Word: metric
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...that becomes a problem in municipal landfills. As buried food breaks down in these oxygen-free environments, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas that has a warming effect 23 times as potent as carbon dioxide. Global methane emissions from garbage are estimated to be as high as 70 million metric tons a year. By recycling organic waste--composting it--methane emissions are eliminated...
...nation's highest rates of childhood obesity--is in the vanguard. Led by Joseph Thompson, director of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, the state in 2004 began tracking the BMI of more than 400,000 children, sending home confidential health reports to parents. BMI is an imperfect metric since it often mistakes a stocky or muscular kid for an obese one, but as a quick way to spot weight problems it can reveal a lot. Officials also eliminated junk-food vending machines in all elementary schools--a policy that's becoming more common around the U.S.--and added half...
...rice, wheat, maize, sugar, milk - are soaring at rates of inflation not seen on such a global scale in a generation, resulting in hoarding, widespread food shortages and fears of outright famine in the world's poorest countries. Rice prices have nearly tripled since January, reaching $1,000 per metric ton last month in India. Wheat has doubled in price in a year and jumped 25% in just one day in February. Reeling from sticker shock, tens of thousands of people have stormed the streets in protest across the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia, demanding that their governments offer relief...
...shipping system was born. Today crude oil travels in tankers that can carry up to 4 million bbl. With daily world demand at about 85 million bbl., petroleum represents about a third of all international cargo. And even though the commodity is also measured in kiloliters (in Japan) and metric tons (in Russia), thanks to whiskey, the units are always converted to the 42-gal. barrel for trading and selling...
...drought has also savaged recent Australian wheat crops. Normally among the top three or four wheat exporters in the world, Australia has managed to produce little more than half of its usual 20 million metric tons in each of the past two years. But these setbacks are having a paradoxical effect. Not nearly as thirsty a crop as rice and expensive now on world markets at about $350 a ton, wheat in Australia is attracting new growers. "Some are looking at putting wheat in this year instead of restocking on cattle - because it's cheaper and because they...