The first snow of the coming winter falls over Madison as the Thanksgiving Holiday begins. As the sun goes down, however, the power is on, the house is warm and there is plenty for everyone to eat. The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Los Angles Lakers. Life could be very much worse.
Kims' Clear-Cutting of Korean Forests Risks Triggering Famine In some parts of the world, floods and famine are acts of God. In North Korea, they're acts of government. For decades, the late North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung mobilized vast work teams to fell trees and turn the mountainsides into farmland, allowing rainwater to wreck roads, power lines and agricultural fields.
Following Kim's death in 1994 -- just before a flood- linked famine gripped the nation -- his son and successor Kim Jong Il continued the sacrifice of forest cover until 2000, when he began encouraging reforestation. But the shift hasn't reversed the damage, and some analysts warn that another famine, close to the scale of the 1990s disaster that may have killed millions of people, might occur as soon as next year.
