Word: massing
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...dire effects on the familiar fan-shaped coral, as well as on many other kinds of marine invertebrates. In a study published April 14 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they argue that for the Gorgonia and its kin, longer summers equal nothing short of mass death...
...Mass death, needless to say, is bad enough for the corals themselves. But it also bodes ill for other species, such as bivalves and sponges. Corals help diminish turbulence in the water, making it easier for other species to snatch their own food and for the larvae of those species to stay closer to the mother colonies that feed them. "We call [corals] the engineers of the ecosystem," says Ribes. "Without them, other invertebrates won't be able eat either. It's a chain reaction...
Heat waves, droughts and mass extinctions are all potential threats from climate change. But the scariest risk has always been that of rapid sea-level rise caused by the collapse of the massive ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. There is enough water locked on Greenland alone to raise global sea levels by 23 ft. (7 m) if it melted, which would swamp coastal cities like London and Shanghai and all but wipe away small island states like the Maldives and Tuvalu. We can likely adapt, expensively, to higher temperatures and changing precipitation patterns, but it's difficult to imagine...
...economy caused thousands of dissatisfied Cubans to seek political asylum in foreign countries. Anyone who wanted to leave, Castro announced, could do so through its northwestern port, Mariel Harbor. Over the next six months 125,000 Cubans clambered onto boats and made their way to the U.S. in a mass flotilla. Castro also released criminals and mental-hospital patients, of whom as many as 22,000 landed on the shores of Florida; Cuba refused to take them back...
University President Drew G. Faust ventured out from Mass. Hall to bond with undergraduates in Eliot Dhall. Flyby picked up a plastic tray and followed Faust into the servery, where she marveled at the salad selection and bestowed kind smiles upon students...