Our latest Optimist View discussed how urban green space impacts heat exposure and health outcomes in cities. One of the cities grappling with this issue is Phoenix. As the hottest city in the US, Phoenix is very focused on keeping things cool in a warming world. The city has … [Read more...] about Phoenix is using green space to tackle urban heat disparities
Arizona
Arizona abolishes peremptory challenges to improve juror diversity
Arizona’s state Supreme Court has announced a policy change to improve juror diversity and reduce racial bias in the legal system. The state will eliminate peremptory challenges, the practice that allows lawyers to remove jurors from a case without justification. In both … [Read more...] about Arizona abolishes peremptory challenges to improve juror diversity
How Phoenix is feeding the hungry and saving local businesses
Like most cities around the world, Phoenix, Arizona had its restaurant and hospitality industries ravaged by the pandemic. When the city received its federal CARES Act relief, it decided to allocate $951,000 towards an ambitious goal: saving the city’s farms and restaurants and … [Read more...] about How Phoenix is feeding the hungry and saving local businesses
Data centers drain water supplies. Microsoft is investing big to fix this
Data centers are infamously energy-intensive, but what people aren’t always aware of is that they also require huge amounts of water to keep servers cool. And to make matters worse, data centers are often situated in desert-like places where water is already scarce. Part of the … [Read more...] about Data centers drain water supplies. Microsoft is investing big to fix this
Giant robot in Arizona hunts for crops that thrive in hot climates
On the farmlands of Arizona, the world’s largest farming robot is being rolled out to help secure the future of food. The robot, which is called the Field Scanalyzer, looks a bit like a bridge at first glance, spanning from one side of the crop field to the other. With this … [Read more...] about Giant robot in Arizona hunts for crops that thrive in hot climates