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...Just two years ago, Michigan's government shut down for several hours when lawmakers could not pass a budget. At the end of last year, Granholm issued the first of two executive orders halting new hires and promotions, and limiting travel. Unsurprisingly, her legislative proposal to raise some $600 million with new fees and taxes - from a new license allowing Sunday liquor sales, and an increased tax on tobacco products like cigarillos - has failed to gain support...
...mostly through their efforts that some improvements have been made over the past 20 years. "Previously there were 100 latrines hanging directly over the lakes," says Razdan, an environmental enthusiast who heads Udaipur's Lake Conservation Society. Until six years ago, 25 tons of solid waste and 6 million liters of raw sewage were dumped into the lakes each day. Now, he says, those numbers have been reduced by 60%. But the local government has made an impact too: a drainage system, built by Udaipur's Urban Improvement Trust (a district regulatory body) and the Rajasthan government's Public Health...
...area's huge tourist potential could also be part of a solution. In July, Udaipur earned the "world's best city" rating in a Travel & Leisure poll. Last year 1.2 million tourists visited the city; Rajasthan officials estimate tourism here jumped 10% last year. But when water levels drop so low that you can drive a jeep to the two hotels that are built in the middle of the lake - as they did as recently as July - so does the appeal of the destination. Deforestation around the lakes disrupts the flow of water, and waste dumping has caused "hot spots...
...with punitive damages immune to bribes and payoffs that have become such standard operating procedure that developers build the expense into their budgets. He also promoted environmental-impact education programs, not only for politicians and influential private-sector citizens, but also the general population of the city (pop. 5.5 million). "As the problem has been caused by the confluence of many factors, so too must the solution be approached holistically," Nakamura said. "We need to also involve people's body and soul, heart and mind...
...sits atop mammoth energy reserves -about 136 billion bbl. of oil and some 14 trillion cu m of natural gas. But because its refineries are too few and too old, the country refines just two-thirds of the gas it needs to keep its economy working and its 65 million people lit, driving and heated. The remaining third - about 120,000 bbl. a day - has to be imported...