Word: metrical
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...POLLUTION 46,000 Estimated number of floating plastic pieces per square mile (2.6 sq km) of ocean, according to a 2006 U.N. study 56.5 million Tons of plastic (51.3 million metric tons) produced...
...even more complicated. Take India, for example, where rice prices are rising fast, contributing to 7% inflation last month, the highest in more than three years. The country is not suffering from a classic case of tight supplies. National rice production this year should hit 94 million metric tons, up more than 2 million metric tons from last year and more than 20 million metric tons from 2003's crop, which was devastated by a bad monsoon. Nor have shortages hit a government-run rice-distribution program that helps feed India's poor. That program bought 20.6 million metric tons...
...Food Chain Of course, higher global prices hurt the poor most, and the impact is particularly heavy in countries such as Bangladesh and the Philippines, which are dependent on imported rice to feed their large populations. A November cyclone in Bangladesh ravaged the fall crop, destroying some 800,000 metric tons of rice and forcing the country to import an extra 2.4 million metric tons from India simply to stave off famine. In Vietnam, bad weather and pest outbreaks hurt harvests. In the Philippines, where some 68 million people live on less than $2 a day, the government recently urged...
...ease soon, and may get worse due to ominous long-term trends. The Rice Institute's Zeigler says rice production is not keeping pace with demand from surging Asian populations. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that worldwide rice consumption increased 0.9% last year, to nearly 424 million metric tons. Production increased less than 0.7%. "This has been coming on for several years now," Zeigler says, noting that global stocks are at their lowest point in decades. "We're consuming more than we've been producing. And as demand for rice continues to increase, we've seen productivity growth plateauing...
...control. Vietnam recently imposed export quotas to maintain domestic supplies, which reduces the international inventory and drives up the global price. China has also imposed strict limits on exports to restrain domestic prices. In the Philippines, meanwhile, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo personally negotiated a guarantee of 1.5 million metric tons of rice from Vietnam...