Word: desertic
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This time, however, there was a major difference. While the first three incidents occurred when Washington decided to swat the desert dictator, the latest confrontation was wholly unexpected. When the Libyan MiGs were destroyed after they persistently pursued two Navy F-14 fighters protecting the carrier U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, the U.S. found itself on the defensive not only militarily but also in its international relations...
...grease not just for diplomatic outreach but for South Yemen's attempts at bootstrap development. In 1987 Soviet geologists discovered a little of the black gold beneath the desert sands near Shabwa. When the first wells begin gushing in 1990, the area may produce up to 70,000 barrels a day. That small but steady output will bring $240 million a year into South Yemen's treasury...
...Soviets' major practical contribution has been prospecting for and developing oil. Eight Russian rigs are drilling in Shabwa, and the Soviets are searching out more untapped desert pools. Now the Yemeni government is urging Moscow to speed up other large projects long promised. The Kremlin has been slow to finish a $450 million power plant begun eleven years ago. But after a row in Aden last June, trained Soviet labor began arriving, bringing the imported contingent of skilled workers to more than...
Little has changed as yet in this impoverished land. Around Aden, a busy port where several thousand ships call each year, swarm laborers clad in sarongs and tribal headgear. The nation comes close to feeding itself but its searing bone-dry desert climate offers little room for agricultural expansion. Except for a 1950s Chinese-built textile mill and an old refinery, there is little manufacturing. Much of the country is pitifully underemployed...
Necessity has spawned invention in marginal farmlands around the world. The Chinese, threatened by a desert that is spreading at the rate of 600 sq. mi. a year, are planting a "green Great Wall" of grasses, shrubs and trees 4,350 miles across their northern region. In Peru archaeologists have revived a pre- Columbian agricultural system that involves dividing fields into patterns of alternating canals and ridges. The canals ensure a steady supply of water, and the nitrogen-rich sediment that gathers on their floors provides fertilizer for the crops...