Word: forests
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Freed Nick Daniloff prefaced his remarks by saying it was not his "usual style" to speak into a forest of microphones. "I spent a great deal of time thinking," he said, "both when I was in the bowels of Lefortovo Prison and later when I was in the custody of the American embassy. I thought what a wonderful nation it is that will go all out for a single individual. It seems to me that's one of the distinctive things about this country -- that it is built on single individuals, each one a precious individual. And I couldn...
Tropical rain forests blanket about 7% of the planet and support nearly 50% of earth's known species. A single hectare (2.5 acres) of this lush arboreal growth may include more than 100 species of tree, each with its own interdependent colonies of plants and animals. But in the past several hundred years, the area of the globe covered by rain forest has decreased by some 44%. According to one U.N. study, 23,000 sq. mi. of rain forests are cut down every year -- an area about the size of West Virginia. One World Resources Institute staffer calculated that developers...
These threatened ecosystems have already proved a valuable source of medicines, foods and new seed stock for crops. Nine years ago, for example, a strain of perennial, disease-resistant wild maize named Zea diploperennis was found in a Mexican mountain forest, growing in three small plots. Crossing domestic corn varieties with this maize produces hardy hybrids that should ultimately be worth billions of dollars to farmers. A great many of the prescription drugs sold in the U.S. are based on unique chemical compounds found in tropical plants. For example, vincristine, originally isolated from the Madagascan periwinkle, is used to treat...
Alarmed by the rate of tropical deforestation, scientists are no longer shy about criticizing commercial and public development schemes that eat away vast tracts of rain forest. "In the past, many biologists thought it was almost unscientific to get involved in conservation politics," says Lovejoy. "But no more. The rate of species loss is suddenly dawning on people." The warning has been heeded in government circles as well. The House of Representatives two weeks ago passed legislation sponsored by Gus Yatron, Democrat of Pennsylvania, mandating that the U.S. Agency for International Development set aside $10 million to preserve biodiversity...
...want to get in on the action in this field, you had better move quickly, advises Dr. Forest Muir, professor at the Penn State School of Poultry Science. "More alert students are becoming aware of the competitive advantage of specializing in poultry," Muir said...