Word: threats
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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While the contents of the trash can are easy to see, the all-but-invisible fumes that pour out of automobile tail pipes are just as damaging to the environment. Every time Americans climb behind the wheel, they make their own personal contribution to the global-warming threat. Here again, a gradual modification of life-style can make a dramatic difference. When possible, use mass transit and support its development and expansion. For short distances, consider using a bicycle; it is excellent aerobic exercise. And, as in the energy-short 1970s, buy more fuel-efficient autos and carpool to work...
Such precedents are not encouraging if the U.S. is to grapple with global warming, the climate change that might follow from overloading the atmosphere with gases like carbon dioxide. To date the Administration has been slow to react to the greenhouse threat because scientists are still debating how 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...
...meantime, the U.S. should begin to take unilateral action. The centerpiece of such a policy should be a comprehensive drive to cut gaseous emissions by conserving energy. Whether or not global warming is an imminent threat, curbing energy use would produce a more breathable atmosphere and reduce American dependence on unreliable foreign sources of fossil fuels...
...When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight," Samuel Johnson once wrote, "it concentrates his mind wonderfully." The threat of impending ecological doom seems to be having the same effect on public opinion. If historians remember 1989 as the year the Iron Curtain collapsed, it has also been the year that concern for the environment reached a new peak...
...fossil fuels, as does the creation of acrylic fibers. Nonetheless, U.S. fur sales have remained stagnant -- at an annual level of about $1.8 billion -- over the past three years; during the Christmas season, many department stores are slashing prices to move their furs. To meet the animal-rights threat, the Fur Information Council of America last month launched an ad campaign stressing freedom of choice: "Today fur. Tomorrow leather. Then wool. Then meat." Bernard Groger, co-publisher of the trade magazine Fur World, says, "Nobody can tell the American woman what to wear." Warns Seattle furrier Nicholas Benson...