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PERC Reports

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Volume 19, No.2, Summer 2001

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IN THIS ISSUE

Blowing in the Wind

For generations, families who settles on the prairies and plains of the great mid-section of the United States have done battle with the wind. It has scoured their fields, flattened their crops, and sent icy fingers under the doorways of their homes. But what was once a bane has suddenly become a boon. Brokers areContinue reading "Blowing in the Wind"

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On the Brink

A small chocolate-brown mammal that inhabits the alpine reaches of Vancouver Island in western Canada has found a benefactor in what may be the nick of time. With just 40 Vancouver Island marmots known to exist in the wild and another 40 living in captivity, Gordon Blankenstein stepped forward to bankroll a private conservation effort.Continue reading "Blowing in the Wind"

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Slippery Slopes

More than 200 million impoverished people worldwide make their homes on hillsides. These hillsides are the source of some 20 percent of the world’s freshwater, and yet agricultural activities have resulted in vast deforestation and topsoil erosion. Since 1993, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) based in Cali, Colombia, has been working with farmersContinue reading "Blowing in the Wind"

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Waste Not Want Not

Two companies that appear to have little in common have joined forces to build processing plants that will convert biomass to energy and create organic fertilizer at the same time. The plants will burn the waste to produce steam that can power electric generators. The leftover residue can be sold as fertilizer. The partners areContinue reading "Blowing in the Wind"

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The Caribou Question

  As politicians debate oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), public attention has turned to the caribou. Due to their large numbers, lengthy migrations, and importance to traditional Alaskan cultures, these ruminants are probably the most prominent animal species on the North Slope of Alaska. Opponents of oil exploration often evoke theContinue reading "Blowing in the Wind"

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Arctic Expeditions of the 19th Century

Government-sponsored polar expeditions made fewer major discoveries introduced fewer innovations, lost more ships, and had more explorers die. Throughout the nineteenth century, Arctic exploration dominated popular culture in Europe and America, much as space exploration did in the twentieth century. Both quests involved competitive races for major geographic prizes; both led to fame and honorsContinue reading "Blowing in the Wind"

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