Word: oceanic
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Unless you're a shark gourmand, the disappearance of such lethal beasts might not seem like a bad thing. For marine life, however, it could be a disaster. Despite their ferocity, sharks ensure a kind of order in the oceans. Sitting at the top of the food chain, they keep other large predators in check, regulating who gets to eat whom and who gets to survive and thrive. Want to preview an ocean after the sharks have gone? Picture Yugoslavia after the Soviets: a bloodbath. "We know from studying lakes that top predators have disproportionate effects on their ecosystems," says...
...Dalhousie team believes that there is still time to save the sharks before the most imperiled species are entirely wiped out, but conservationists must act fast. The best protection method is to establish marine reserves--areas of ocean where fishing is off limits for a while so the vanishing species can catch its breath and rebuild its ranks. Such a strategy works for imperiled commercial fish and could work for sharks too, although it would take more time because sharks breed relatively slowly...
...Part of the "Ring of Fire," the string of volcanoes that encircles the Pacific Ocean, Kamchatka has more than 100 volcanoes, 29 of them active, along with spectacular concentrations of geysers and thermal springs. For nine months a year, snow blankets the peninsula, and only by July does it melt sufficiently to enable comfortable hiking. Well, let's say relatively comfortable. During our mid-August trek, it rained half the time. Much of the interior is accessible only by helicopter, and tourists who fly into a volcanic site for an afternoon can occasionally be stranded for days...
...been carefully sheathed since its defeat in World War II? The U.S. made Japan demilitarize and democratize, and wrote a new constitution forcing its leadership to "renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation." And yet last December the Japanese destroyer Kirishima set sail for the Indian Ocean to support Washington's war on terror. Tokyo also recently announced that it expects to launch its first spy satellites by the end of March?another sign that Japan is now unashamedly assertive when it comes to self-defense. In the past, the argument that Japan should remilitarize was trumpeted chiefly...
...Instead of amending the pacifist clause, it has proved easier to ignore it. Just weeks after 9/11, the Diet passed the Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law, which authorized the SDF to support international antiterrorist activities overseas. Under that legislation, the Kirishima was sent to the Indian Ocean?an interpretation of antiterrorism that some believe stretches Japan's constitution to its very limit. Says law professor Kitaoka: "Remilitarization is indeed going on, but no one is willing to take on the task of changing the legal framework." In fact, many legal experts claim that a number of the recent military laws...