Word: shifting
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...tens of thousands of years at a stretch, and periods of warmth have pushed the tropics well into what is now the temperate zone. But given the normal year-to-year variations, the only reliable signal that such changes may be in the works is a long-term shift in worldwide temperature...
...faster and heading higher than anyone expected. By 2100, says the IPCC, average temperatures will increase between 1.4?C and 5.8?C?more than 50% higher than predictions of just a half-decade ago. That may not seem like much, but consider that it took only a 5?C shift to end the last ice age. Even at the low end, the changes could be problematic enough, with storms getting more frequent and intense, droughts more pronounced, coastal areas ever more severely eroded by rising seas, rainfall scarcer on agricultural land and ecosystems thrown out of balance...
...rise is significantly larger, the result could be disastrous. With seas rising as much as 1 m, enormous areas of densely populated land?coastal Florida, much of Louisiana, the Nile Delta, the Maldives, Bangladesh?would become uninhabitable. Entire climatic zones might shift dramatically, making central Canada look more like central Illinois, Georgia more like Guatemala. Agriculture would be thrown into turmoil. Hundreds of millions of people would have to migrate out of unlivable regions...
...year since 1990. In other words, a 7 percent cut on 1990 levels may require a cut of 20 to 30 percent on current output levels - cuts that can be achieved only by reducing consumption of gasoline, coal and other fossil fuels. In other words, a profound and expensive shift in everything from America's energy sources to its lifestyle...
...There's a significant shift toward vegetarianism, obviously. Polls show that some 20 percent of the population is now seriously contemplating vegetarianism, and restaurants are turning largely toward chicken and fish. This outbreak may shift attitudes a lot more sharply than the mad cow issue did. That initially brought down beef consumption by about 20 percent, but it soon recovered its old levels. But this foot-and-mouth outbreak may prompt a more significant and long-lasting move away from meat...