Word: largest
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...successful, the suit could be a landmark for national parks trying to reach outside their boundaries to protect their ecosystems. The "river of grass," as the Everglades was named by naturalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas, is one of the largest wetlands systems in the world, and the most imperiled. Despite the protection of the national park, the population of wading birds has dropped from more than 2.5 million in the 1930s to 250,000. Thirteen Everglades animals are now endangered species. Only about 30 Florida panthers remain, and in recent years several have been killed on roads cutting through the area...
...dramatic stampede of more than 14,000 East Germans into West Germany last week followed Hungary's decision to grant the refugees passage across its border with Austria. The ensuing crush marked the largest mass exodus from behind the Iron Curtain since the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961. True, the flow was a trickle compared with the hemorrhage of 3 million East Germans to the West between 1949 and 1961. But this time there was the remarkable sight of Hungary bucking its Communist ally to assist the East German refugees in their quest to begin new lives...
...duffel bags were filing off ships in Valdez, Alaska, last week and heading toward the phones, Mike's Pizza Palace or the bar at the Pipeline Club. Final paychecks were burning holes in thousands of pockets. The work force that spearheaded Exxon's $1 billion effort to erase the largest oil spill in U.S. history was calling it quits before the winter-storm season descends on Prince William Sound. Six months after the Exxon Valdez ran hard aground on Bligh Reef and dumped 260,000 bbl. of crude oil into one of the most scenic bodies of water...
Antipathy toward Exxon threatens to obscure the fact that it mounted the largest response ever to an oil spill. The effort was like organizing an infantry division from scratch and deploying it in battle within 60 days. At the cleanup's peak, Exxon marshaled more than 1,400 boats, 85 aircraft and 11,300 people. With that mobilization came such daily logistic headaches as providing 200 tons of food and disposing of 1,400 gal. of human waste in a remote and unforgiving environment. "I think Exxon did a hell of a job," says David Usher, whose firm Marine Pollution...
...largest antiapartheid demonstration in 29 years, more than 20,000 people, mostly black and mixed race, marched without incident in the southern city of Cape Town. Said De Klerk: "The door to a new South Africa is open...