Word: risen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Unfortunately, scientists cannot agree on how much global warming has occurred, how much more is on the way and what the climatic consequences will be, giving policymakers an excuse for delay. But no one disputes the fact that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen and continues to increase rapidly and that the human race is thus conducting a dangerous experiment on an unprecedented scale. The possible consequences are so scary that it is only prudent for governments to slow the buildup of CO2 through preventive measures, from encouraging energy conservation to developing alternatives to fossil fuels...
...scientists have been able to measure the amount of CO2 in air bubbles trapped in ancient layers of snow. They have also looked at fossilized plant tissues for clues as to how warm the air was during the same period. The conclusion: CO2 levels and global temperatures have risen and fallen together, over tens of thousands of years. And there is evidence from space: Mars, which has little CO2 in its atmosphere, has a surface temperature that reaches -24 degrees F at best, while Venus, with lots of CO2, is a hellish 850 degrees...
...prodigious rates. And increasing population led to the widespread cutting of trees in less developed countries. These trees are no longer available to soak up excess CO2, and whether they are burned or left to rot, they instead release the gas. By the late 1800s atmospheric CO2 had risen to between 280 and 290 parts per million. Today it stands at 350 p.p.m., and by 2050 it could reach 500 to 700 p.p.m., higher than it has been in millions of years...
When energy was expensive, Americans treated it that way. Between 1973 and 1985, when the price of oil surged, U.S. per capita energy consumption fell 12% and the average amount of goods and services generated per person rose 17%. In the past few years, however, energy use has risen as the price has declined. Americans, who own more than 135 million cars, or about one-third of the world's total, have been driving more and have resumed their love affair with large gas-guzzling cars...
Violence is not new to Sri Lanka, torn by civil conflict since 1983. In the past 16 months some 4,000 civilians and combatants have died in the violence. Over the past few weeks, however, the tide of blood has risen. The toll in the south has mounted to at least a dozen lives daily. With the presidential vote set for next week, the country and its 16 million people are on the verge of anarchy, the ethnic and factional strife having unleashed a savagery evocative of El Salvador in the early 1980s. Many Sri Lankans stake the last hope...