内容摘要：well off enough to commission or sit for portraits, and dressed “in the finest fashions of the day.” Like William Whipper, an abolitionist and wealthy lumber merchant who also founded a literary society.

well off enough to commission or sit for portraits, and dressed “in the finest fashions of the day.” Like William Whipper, an abolitionist and wealthy lumber merchant who also founded a literary society.

A dragon blood’s tree sits above a canyon on the Yemeni island of Socotra on Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)Visitors are required to hire local guides and stay in campsites run by Socotran families to ensure tourist dollars are distributed locally. If the trees were to disappear, the industry that sustains many islanders could vanish with them.

“With the income we receive from tourism, we live better than those on the mainland,” said Mubarak Kopi, Socotra’s head of tourism.But the tree is more than a botanical curiosity: It’s a pillar of Socotra’s ecosystem. The umbrella-like canopies capture fog and rain, which they channel into the soil below, allowing neighboring plants to thrive in the arid climate.“When you lose the trees, you lose everything — the soil, the water, the entire ecosystem,” said Kay Van Damme, a Belgian conservation biologist who has worked on Socotra since 1999.

A camel herder crosses the road on the Yemeni island of Socotra on Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)A camel herder crosses the road on the Yemeni island of Socotra on Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)

Without intervention, scientists like Van Damme warn these trees could disappear within a few centuries — and with them many other species.

“We’ve succeeded, as humans, to destroy huge amounts of nature on most of the world’s islands,” he said. “Socotra is a place where we can actually really do something. But if we don’t, this one is on us.”Golf and equipment can be pricey, sometimes too pricey for families struggling just to make ends meet.

Detroit, which is just under 80% Black, had a median income of about $39,500 in 2023 compared to $69,100 statewide, according to the census. The city’s poverty level was about 32%. Statewide, that figure was about 13.5%.A set of good golf clubs can cost a few hundred dollars or more. It’s $28 for juniors to play 18 holes and use a cart weekdays at the two public golf courses in Detroit.

The PGA brought its first event to Detroit in 2019, and city native Dan Gilbert’s Rocket Companies has been its sponsor. The company works with partners to bring the game to Detroit’s youth and cover some of the costs, said Trina Scott, vice president of Civic and Community Affairs at Detroit-based Rock, which is Gilbert’s family office.“How do we attract Black and brown youth into seeing (golf) as a possibility?” said Scott. “One way of doing that is by making it accessible (and) also eliminating the barriers — being able to have the right clothing to go on a golf course, being able to have the clubs that you need, being able to have the skillset to be confident on the course.”