water in countries where there is no safe drinking water.

    In developing countries, 780 million people dont have access to clean drinking water. In Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year just walking to get water. Women and children are the ones that mainly do the walking. They could be attacked or get hurt while they travel to get water. When they do get home, the water that they have brought is unsafe water from swamps, ponds, or rivers. If they had safe drinking water, they wouldnt have to worry about these problems, and they wouldnt be wasting hours of their day. Unsafe drinking water causes many different kinds of diseases that could lead to death.

    You could help save someones life, by donating $20 so we can help get them some safe drinking water. You can easily donate online at mycharitywater.org/fshsenglish, or you can send a check to Emily Rountree, payable to Fort Scott High School. If we dont help these people, then who will?

    Have you ever noticed tiny raised areas on the branches of a tree? These may have been insects. These small insects feed on tree sap (汁液). Insects on urban trees are notably more abundant than those on rural trees. As a result, urban trees suffer from heavy infestations (害虫横行), and are often unhealthy or die. To protect and restore urban trees' health, we need to determine the factors that make these tree pests more successful in urban habitats.

    Living organisms interact closely with their environment. The warmer, more drought-stressed trees harbor more successful pests than cooler, less drought-stressed trees. As cities and natural habitats become hotter and drier, damaging insects will become more abundant on urban trees.

    Trees within urban forests are valuable economically and for the environmental sustainability (可持续性) of the region. More than half of the world's population lives in cities. Across the globe, people are moving into cities at a faster rate than ever. Rapid growth may turn cities into places with harder conditions. Although cities are primarily made of buildings, roads, parking lots, and vehicles, there are still plants in them. The trees within a city are referred to as the urban forest. Urban forests offer very big benefits to human and environmental health. They improve air and water quality, provide habitat for wildlife, cool down temperatures and beautify our environment. They make cities livable.

    However, being a city tree is not easy. Heat released by human activities is trapped in cities. As a result, temperatures in urban areas are often warmer than their surrounding rural areas. We call this urban warming or the urban heat island effect. Urban habitats are mostly made of surfaces of asphalt (沥青) and concrete. These surfaces reduce the amount of rainwater that reaches tree roots. As a result, urban forests may suffer, which can negatively affect people and the environment.

    What can we do to restore urban forests? Regular irrigation when possible may help keep pest populations under control. Planting tree species that are suitable to handle heat and drought stress would also reduce the occurrence of insect pest outbreaks.

    We know the famous ones — the Thomas Edisons and the Alexander Graham Bells — but what about the less famous inventors? What about the people who invented the traffic light and the windshield wiper（雨刮器）? Shouldn't we know who they are?

    Joan Mclean think so. In fact, Mclean, a professor of physics at Mountain University in Range, feels so strongly about this matter that she's developed a course on the topic. In addition to learning “who” invented “what”, however, Mclean also likes her students to learn the answers to the “why” and “how” questions. According to Mclean, “When students learn the answers to these questions, they are better prepared to recognize opportunities for inventing and more motivated to give inventing a try.”

    Her students agree. One young man with a patent for an unbreakable umbrella is walking proof of Mclean' statement. “If I had not heard the story of the windshield wiper's invention,” said Tommy Lee, a senior physics major, “I never would have dreamed of turning my bad experience during a rainstorm into something so constructive.” Lee is currently negociating to sell his patent to an umbrella producer.

    So, just what is the story behind the windshield wiper? Well, Mary Anderson came up with the idea in 1902 after a visit to New York City. The day was cold and stormy, but Anderson still wanted to see the sights, so she jumped aboard a streetcar. Noticing that the driver was struggling to see through the snow covering the windshield, she found herself wondering why there couldn't be a built-in device for cleaning the window. Still wondering about this when she returned home to Birmingham, Alabama, Anderson started drafting out solutions. One of her ideas, a lever（操作杆）on the inside of a vehicle that would control an arm on the outside, became the first windshield wiper.

    Today we benefit from countless inventions and innovations. It's hard to imagine driving without Garrett A. Morgan's traffic light. It's equally impossible to picture a world without Katherine J. Blodgett's innovation that makes glass invisible. Can you picture life without clear windows and eyeglasses?

    When Chris moved in across the hall from Norma Cook four years ago in a Los Angeles-area apartment complex, the 31-year-old actor waved to his 85-year-old neighbor for a few weeks before finally knocking on her door and introducing himself. “The day I entered her apartment and spoke with her face to face was the day my life was changed forever,” Chris said.

