Word: problem
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...feel you get the same kind of resentment that many fans feel towards the "big guys" like the Yankees who are able to outspend the competition? Not necessarily. Our fan base really respects what we've done as an organization. They respect Rick Hendrick. If [resentment] is a problem, we love it. It means we're doing our jobs...
...problem is as much visual as it is olfactory. As the bacteria dies, a foul odor wafts from the water. "It's like trying to eat lunch in an outhouse," says English backpacker Brian Thompson, 22, pulling his t-shirt over his nose between bites of chicken at a little lakeside restaurant. "Tell you one thing, I wouldn't eat the fish." One restaurant owner says he's considering closing or renting the space to another operator, at a loss. "We used to have 15 or 20 tables a day. Now we get one," says Pedro Chavajag, 38, owner...
Scientists first detected the cyanobacteria that now infests Atitlan in the 1970s. But the genesis of the problem dates to the late 1950s when the Guatemalan government introduced non-native black bass into the lake's waters believing that hotels and restaurants could lure more tourists if they could offer freshly caught lake fish on their menus. Over the years, however, the bass ate through nearly the entire food chain, including the the young of the rare Pato Poc duck. Their consumption disrupted the ecosystem and destroyed the organisms that would have kept the bacteria...
...think everyone is beginning to realize that we all had a part in the problem," says Monica Berger, executive director of Association Atit Ala, a community development group pushing for a government cleanup of the lake. "It's easy to ignore the problem until it starts to hurt tourism and the lake's image...
...construction of 15 sewage-treatment plants, a government-led conversion to organic farming for 80% of farmers in the lake's watershed during the next three years, and for educating residents and tourists about the environment. The cost: about $350 million, a huge expenditure for an impoverished country. "The problem has been accumulating for years but Guatemala has other expensive problems and, apparently, this was not a priority," says Margaret Dix, a Universidad Del Valle scientist who has studied the lake since 1976. "It needs money, input and a commitment. ... I think it can be restored to a large extent...