Word: humus
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...burned at a perilous rate. This is being done both to extend agriculture and, especially in the impoverished developing countries, to use the wood as a fuel. By desiccating and destroying the land, the ruthless felling of trees has still another harmful side effect: it exposes rich topsoil, or humus, and allows the escape of CO2 formerly trapped...
...group of 30 is terracing a site, selected by both students and instructors, in an attempt to prevent soil erosion. The hillside site they chose is extremely steep, and the students must rely heavily on each other to work safely and effectively. The black and white students, who tote humus and wood girders together, who anchor one another as they climb up the hillside, certainly provide a sharp contrast with the students who walk the halls of Southie High in racially divided packs...
...secret: addition of clean, dry starch to plastic polymers. "By putting in the starch," explains Inventor Gerald J.C. Griffin, a teacher of plastics technology at Brunei University, "we are adding carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The bags will act as a carbon source for soil bacteria, breaking down into humus and carbon dioxide." Griffin's process, which can be used for most plastic products, has a powerful appeal beyond reducing long-lived litter. Because starch costs much less than polymer plastics, the process saves money -up to $4.50 per 1,000 bags right...
...horse is the only animal that pays for its grazing by reseeding the area over which it grazes. Seed passing through the mustang's alimentary canal will sprout more quickly than otherwise is the case. Not only that, the humus forms a mulch that protects the sprouting seed until roots are sent deep enough into the soil for the new plant to live through the hot, dry period that follows the spring season...