Word: modeste
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Given how limited the impact of the Kyoto Protocol has been, the effects of that error have been modest so far. But if the U.S. adopts a cap-and-trade system with the same mistake, or if the world agrees to a truly global successor to Kyoto, the blowback could be enormous. As long as biofuels are incorrectly treated as 100% carbon neutral, they'll represent an economical way for companies to offset their greenhouse-gas emissions and comply with a tightening carbon cap. One study estimates that if the world were to meet a 50% "cut" in global greenhouse...
...biofuels scale up rapidly, they could end up displacing cropland and pasture, which would impact global food supplies and increase land-based carbon emissions. Melillo found that if biofuels were linked to a global policy to stabilize carbon concentrations in the atmosphere at 550 parts per million - a modest goal - we would need more land for biofuel production by the end of the 21st century than is currently used for all food crops. Worse, all the fertilizer needed to grow those bioenergy crops would increase emissions of nitrous oxide, an extremely potent greenhouse gas, and water supplies would also...
Still, after more than 25 years of virtually futile AIDS-vaccine research, the investigators involved in the Thai trial believe that their findings, while admittedly "modest," offer unprecedented leads to follow. "To quote from our recent history, this is a 'Yes we can' moment," Michael says. "It is not a public health breakthrough, [and] there is not a vaccine around the corner. But the door has finally been cracked open...
...Investors will be getting some tangible good news on earnings too. According to Zacks, companies currently in their fourth quarter are expected to show a modest 7.7% gain over the third quarter of 2009. That's not spectacular, but it's progress and it's real. Says Van Dijk, "It's positive news for the stock market...
...thought they were going up again, so futures contracts pegged to distant-month deliveries were expensive. The better deal was the real thing, and with the shipping business mired in the recession, Hall was able to get a tanker to park offshore somewhere with his oil for a very modest sum. "You were able to get a better price if you were willing to take possession of the actual commodity, but it's much riskier," says Rachel Ziemba, a senior research analyst at RGE Monitor...