Word: aridity
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...that exists on the earth. Mars is the best bet, but it is not too promising. U.S. Astronomer Percival Lowell, who died in 1916, spent 30 years studying the "canals" on Mars. He was convinced (and convinced a large public) that they were attempts by Martians to irrigate their arid planet with water from its polar snowcaps. Modern astronomers believe that Lowell was describing more than meets science's eye, but the Lowell hypothesis is still popular among space enthusiasts...
...great problems facing the Egyptians today are overpopulation and "the terrific disparity between the upper classes and the peasants." Frye asserted, Egypt, leader of the Arab world, has a population of 20 million and a large area of arid, unproductive land. He said that their economic mainstay is cotton, grown on large feudal landholdings...
Some Pick-Sloan critics charge that the plan envisions the use of more water than the valley contains. The arid western states insist that enough water be kept in their areas to meet the needs of future development. Spokesmen like Montana's big, bluff Governor John W. Bonner contend that this will be impossible if water is "sucked out" of upper valley lands for a lower basin navigation channel and the huge power dams. Downriver opponents such as Missouri's Governor Forrest Smith reply that proposed irrigation projects in the West may cut off lower valley drinking water...
...grandfather) fought against the Turks with T. E. (Seven Pillars of Wisdom) Lawrence in World War I, dealt deftly with the British and emerged as founder and first King of modern Iraq. He died in 1933. His brother Abdullah with British subsidies made a state out of arid Jordan. An assassin killed him a year...
Country & People: 175,000 square miles, largely arid, and some 5,000,000 people, mostly living in diseased, ill-clothed, ill-fed poverty. The infant mortality rate is 500 per 1,000 births. Iraq is strategically important, with estimated oil reserves of 10.5 billion barrels. Needs honest government, land reform...