Your AC probably needs upgraded, but Arizona also needs more shade trees
Clark Miller's April 11 guest column 'Your AC unit needs an upgrade. The Arizona Legislature should help pay for it' made some excellent points about air conditioners. However, in discussing Arizona's heat, I think he missed one very important component:
Trees!
Trees, when properly planted, provide natural cooling effects. Trees reflect solar radiation, clean the air by removing climate-warming dioxide, and can reduce the temperature by 4 to 5 degrees.
And they are lovely to look at.
The Legislature could require builders to provide a shade tree with every new house.
They could do the same with large blacktop parking lots, requiring that they, too, have shade trees. They might develop a tree formula for every square foot of blacktop.
SRP recently offered a free shade tree program in which residents could get two free shade trees to plant. I heard they gave away more than 1,500 trees along with planting instructions. That certainly is a step in the right direction, but more must be done.
It's way past time for the Arizona Legislature to do something positive for residents who are about to face another record-breaking summer.
Sandra Givens, Sun Lakes
Ruben Gallego is proving himself to being nothing more than a worthless tag-a-long to U.S. Adam Schiff's, R-Calif., anti-Trump diatribes.
He promised to work for Arizona's interests, not against. The only thing this man has done over the past several years is to alienate Arizona from our president.
Yet here we are reaping his failures. What has he accomplished for Arizona? Is he a waste of our time and money? I believe so.
In the future, vote for anyone but Gallego.
Alan Griggs, Buckeye
EJ Montini is right. In his April 10 column 'Trump channels his inner Putin against 2 critics. That should make you sick,' he argues that Donald Trump is trying to criminalize truth-telling.
Montini chose a good example in Trump's targeted investigations of two former employees from his first term.
But that's just one example. There are many more:
* Rounding up students here on visas for publicly telling the truth about what Israel is doing to people in Gaza.
* Threatening to shutter the National Museum of African American History and Culture, a part of the Smithsonian, for truthfully portraying the experiences of Black Americans.
* Threatening to primary any Republican who dares to tell the truth about the 2020 election.
* Threatening to investigate and prosecute the members of the House Select Committee on Jan. 6. Their crime was uncovering the truth about what really happened leading up to and on Jan. 6.
Donald Trump's disdain for the truth is becoming more and more evident. Although it kind of makes sense, because narcissists like to create their own reality. When the truth contradicts that false reality, it has to be destroyed.
This is who millions of Americans chose to be their president. It was a mistake, and that's the truth.
Dan Peel, Scottsdale
The day I found out I was pregnant with my second child was one of the happiest of my life. I had fought for Ginger, undergoing a year and a half of infertility treatments.
The depression that hit me a few days after she was born was suffocating, like a storm that would not subside. I knew I should be happy, but I could not pry myself out of spiraling depression and anxiety.
After a breaking point, I called my OB-GYN sobbing. He was understanding but reluctant to prescribe me anything due to a pre-existing condition.
It took me more than two months to get the treatment I needed to receive life-saving medication. In the US, 1 in 8 women suffer from postpartum depression, and it is the leading cause of maternal mortality.
House Bill 2332 provides educational materials for doctors to give to patients so mothers will have access to resources ahead of their births. Had I been given information about postpartum depression during pregnancy, I might have avoided months of unnecessary suffering.
No mother should feel alone in her darkest moments. I urge our Arizona representatives to take action and vote yes on HB 2332.
Jenna Dalbey, Chandler
While visiting Scottsdale, I was amazed to the see the sea of people wearing MAGA or Trump hats and shirts.
Arizona Democrats, where are you? Why are you hiding when all around you are people willing to be 'walking billboards' for Donald Trump and his MAGA movement?
Wake up, Democrats! An NBC News poll showed that only 27% of Americans now have a favorable view of the Democrat Party. It's the party's lowest rating in decades.
Our party needs to become more visible and viable again.
As a start, we should acknowledge and admit to the shortcomings of the Biden administration: Afghanistan withdrawal. Border security. Inflation. Trade Deficits. Defunding the police. Identity politics. Ukraine. Biden's growing senility.
It's a new day. Time to rebuild our party.
Bill Hamm, St. Cloud, Minn.
What's on your mind? Send us a letter to the editor online or via email at opinions@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona needs AC in the summer. We also need shade trees | Letters
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