Word: planet
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...biggest need may be a change in values; the whole environmental problem stems from a dedication to infinite growth on a finite planet. Pessimists argue that only a catastrophe can change that attitude?too late. By contrast, Barry Commoner and others put their faith in man's ability to reform when confronted by compelling facts. It is also possible that ecologists can eventually stir enough people to an emotion as old as man?exaltation. Ecology, the subversive science, enriches man's perceptions, his vision, his concept of reality. In nature, many may find the model they need to cherish...
...border on science fiction. A few scientists feel that the outpouring of carbon dioxide, mainly from industry, is forming an invisible global filter in the atmosphere. This filter may act like a greenhouse: transparent to sunlight but opaque to heat radiation bouncing off the earth. In theory, the planet will warm up. The icecaps will melt; the oceans will rise by 60 ft., drowning the world's coastal cities...
...that the earth's average temperature has dropped by .2° C. since 1945, though the carbon dioxide content of the air keeps increasing every year. To explain this phenomenon, many ecologists think that various particles in the atmosphere are reflecting sunlight away from the earth, thus cooling the planet. Since about 31% of the world's surface is covered by low clouds, increasing this cover to 36% through pollution would drop the temperature about 4° C.?enough to start a return...
Asteroids, most of them only a few miles in diameter, were once thought to be the debris of a planet that mysteriously broke up. Now scientists are more inclined to believe that they are pre-planetary building blocks that could not develop into a planet because of the powerful gravitational influence of nearby Jupiter. They are also too small to have experienced the geological activity that has obliterated traces of early events on the earth and other planets. Thus, the two scientists suggest, an expedition to an asteroid might yield important clues to the primordial history of the solar system...
...MISALLOCATED RESOURCES. Criticizing the space race, retiring A.A.A.S. President Walter Orr Roberts urged the U.S. to join Russia in a cheaper, mutual space program aimed at "an optimum balance of man and nature on this magnificent but imperiled planet." If the two countries directed their space efforts at earth, said Orr, teams of astronauts could chart ocean currents to help fishing fleets find their catch, discover just where air pollutants go in the atmosphere, and vastly improve weather forecasting. Dr. John H. Knowles, head of Massachusetts General Hospital, drew sustained applause by questioning the nation's current priorities...