Salwa Khan

One of the vining plants in my garden is passion-vine, which has a dramatic flower and attracts several different butterflies, including the Gulf Fritillary, a beautiful orange, black and white butterfly. The underside of the wings is brownish-black and speckled with silvery white dots Each year, we have watched the caterpillars, which are rather ferocious in appearance heartily consuming the passion vine.

Biophilia describes the human desire to connect with and to be in, and a part of, nature. The word has Greek roots: “bio” meaning life and “philia” meaning love or affection. Thus biophilia means “love of life.” The term biophilia is said to have been coined by psychologist Erich Fromm, but was made popular by Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson in his 1984 book Biophilia. Wilson suggested that our attraction to nature is genetically predetermined and the result of evolution.

There’s a new urban planning model that promises to help cities cope with climate change related weather. Increasingly severe weather events and rising sea levels pose a challenge to cities around the world. One concept first proposed and tried in China is called the sponge city model which uses natural and engineered systems to better absorb heavy rainfall, which would otherwise cause serious flooding. Sponge cities use several green infrastructure elements to allow rainwater to soak in.