Word: california
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Though that question is never entirely out of mind in California, it usually just withers in the sun, overwhelmed by the seductive arguments of the natural beauty and friendly climate. But now the palpable and sometimes painful memories of the Pretty Big One, as the locals are calling the recent quake, have lent a certain sharpness to the prospects of further shake-ups. Last week scientists were telling Californians that the state faces a 50% chance that another quake as strong as the recent one could happen "at any time" during the next 30 years. "And that means tomorrow," says...
...this the same California that has been sensitive to the risks from every kind of environmental threat? Three years ago, the state's voters approved Proposition 65, a law that mandates warning labels on any substance found to carry a 1-in-100,000 lifetime risk of causing cancer. As a result, cautionary notices now appear on gasoline pumps, in hardware and grocery stores and on the walls of Napa Valley wineries...
...alarms raised by consumer groups may prove to be a mixed blessing. Some experts complain that a generation that faces fewer real health threats than did their grandparents has become hypersensitive to relatively minor perils. Biochemist Bruce Ames of the University of California, Berkeley, points out that naturally occurring carcinogens in many foods -- cabbage, broccoli and oranges -- are much more potent than traces of man-made pesticides. "Most of us are more secure with respect to basic survival than we were a generation ago," says Ann Fisher, manager of the EPA's Risk Communication Program...
Californians cannot count on the same lengthy intervals between disasters. , After a moderately powerful quake shook the area around Whittier in 1987, a University of Southern California survey of 235 people in Los Angeles County found that most of those questioned were not interested in leaving. But 30% said they might make plans to go if another quake of the same magnitude shook them...
...Applied to San Francisco, it means that a second quake there in a year or two would have a much greater impact. We could expect to see a significant out-migration from California," says geographer Curtis C. Roseman. "One quake doesn...