Word: mean
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...reduce the world's GDP by 4.8% - but we depend on international trade now for countless necessities, from generic medicines to surgical gloves. The just-in-time production systems embraced by companies like Wal-Mart - where inventories are kept as low as possible to cut waste and boost profit - mean that we don't have stockpiles of most things. Supply chains for food, medicines and even the coal that generates half our electricity are easily disruptable, with potentially catastrophic results. Though we'll likely hear calls to close the border with Mexico, Osterholm points out that a key component used...
...That doesn't mean we should expect Asian nations to immediately start shooting wars over access to the Mekong or the Yalu - though all bets are off if climate change leads to the loss of the Himalayan glaciers whose seasonal melt provides water for billions in Asia. In fact, the history of cross-border water disputes has been surprisingly conciliatory so far. India and Pakistan have fought three wars and currently point nuclear weapons at each other, yet the Indus Waters Treaty - which divvies up the two countries' trans-boundary waterways, overseen by a joint commission - has survived for decades...
...water planning anymore," says Saleem Ali, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar and a co-author of the report. Demographic growth - the continent's population is expected to grow by nearly 500 million people over the next 10 years - combined with climate change will likely mean that far more Asians will be tapping shrinking sources of water. Water wouldn't be a sole trigger for war but rather a "threat multiplier" - a factor that worsens the social instability that can lead to conflict. That can happen even inside a country - one of the most violent protests...
...encourage as many as possible of the world's smartest people to become Americans, the better their chance of forestalling economic decline." Are you really trying to promote an even greater brain drain from the developing world? I refuse to believe it. I'm sure you don't mean "Long live America - and to hell with the Third World." Alaisdair Raynham, TRURO, ENGLAND...
...absolutely not. It's been a detour that I wouldn't have planned, but it's really led me to amazing places. I mean, I enjoy my work as an actor. But to make a difference in people's lives through advocacy and through supporting research--that's the kind of privilege that few people will get, and it's certainly bigger than being on TV every Thursday for half an hour...