Word: plantes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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That would be more than a South American disaster. It would be an incalculable catastrophe for the entire planet. Moist tropical forests are distinguished by their canopies of interlocking leaves and branches that shelter creatures below from sun and wind, and by their incredible variety of animal and plant life. If the forests vanish, so will more than 1 million species -- a significant part of earth's biological diversity and genetic heritage. Moreover, the burning of the Amazon could have dramatic effects on global weather patterns -- for example, heightening the warming trend that may result from the greenhouse effect...
Visitors to the Grand Canyon have long complained that smog is ruining the view. A National Park Service study tracked winter weather patterns and the sources of the haze. The main culprit: Arizona's Navajo Generating Station, an electrical plant 80 miles away. The plant, burning 24,000 tons of coal daily and releasing an estimated 12 to 13 tons of sulfur dioxide from its smokestacks every hour, was found responsible for about half the Grand Canyon's pollution...
...attempt to prove his point, Siegel presents exhaustive evidence of the quest for intoxication throughout history and throughout the animal kingdom. In many cases, humans and animals have shared the same drugs. Hawkmoths, for example, fly erratically after drinking the nectar of datura flowers. The Aztecs used the same plant as a pain-killer, and British soldiers in Jamestown who made a salad of its leaves became intoxicated for eleven days...
Victims of the collapse included Ronald Yoder, 37, who lost his job as a crane operator when Fruehauf shuttered its Fort Wayne, Ind., trailer plant in 1987. Yoder, who is married with a 17-month-old son, now earns about a third less than the $11.47 hourly wage he was paid at Fruehauf and receives no health insurance from his present employer. Says he: "Sure, I got another job, but I can't save a dime. We wanted to have another baby, but we can't afford it. I didn't know what an LBO was until a couple...
When the nuclear-power plant at Chernobyl blew, lethal contamination forced the evacuation of 100,000 citizens. But 600 residents told Izvestiya last week that they had not been moved until a week after the accident, after even the livestock had been led to safety. Now, three years later, the supreme soviet of the Byelorussian Republic has suggested that an additional 106,000 people be relocated. If approved by Moscow, this evacuation would confirm suspicions that Soviet officials downplayed the severity of the mishap and grossly underestimated the risk it posed to human life...