| A | B |
|---|
| Acid Precipitation | Conversion of sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides to acids that return to Earth as rain, fog or snow |
| Active Solar Energy Systems | Solar Energy System that collects energy through the use of mechanical devices like photovoltaic cells or flatplate collectors |
| Air pollution | Concentration of trace substances, such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarobns, and solid particulates, at a greater level than occurs in average air |
| Animate Power | Power supplied by people or animals |
| Biochemical Oxygen Demand | (BOD)Amount of oxygen required by aquatic bacteria to decompse a given load of organic waste; a measure of water pollution |
| Biomass Fuel | Fuel that derives from plant material and animal waste |
| Breeder Reactor | A nuclear power plant that creates its own fuel from plutonium |
| Acid Deposition | Sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides, emitted by burning fossil fuels, enter the atmosphere-where they combine oxygen and water to form sulfuric acid and nitric acid-and return to Earth's surface |
| Chlorofluorocarbon | (CFC) A gas used as a solvent, a propellant in aearosols, a refrigerant, and in plastic foams and fire extinguishers |
| Desertification | Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting |
| Fission | The splitting of an atomic nucleus to release energy |
| Fossil Fuel | Energy source formed from the residue of plants and animals buried millions of years ago |
| Fusion | Creating of energy by joining the nuclei of two hydrogen atoms to form helium |
| Geothermal Energy | Energy from steam or hot water produced from hot or motlen underground rocks |
| Green Revolution | Rapid diffusion of new agriculture technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers |
| Greenhouse Effect | Anticipated increase in Earth's temperature, caused by Carbon dioxide (emitted by burning fossil fuels) trapping some of the radiation emitted by the surface |
| Hydroelectric Power | Power generated from moving water |
| Inanimate Power | Power supplied by machines |
| Nonrenewable Energy | A source of energy that is a finite supply capable of being exhausted |
| Ozone | A gas that absorbs ultraviolet solar radiatoin, found in the stratosphere, a zone between 15 and 50 kilometers (9 to 30 miles) above Earth's surface |
| Passive Solar Energy Systems | Solar Energy system that collects energy without the use of mechanical devices |
| Photochemical Smog | An atmospheric condition formed through a combination of weather conditions and pollution, especially from motor vehicle emissions |
| Photovoltaic Cell | Solar energy cells, usually made from silicon, that collect solar rays to generate electricity |
| Pollution | Addition of more waste than a resource can accomodated |
| Potential Reserve | The amount of energy in deposits not yet identified but thought to exist |
| Proven Reserve | the amount of a resource remaining in discovered deposits |
| Radioactive Waste | Particles from a nuclear reaction that emit radiation; conatact with such particles may be harmful or lethal to people and must therefore be safely stored for thousands of years |
| Renewable Energy | A resource that has a theoretically unlimited supply and is not depleted when used by humans |
| Resource | A substance in the environment that is useful to people, is economically and technologically feasible to access, and is socially acceptable to use |
| Sanitary Landfill | A place to deposit solid waste, where a layer of earth is bulldozed over garbage each day to reduce emissions of gases and odors from the decaying trash, to minimize fires, and to discourage vermin |
| Sustainable Agriculture | Farming methods that preserve long-term productivity of land & minimize pollution, typically by rotating soil-restoring crops with cash crops and reducing inputs of fertilizer and pesticides |
| Sustainable Development | The level of development that can be maintained in a country without depleting resources to the extent that future generations will be unable to achieve a comparable level of development |
