Word: barrenness
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...agricultural land, to put it mildly: the very nature of the ecosystem is to recycle organic matter without enriching the underlying soil. Once cleared, the acidic dirt of the forest floor is exhausted after a few harvests. That in turn causes peasant farmers to keep moving and sell their barren holdings to cattle ranchers looking to buy cleared land on the cheap. So the devastation continues to creep forward. All over the Amazon, I saw vast areas of degraded land where before there was a virtually unbroken expanse of trees. In all, the Amazon contains some...
...from a highway, every snippet of small talk. His is a graphic version of the anomie found in a Raymond Carver short story, with a social-historic sweep and unexpected, if fleeting, grace notes. And that may be this melancholy book's uplifting message: even in the most emotionally barren settings, there is still something not to deaden us but to make us stronger...
Still, his victory looked even more certain on Thursday, when the riders climbed barren, snowy Ventoux Mountain, the toughest ascent of the race and the one in which rider Tom Simpson died in 1967, from exhaustion. So while mountain-climbing specialist Richard Virenque, who just last week was bragging to reporters about his unparalleled fan base, was sucking from an oxygen tank, Armstrong, his teammates far behind, rode with Pantani toward a victory in the moonlike, vegetationless mountain-top. And Armstrong lost the day, as at every other stage thus far, this time to Pantani...
Nobody wants to leave the planet a red, barren dust bowl like Mars, incapable of sustaining any life except the hardiest surviving lineages. But unless we anticipate the impact of technologies--before they are practical--it will be impossible for us to apply them thoughtfully, fruitfully and respectfully, or to ensure the survival of our species within the gift of life on earth...
...With an extra room on their hands, the guys have designated the barren space as their "smoking room...