Word: problem
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...urbanization of the globe is more than an aesthetic problem. Human sprawl threatens the habitat of most animal and plant species--except for cockroaches, rats, pigeons, crabgrass and other organisms that thrive with mankind. Relentless human expansion is the main reason the world is fast losing its biodiversity, raising the specter that we will eventually live, in the words of writer David Quammen, on a "planet of weeds." If that danger doesn't seem imminent, consider this: sprawl is paving over the land we need to grow our food. Since 1981 the amount of land around the world devoted...
Maybe it's just a response to endless complaints about suburban traffic jams, but U.S. politicians are starting to pay attention to the sprawl problem. Presidential candidate Al Gore has raised the subject, and Maryland Governor Parris Glendening sounds downright alarmed. "Every time we cut down one more forest or sell off another acre of farmland, we have permanently lost more of our finite natural resources," says Glendening. "Sprawl costs taxpayers dollars to support new infrastructure, costs natural resources that we know are not unlimited, and costs us as a society in lost opportunities to invest in our existing communities...
...everyone knows the planet is in bad shape, but most people are resigned to passivity. Changing course, they reason, would require economic sacrifice and provoke stiff resistance from corporations and consumers alike, so why bother? It's easier to ignore the gathering storm clouds and hope the problem magically takes care of itself...
Second, poverty is central to the problem. Four billion of the planet's 6 billion people face deprivation inconceivable to the wealthiest 1 billion. To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that the bottom two-thirds of humanity will strive to improve their lot. As they demand adequate heat and food, not to mention cars and CD players, humanity's environmental footprint will grow. Our challenge is to accommodate this mass ascent from poverty without wrecking the natural systems that make life possible...
...causes. But it is Charles who has become the crusader, with a vision of Britain that may border on the romantic but is in synch with Britons alarmed by what is happening to their green and pleasant land. He has the energy and dedication to get things done. "My problem," he has said, "is that I become carried away by enthusiasm to try and improve things, and also feel very strongly that the only way to progress is by setting examples and then hoping others will eventually follow...