Word: downwind
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Human activity is modifying precipitation in other dramatic ways. Satellite images show that industrial aerosols--sulfuric acid and the like--emitted by steel mills, oil refineries and power plants are suppressing rainfall downwind of major industrial centers. In Australia, Canada and Turkey, according to one study, these pollution patterns perfectly coincide with corridors within which precipitation is virtually nil. Reason: the aerosols interfere with the mechanism by which the water vapor in clouds condenses and grows into raindrops big enough to reach the ground...
...still more leaked from the plant in Tokaimura, the hub of the Japanese nuclear power industry. Eventually, more than 300,000 people in Tokaimura and eight nearby towns were bunkered in their homes, waiting to find out how badly they were affected. Meanwhile, 28 million people in metropolitan Tokyo, downwind of the accident, wondered about their fate. As the hours ticked by, a plodding government dithered and displayed once again its inability to come to grips with a huge nuclear power industry riddled with safety flaws...
...Godforsaken Sea, Derek Lundy, a gifted Canadian writer and amateur sailor, tells the story of the 1996-97 Vendee Globe. It gives readers the adrenaline rush of what Lundy calls "apocalyptic sailing." The sailors' skill is astonishing. "These are guys," an observer tells Lundy, "who can go downwind in 30 knots of wind, surfing on 20-ft. seas, carrying a spinnaker and full mainsail. And in those conditions they'll jibe the boat, with the spinnaker--at night, in the dark, alone!" Getting home alive was victory enough in the 1996-'97 race. Sixteen boats started from Biscay; nine finished...
...crowd also shared a love for a certain five-leafed plant. We at FM politely refused several offers (having given it up for Lent), but benefitted from the effects of sitting downwind from a multi-generational trio who seemed bent on proving the old adage, "The family that smokes together, stays together...
...using American citizens as the lab animals. The ground-level explosions were followed by above-ground blasts that continued until the early 1960s. Natural Resources Defense Council historian Stan Norris told TIME Daily that the ground-level nuclear tests "kicked up a huge amount of dirt." Norris says although "downwind" Utah and Nevada residents blame the tests for high cancer rates in their towns, the government disagrees. Despite years of legal wrangling, he notes, the dispute remains unresolved...