Word: drought
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Like a remarkably rugged, durable automobile, America's economy has motored through some of the harshest possible conditions without losing its momentum. The recovery has dodged hazards ranging from the October 1987 stock-market crash to last summer's drought. The longevity of the expansion, one of the Reagan Administration's proudest legacies, defies all odds. During the past 130 years, the U.S. economy has suffered a recession on the average of once every 4.3 years. But the current growth period, now entering its seventh year, is by far the longest peacetime boom in U.S. history. The economy, says Lawrence...
...agriculture, especially now that genetic mapping and engineering have given biotechnology firms the potential power to improve crops by transferring genes from wild strains. According to Wilson, biotechnology can transform a plant into a "loose-leaf notebook" from which scientists can select a particular page. Among the possible results: drought- and frost-resistant crops, and natural fertilizers and pesticides...
...This year the earth spoke, like God warning Noah of the deluge. Its message was loud and clear, and suddenly people began to listen, to ponder what portents the message held. In the U.S., a three-month drought baked the soil from California to Georgia, reducing the country's grain harvest by 31% and killing thousands of head of livestock. A stubborn seven-week heat wave drove temperatures above 100 degrees F across much of the country, raising fears that the dreaded "greenhouse effect" -- global warming as a result of the buildup of carbon dioxide and other gases...
...plant physiologist Anthony Hall is working on a way to make cowpeas more tolerant to heat. Other scientists are using genetic engineering to transfer genes from bacteria that act like natural insecticides. But though they have tried, scientists have not yet been able to develop farm crops that are drought resistant. Says Hall: "You can't grow plants without water...
PLANET OF THE YEAR: With drought, famine and fouled beaches, the earth warns of environmental disaster...