Word: volcano
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...manageable, albeit serious, affliction. People with diabetes talk about living with their illness, not dying from it. To prove the point, they resolutely lead active and productive lives. Later, however, many will discover that this insidious disease has mocked their efforts to control it. Like a dormant volcano, diabetes can feign slumber for many years, only to erupt with sudden savagery...
...state government and several energy companies hope to replace by 2007 much of Hawaii's imported foreign oil with a supply of clean, natural and endlessly renewable power. They plan to do this by tapping the geothermal power contained in the molten rock that lies underground in the volcano-studded land...
...geothermal project unsafe and unnecessary. Moreover, they argue, the drilling rigs, power plants, transmission lines and roads in the plan will harm or destroy tracts of the precious Wao Kele O Puna rain forest. Even native Hawaiian religious groups oppose the scheme, claiming that it will rob the volcano-dwelling goddess Pele of body heat...
...supplies about 5% of California's electricity and provides power in two other states and about 20 foreign countries as well. Advocates admit that tapping the earth's heat in this fashion will also bring up noxious hydrogen sulfide and sulfur-dioxide gases, but they argue that the Kilauea volcano, just a few miles away, spews out far more of the very same gases...
Those opposed to the development contend that the state is being, if not villainous, at least reckless. For one thing, they argue, putting power plants close to an active volcano is foolhardy. Another objection is that using the total area of cleared forest land to measure environmental damage is misleading. The roads that connect cleared areas are also destructive, since they provide avenues along which species from one area can invade another (plant seeds, for example, can stick to vehicle tires). Wao Kele O Puna may not be the most pristine forest in Hawaii, but just 10% of the state...