Glossary
- Biodegradable
- The ability to biodegrade, that is for organic compounds to be converted to inorganic compounds, leaving no toxic or synthetic residues
- Biomass
- The use of crops and crop residues as a fuel source for the generation of heat and electricity
- Carbon dioxide (CO2)
- A colourless gas that is a natural part of the atmosphere. However, the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere as a result of industrial processes is leading to global warming
- Congestion charge
- A charge that is paid by motorists who drive within a specific town or city area. London has the UK’s first congestion charge
- Earth Summit
- An international meeting held to discuss the world’s environmental problems, particularly global warming. Meetings were held at Rio de Janiero in 1992, Kyoto in 1997, and South Africa in 2002
- Economic recession
- A temporary slow-down in economic growth
- Ecosystem
- A collection of plants and animals integrated as a result of the exchange of energy and nutrients between them
- Emissions trading
- The buying and selling of permits for a certain level of pollutant emissions
- Environmental audit
- A systematic review of an organization’s environmental performance, measured against a set of agreed criteria
- Fuel cell
- An energy conversion device that converts hydrogen and oxygen into water, producing energy and heat in the process
- Geothermal energy
- Power generated by harnessing the heat beneath the Earth’s surface. Wells are used to pipe steam and hot water from deep within the Earth up to the surface. The hot water is the used to drive turbines and generate electricity
- Global warming
- The gradual raising of the temperature of the Earth and its atmosphere
- Greenhouse effect
- The increasing temperature of the Earth’s surface caused by gases in the atmosphere. These gases allow solar radiation to penetrate, but they absorb the infrared (heat) radiation instead of allowing it to be radiated into space
- Kyoto Protocol
- The Kyoto Protocol was adopted at the Third Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. It contains legally binding commitments, in addition to those included in the UNFCCC. Countries included in Annex B of the Protocol (most OECD countries and EITs) agreed to reduce their anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, and SF6) by at least 5 % below 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008 to 2012
- Landfill
- A way of disposing of solid waste by burying it
- NIMBY
- Not In My Back Yard – a way of describing people who aren’t necessarily against a development, but don’t want it to affect them directly
- Non-renewable resources
- Resources of which there is a fixed supply, such as metal ores and fossil fuels, and which will eventually be exhausted
- Ozone layer
- A part of the Earth’s atmosphere that absorbs a proportion of ultraviolet light in incoming radiation, thus protecting the earth from its harmful effects. However, the ozone layer is being depleted by certain chemicals, so more ultraviolet light is reaching the Earth’s surface, contributing to global warming and to an increase in cataracts and skin cancer
- Photovoltaics (PV)
- The use of photosensitive semiconductor elements to generate electricity from solar radiation
- Pollution
- The contamination of an environment by artificially produced contaminants with the result that organisms are harmed
- Recycling
- Re-use of a product as a raw material for use in the same or another product
- Renewable energy
- An energy resource that can be replaced and will not run out
- Rising sea levels
- As temperatures rise as a result of global warming, the sea absorbs heat from the atmosphere, causing both the sea itself to expand and ice at the poles to melt, thus making sea levels rise
- Small hydro power
- The use of small turbines in flowing water (usually rivers) to generate electricity
- Smog
- A mixture of smoke and fog associated with urban and industrial areas
- Solar thermal energy
- Solar energy absorbed by building elements for direct space or water heating
- Tidal energy
- Harnessing the energy in tides using devices such as tidal barrages
- Wind energy
- Harnessing the power of the wind using wind turbines to generate electricity
For a more complete environmental glossary, see the European Environment Agency website (http://glossary.eea.eu.int/EEAGlossary/)
