Word: montreal
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...last hour of fall-term classes at the University of Montreal's engineering school, the Ecole Polytechnique. Students faced eleven days of exams, but at least they could look forward to the cheering prospect of Christmas vacation afterward. That tidy calendar was suddenly and tragically shattered last week in a hail of semiautomatic rifle fire ignited by a bizarre sexual hatred. When the climactic hour ended, Canada had suffered the worst mass murder in its history...
...were calls for tighter rules on the availability of combat- style weapons as well as soul-searching debates about the victimization of women. But the most touching commentary involved very few words. After a candlelight procession to the university, some 1,500 women and men sat silently in a Montreal chapel, the quiet broken only by the occasional hymn...
...Atmospheric Research responds that waiting for absolute certainty about global warming will produce many years of policy paralysis. Thomas Lovejoy of the Smithsonian Institution agrees, noting that societies may pay a price for doing nothing that outweighs ) the expense of prudent preparation. While the world hailed the 1987 Montreal Protocol, designed to reduce chlorofluorocarbon output, the destruction of the ozone layer continued to accelerate because of CFCs already in use. Atmospheric chemist Sherwood Rowland of the University of California at Irvine is worried that similar delays in dealing with global warming will produce a treaty that is "a perfect autopsy...
Because of its prestige, the U.S. has the potential to do enormous good in promoting international treaties to heal the planet. Agreements like the 1987 Montreal Protocol, governing the release of ozone-damaging gases, serve the important function of reassuring nations that protecting the environment will not put them at a competitive disadvantage. So far, though, the Bush Administration has squandered the momentum generated by the Montreal agreement. Administration negotiators outraged nations in Africa, a prime dumping ground for hazardous wastes, by opposing important safety provisions in an international agreement on the shipment of toxic refuse...
...serious the problem is and because taking strong steps against it could cause severe economic dislocations. The U.N. is sponsoring a major study that could provide the basis for a coordinated international approach to global warming. American leadership is critical to this effort, just as it was to the Montreal Protocol...