Harold Atwood

Harold Atwood (Ph.D., D.Sc., FRSC) is a retired Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto, who served in the Department of Zoology, as Chair of the Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, and in retirement, for a term as Principal of Senior College at the University of Toronto. He conducted research in neuroscience with a focus on synaptic transmission and adaptive modification of nerve cells. In retirement, he has aided conservation through a land donation to NCC and through volunteer field work.

Lenore Atwood is a retired ceramic artist whose interests include artwork and photography. For the past four decades, she has made extensive photographic collections of life forms, starting with butterflies and dragonflies, and graduating more recently to birds and other animals. She has submitted many records to iNaturalist in support of recording biodiversity.

Our interest in the natural world and its conservation led to our support of the Nature Conservancy of Canada. In broad terms, given the threats to many species and the environment, it seems that good actions are those that protect the environment and the integrity of Planet Earth, while bad actions, in contrast, are those that degrade the environment and ignore the threats that face us. Protecting the planet saves humanity. The Nature Conservancy of Canada supports good actions —  protecting parts of the natural environment and Earth’s life forms. These reduce the greenhouse heating effect by sequestering carbon dioxide. Our sister planet Venus is less fortunate: there, atmospheric carbon dioxide creates an intense greenhouse effect, giving a surface temperature close to 900 degrees Fahrenheit — hot enough to melt  zinc!