Word: fossilize
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Americans tend to put off worrying about environmental problems until these problems reach dangerous proportions. For example, we have pushed the fossil fuel problem under the carpet. Forgetting this once-trendy environmental issue, we have begun buying larger, less gas-efficient cars again. Similarly, Americans seem to be all too quick to forget about conserving water until shortages appear. Furthermore, the general public seemed ambivalent about the depletion of the ozone layer until the media sounded a general alarm. As soon as it was popular and politically expedient, thousands chose to "get involved...
...brow several times as he spoke. Last year was the hottest ever recorded, spurring a debate among scientists as to whether the mercury was registering proof of the "greenhouse effect." Carbon dioxide and other chemicals are spewed into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels like coal and gasoline; the gases trap radiation that has come from the sun and that would otherwise escape into space. The result is global warming: over time, sea levels will rise, droughts and floods could become more extreme, and tropical storms may rage more destructively...
...about the White House effect. As President, I intend to do something about it." He should be held to that promise not just by his own countrymen but by the whole world. The U.S., with 5% of the earth's population, produces nearly 25% of all the CO2 from fossil fuels...
Scarce resources and increasing dependence on foreign oil are only part of the reason to push for fuel conservation. Scientists are increasingly ) convinced that the burning of fossil fuels is contributing to the greenhouse effect, a potentially dangerous warming of the globe caused by carbon dioxide and other exhaust gases. Unless the growth of fuel consumption is slowed dramatically or nonfossil energy sources, including solar and nuclear, are expanded rapidly, the world could face climatic changes leading to widespread flooding and famine...
...after more than 30 years of struggling to clean up what has become the nation's No. 1 air-pollution problem, California officials have taken decisive action against the primary source of the trouble: the unfettered use of fossil-fuel-burning private vehicles in a city that has long been in love with the automobile. By a vote of 10 to 2, the directors of the south coast air- quality-management district, a regional agency with authority over Los Angeles, last week adopted a sweeping 20-year antipollution plan. It will not only drastically curtail automobile...