Word: aridness
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...starting in the 1950s strained already dry regions in western China. By 2004, 27% of the country's landmass suffered from some degree of desertification, according to the Chinese Meteorological Administration. China has invested heavily in planting trees and small shrubs over former croplands to prevent the spread of arid land eastward. The government has reported the rate of desertification has slowed after 2000, but says climate change and other environmental pressures means more than 186,000 square miles (300,000 sq km) of land are still at risk. (Watch a video about desertification in Inner Mongolia...
Mourad Mwafi has been in charge of North Sinai, Egypt's eastern frontier governorate, for only the past 2½ months. But the broad-shouldered official is comfortable in his new role. He knows the turf well - the northern half of Egypt's arid Sinai Peninsula - and is well aware of its challenges. As a military general and former chief of Egyptian military intelligence, he's already well acquainted with his friends and foes in the region. (Watch a video on the tunnel smugglers of the Gaza Strip...
...Here in Arizona," says Beamer, "where we leave our windows open most of the year and have an arid climate, we would probably have a higher ratio." Industrial centers or sooty cities have plenty of dust too, though for different reasons...
...from becoming overly repetitive. The title track is the most impressive production feat: instruments cut in and out with a staccato aggression and Adu’s overdubbed voice hits multiple registers, weaving a tapestry of interlocking vocal snippets that drive the song’s dynamics from the arid determination of the opening to the rising chorus of wandering lovers. Distorted guitars and synthesizers howl like frigid winds through the track, slicing Adu’s distant vocals and keeping the song from becoming repetitive...
...world. "In northern areas," says Lobell, "you'll see an expansion of the growing season" - which, if the Finnish study is correct, won't necessarily help forests, but could be good for crops, since you can deliberately plant seeds that are suited to long summers. But in arid parts of the tropics, he says, where plant growth is limited by the availability of water, more frequent droughts could make things worse. "Large parts of the world," says Field, "are already at the warm edge of where things like to grow...