Word: absorber
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...devoted most of his time to cramming on subjects he will need to know a bit about if he is to give cogent advice to President Bush -- or take over If Something Happens. At least three times on most weekdays, including several sessions over lunch, Quayle tried to absorb the expertise communicated by the most knowledgeable tutors his staff could round...
...their disruptive antics. At home they clamber on kitchen counters, unscrew light bulbs and mess up the simplest tasks, from hanging up their clothes to making the bed. In school they throw erasers, kick desks, shove classmates and are so busy making nuisances of themselves that they fail to absorb their lessons. One bedeviled mother speaks for many when she says, "I would have given the kid away...
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...
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...