Word: gradual
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...with his "Burmese Way to Socialism," a system that has led to economic stagnation, food shortages and dizzying levels of foreign debt. If the resignation offer proves to be more than a ploy, it could mark an ideological sea change in Burma's government and might presage the gradual ! reopening of a country of 38 million people that has determinedly isolated itself for decades from the rest of the world...
Even proponents believe the U.S. should approach a joint effort with the Soviets in gradual steps, perhaps starting with an unmanned mission to bring back soil samples from Mars in 1998. Many, like Sagan, are convinced that the advantages of a cooperative mission would override the possible risks. Besides sharply reducing the enormous costs of going to Mars alone, such a venture, says Sagan, "would revitalize a dispirited and unraveling NASA" and provide a "coherent focus for the U.S. space program...
...familiar to many meteorologists. To some, it makes the drought that is crippling the nation's midsection seem an ominous harbinger of things to come. Because of the greenhouse effect, a process by which natural and man-made gases trap solar heat in the earth's atmosphere, the gradual warming of the globe is inevitable, in the view of many scientists. But until now, most had cautiously avoided definitive statements about precisely when such an effect might take place...
Whether the greenhouse effect has arrived or not, some scientists calculate that global temperatures could increase between 3 degrees and 9 degrees F by the year 2050. If that happens, even hotter, dryer summers are on the way, probably accompanied by a gradual melting of polar ice caps and glaciers that will cause sea levels to rise several feet by mid-century. By then it is probable that more CO2 production, from sources as diverse as industry and rampant deforestation, will play an increasingly important role in heating up the earth. Even Hansen's scientific critics hope his testimony, however...
...emphasis on character rather than policy has been a gradual change. In an age when Presidents are elected more for their personalities than their platforms, books detailing the intricacies and foibles of character are the natural result...