    He learned that Cook had no family living in California and that she suffered from a long list of illnesses, including leukemia (白血病). The pair quickly became close friends, as Chris took her to doctor's appointments, cooked with her and they ran errands (差事) together. He shared their adventures on social media. But recently, Cook's health declined and she was in and out of the hospital several times. She once spent weeks in the hospital fighting pneumonia and breathing issues.  Eventually Cook was told by one of her doctors that she could no longer live at home unless she had 24-hour care. Because Cook had no money saved to pay her health care costs, Chris started a Go Fund Me account to help cover her bills.

    But caretakers are expensive and Cook quickly ran out of the $34,445 they raised. Knowing her days at home were limited, Chris invited Cook to move in with him to save money.“ She loves it! I do most of my work at home so I am here most of the time to care for her. It only made sense to both of us.” Chris wrote. “She is my adopted grandmother after all and I am her grandson she never had.”

    “Cook still has weekly hospice health care visits and regular visits from caregivers, so any funds raised cover those expenses,” he wrote. Though doctors say Cook's days are very limited, the pair are enjoying spending time together drinking champagne and snuggling with her cat, Hermes, who also made a move.

    “She does not want to change,” Chris told Today. “My apartment was the only place she would have moved. She has strong opinions about where she wants to carry out the rest of her days, and she wants to stay here.” Chris says he feels like the relationship was fate. “Moving her in....it feels as though it was meant to be all along, ” he said. “It's really fulfilling to be there for her.”

    On August 5 just after 7.30 pm, Mike Estepa suffered a massive heart attack. The crazy cyclist was 40 kilometres into his Sunday ride when he stopped by the side of the road to text his family saying he'd be home in about 30 minutes. Moments later, he was lying in the ditch, unconscious.

    Larissa Arthur was driving back to Calgary from a hike in Field, B. C. with a friend. It was a warm and sunny day, and the two were chatting when a flush of yellow caught Arthur's eyes. She immediately pulled off the road.

    As Arthur approached the figure, she feared the worst: Estepa was covered in ants and exhibited no signs of life. There was no pulse and he wasn't breathing." says Arthur. A bystander called 911 and Arthur, a registered nurse, started chest compressions. She and two other drivers took turns carrying out CPR for the next 15 minutes before medical teams arrived and whisked Estepa away.

    Two days later, when Estepa woke up in the hospital, he was shocked to learn he had gone into cardiac arrest (心脏骤停). How did this happen, and, why was he lucky enough to have survived? He was full of gratitude and needed to speak with the woman who had saved him, whom he named his "angel".

    "It was emotional," says Arthur of her meeting with Estepa a few weeks later. Saving his life had extra importance for her: the bike she was returning from that day was one of 100 she's planned to honour her father, who died in 2017 after he fell during a hike that Arthur was meant to be on. "I couldn't save my father's life." Arthur says, "but this was a chance for me to save someone."

    Forget Cyclists, Pedestrians are Real Danger

    We are having a debate about this topic. Here are some letters from our readers.

    ■ Yes, many cyclists behave dangerously. Many drivers are disrespectful of cyclists. But pedestrians are probably the worse offenders.

    People of all ages happily walk along the pavement with eyes and hands glued to the mobile phone, quite unaware of what is going on around them. They may even do the same thing while crossing a road at a pedestrian crossing or elsewhere. The rest of us have to evade (避让) them or just stand still to wait for the unavoidable collision.

    The real problem is that some pedestrians seem to be, at least for the moment, in worlds of their own that are, to them, much more important than the welfare of others.

—Michael Horan

    ■ I loved the letter from Bob Brooks about cyclists (Viewpoints, May 29). I am afraid they seem to think they own the roads.

    I was walking across Altrincharn Road one morning when a cyclist went round me and on being asked what he was doing he shouted at me.

    The government built a cycle lane on the road but it is hardly used.

    The police do nothing. What a laugh they are!

    The cyclists should all have to be made to use the cycle lanes and wear helmets, fluorescent (发荧光的)jacket and tights at night and in the morning. They should pay some sort of tax and be fined for not wearing them.

—Carol Harvey

    ■ Cyclists jump on and off pavements (which are meant for pedestrians), ride at speed along the pavements, and think they have a special right to go through traffic lights when they are on red.

    I was almost knocked down recently by a cyclist riding on the pavement when there was a cycle lane right next to him.

    Other road users, including horse riders, manage to obey the rules so why not cyclists?

    It's about time they had to be registered and insured, so when they do hit a pedestrian or a vehicle, or cause an accident, at least they can be traced and there might be an opportunity to claim.

—JML

    Write to Viewpoints of the newspaper.