Word: basin
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Harvard Spring Break may come a little close to winter, but it does coincide with the explosion of cherry blossoms in the Tidal Basin. The hundreds of Japanese trees lining the river by the Jefferson Memorial draw hundreds of photographers to a sea of pink...
Since less than 5% of the world's tropical forests receive any protection, the stage is set for mass extinctions. Many plants and animals are doomed, no matter what measures are taken. Some researchers estimate that at least 12% of the bird species in the Amazon basin, as well as 15% of the plants in Central and South America, can be counted among what Janzen calls the "living dead." Many tropical mammals and reptiles face only bleak survival under what amounts to house arrest in game parks and zoos...
Nowhere are the consequences of unchecked industrialization more obvious than in Siberia's Lake Baikal basin. Nearly 30 years ago, Minlesbumprom (the Ministry of Timber, Pulp and Paper, and Wood Processing Industry) erected the Baikalsh pulp factory on the shores of this majestic body of crystal-clear water. The crescent-shaped lake holds 80% of the country's fresh water and 20% of the world's supply. Three-fourths of the lake's 2,500 fish and plant species, including the Baikal nerpa, a fresh-water seal, are unknown anywhere else in the world...
...taken over by organizations concerned about the welfare of developing nations. Conservation International, for example, bought $650,000 worth of Bolivian debt from Citicorp at the discounted price of $100,000. Instead of demanding payments on the loan, the nonprofit organization has created a wildlife sanctuary in the Amazon Basin that the Bolivian government has agreed to protect...
Mark Twain never saw anything like this. When he piloted on the river more than a century ago, he wrote mostly about storms and floods and the excess water curving and shifting over banks and through new channels. He knew, though, the majesty of the great valley. "The basin of the Mississippi is the body of the nation," is the description that starts his classic river chronicle. That remains true today and is reason for the profound concern...