Word: fossils
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...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...
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...
Last month Venezuela experienced three days of strife and rioting, when the government raised the price of gasoline by lowering the subsidy on the fossil fuel and increased urban bus fares by 30 percent. The chaotic days left 300 people dead, 2000 injured, and another 2000 in jail...
...nations of the world take immediate action, the destruction of the global environment can be slowed substantially. But some irreversible damage is inevitable. Even if fossil-fuel emissions are cut drastically, the overall level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will still increase -- along with the likelihood of some global warming. Even if toxic dumping is banned outright and that ban is strictly enforced, some lakes and aquifers will be tainted by poisons that have already been released. Even if global population growth could somehow be cut in half, there would still be more than 45 million new mouths...