Word: absorb
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Certainly the most eager and conspicuous new recruits are the yuppies. Since they absorb much of the blame for the moral defoliation of the '80s, / they deserve some recognition for their redemption. "We're trying to break the cycle of you get up, you go to work, step over a homeless person on the way to the subway, go to the gym, go to the sushi bar, go home and fall asleep," says Kenneth Adams, executive director of New York Cares, a sort of charitable clearinghouse for yuppies that has recruited 600 young volunteers to tutor dropouts, serve in soup...
Nowadays, after a year of ecological nightmares, Lipkis is promoting tree planting as the easiest solution to the greenhouse effect, the buildup of CO2 ( that has environmentalists warning of a disastrous global warming trend. Trees absorb as much as 48 lbs. of carbon dioxide per year each. Guided by the success of Lipkis' volunteer efforts, the American Forestry Association announced in October a citizens' campaign to plant 100 million trees around the country...
...more immediate concern is that the chlorine released when CFC molecules break up destroys ozone molecules. The ozone layer, located in the stratosphere, between 10 and 30 miles up, is vital to the well being of plants and animals. Ozone molecules, which consist of three oxygen atoms, absorb most of the ultraviolet radiation that comes from the sun. And ultraviolet is extremely dangerous to life on earth...
...early 1800s, man suddenly threw a new factor into the climatic equation. Carbon dioxide is released in large quantities when wood and such fossil fuels as coal, oil and natural gas are burned. As society industrialized, coal- burning factories began releasing CO2 faster than plants and oceans, which absorb the gas, could handle it. In the early 1900s, people began burning oil and gas at prodigious rates. And increasing population led to the widespread cutting of trees in less developed countries. These trees are no longer available to soak up excess CO2, and whether they are burned or left...
Another step that could be taken to counteract global warming is to slow -- and ideally stop -- deforestation. But that is an enormously complex task, and so a simple companion strategy should be adopted at the same time: the planting of trees, and plenty of them, to absorb CO2 from the air. "It surely has to be one of the most benign things we can do," said Gus Speth of the World Resources Institute. Tree planting can be encouraged at all levels of society, from individuals putting an extra tree or two in their backyards to local communities and private organizations...