Word: looping
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That is what scientists call a feedback loop, and it's a nasty one, since once you uncap the Arctic Ocean, you unleash another beast: the comparatively warm layer of water about 600 ft. deep that circulates in and out of the Atlantic. "Remove the ice," says Woods Hole's Curry, "and the water starts talking to the atmosphere, releasing its heat. This is not a good thing...
...similar feedback loop is melting permafrost, usually defined as land that has been continuously frozen for two years or more. There's a lot of earthly real estate that qualifies, and much of it has been frozen much longer than two years--since the end of the last ice age, or at least 8,000 years ago. Sealed inside that cryonic time capsule are layers of partially decayed organic matter, rich in carbon. In high-altitude regions of Alaska, Canada and Siberia, the soil is warming and decomposing, releasing gases that will turn into methane and CO2. That, in turn...
...land can be murder on flora and fauna, and both are taking a bad hit. Wildfires in such regions as Indonesia, the western U.S. and even inland Alaska have been increasing as timberlands and forest floors grow more parched. The blazes create a feedback loop of their own, pouring more carbon into the atmosphere and reducing the number of trees, which inhale CO2 and release oxygen...
That a father (or mother) could be left out of the abortion loop is sufficiently disturbing to have produced a barrage of parental involvement laws in states across the country. Thirty-four states currently require minors under the age of 18 to either notify or obtain the permission of one or both of their parents before they may legally terminate a pregnancy. This legislation—much of which has been enacted in the last decade—ostensibly reduces the number of abortions by promoting responsibility in young adults and by involving caring families in what would otherwise...
There are plenty of comedies about failure (see Free Ride, below). The Loop is about the problems of success: Sam (Bret Harrison, near right) is an airline exec in his 20s whose roommates' idea of a big deadline is still last call at the bar. The jokes can be broad (e.g., the airline starts an offshoot called Jack; if you can't guess where the dirty puns go from there, you don't watch much Fox). But Harrison shows Topher Gracean charm as a guy stuck between adolescence and adulthood, and Philip Baker Hall (Magnolia) steals every scene...