A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
Acid rain - This should correctly be called acid precipitation because it includes rain, snow, sleet, fog and any other form of precipitation. It is produced as industrial byproducts in emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides from burning coal and petroleum products. Found throughout the world, its heaviest concentrations are in urban areas. Among other things, it harms aquatic wildlife, corrodes monuments and bridges, destroys exterior paint, kills forests, damages some agricultural soils, makes drinking water toxic by leaching lead from pipes, and reduces visibility.
Afforestation - Conversion of bare or cultivated land into forest.
Agricultural waste - Poultry and livestock manure or residual materials in liquid or solid form generated in the production and marketing of poultry, livestock, fur-bearing animals and their products, rice straw, rice husks and other plant wastes.
Air pollution - The introduction of substances into the air which makes it impure in comparison with pure air.
Alpha radiation - Alpha rays consist of nuclei of the element helium and carry a positive charge. Penetrates the least, but does great damage in a small area. (see radiation)
Aquifer - A geological formation or group of formations in the ground which is usually composed of rock, gravel, sand or other porous material and which yields water to wells or springs. Can be polluted by introduction of pollutants through poorly capped wells, injection waste disposal and other entries below ground.
B
Background radiation - Radiation that occurs naturally in the environment from cosmic rays and radon or from atomic tests carried out by man.
C
Coral reef degradation - Caused by natural and man-made events including hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, disruptive invasion by marine organisms, turbidity caused by silt and sedimentation, dumping trash, chemical pollution, pesticide pollution, the practice of collecting shells and corals, and destructive fishing methods such as dynamiting or bumping the coral bottom (called muro-ami) with fish-net weights.
D
Deforestation - The loss of tropical forests due to collection of fuelwood, commercial logging, shifting cultivation, grazing, road construction, ranching, mining and fire. Leads to soil erosion and flooding and endangers wildlife through habitat destruction.
Desertification - A process whereby the productivity of the land is reduced through deforestation, waterlogging and salinization, chemical degradation by nutrient leaching, range mismanagement such as overgrazing, soil erosion and aridity and semi-aridity.
Dissolved oxygen - Oxygen found in water and required by organisms for survival. As the amount of sewage increases in water, bacteria multiply to feed on the sewage and consume more oxygen, thereby decreasing the amount in the water available for use by other animals living there.
E
Ecosystem - The interacting system of a biological community and its non-living environment.
Environmental Reporting - Communicating information about interrelationships between man and his environment between man and the natural and man-made environment, events or conditions.
Erosion - The loss of surface soil through the action of precipitation and wind. Leads to sedimentation and siltation of water-ways, which destroy aquatic and marine habitats, make water undrinkable and clog water-dependent industrial machinery and other intake equipment.
F
Fly ash - The airborne combustion residue from burning coal or other fuels. Consists mainly of various oxides and silicates. Major sources are pulvarized coal-burning boilers.
G
Gamma ray irradiation - Experimental hazardous waste chemical treatment method that disinfects waste by using gamma radiation to destroy disease-causing organisms.
Gamma rays - Electromagnetic rays similar to X-rays, emitted in an unstable atom's nucleus, which travel in straight paths at the speed of light, penetrate matter readily, but do not make the material radioactive. They penetrate a greater area than alpha or beta rays, but do less damage because they are weaker form of radiation.
Greenhouse effect - The theory that continued burning of fossil fuels will increase concentrations of carbon thereby trapping dioxide in the atmosphere, additional heat and moisture. Some scientists theorize that in time this could create a hothouse effect, raising the temperature of the earth, causing glaciers to melt and the sea level to rise. Regional estimates for carbon emissions estimated in millions of tons in 1983 include: United States and Canada 1,245; Western Europe, 753; USSR and Eastern Europe, 1,279; developing nations of Asia, Latin America and Africa, 738; China and Central Asia, 482; and Central Japan and Australia, 287.
Ground water - The portion of the subsurface water which is in the zone of saturation where nearly all openings particles are filled with water. The between soil n in the ground is top of the zone of saturation called the water-table.
H
Habitat - The sum total of environmental conditions of a specific place that is occupied by an organism, a population or a community.
Hazardous waste - A subset of solid waste, which can create a risk to the safety or health of people or the environment. Any solid waste that is ignitable, explosive, reactive or toxic and which may pose a substantial or potential hazard to human health and safety or to the environment when improperly managed. Reactive refers to the ability to enter into a violent chemical reaction that may involve explosion or fumes. (Use of this term is often highly imprecise.)
Heavy metals - See toxic metals.
Hydrocarbons - Any of a large class of organic compounds containing only carbon and hydrogen. The moleculaT structure of hydrocarbon compounds varies from the simplest, methane (Ch4), to heavier and more complex molecules such as octane, (C8Hl), a constituent of crude oil. Crude oil and natural gas are often referred to as hydrocarbons or hydrocarbon fuels.
Hydrological quandary - A phenomenon occurring in Bangladesh, where marine salt water flows into rivers and deprives people of fresh water, ruins the aquatic habitat and fishing, and destroys water-dependent industrial machinery and other intakes.
L
Leachate - The liquid, usually rainwater, that percolates through a landfill and which frequently is contaminated by materials dissolved from the waste in the landfill.
M
Mutagen - A substance that alters inherited genetic material (DNA) of sperm and egg cells and leads to undesired inherited conditions.
N
Non-point-source pollution - Pollutants emanating from an unconfined or unchannelled source, including agricultural runoff, drainage or seepage and air contamination from landfills or surface impoundments.
O
Ocean dumping - The use of various techniques for disposing of hazardous wastes and other wastes in open seas. Has included bulk disposal of liquid or slurry-type wastes, hazardous sludges from dredged materials and the sinking of containerized hazardous substances.
Overfishing - The practice of commercial and non-commercial fishing which depletes a fishery by catching so many adult fish that not enough remain to breed and replenish the population. Overfishing exceeds the carrying capacity of a fishery.
Overgrazing - The practice of grazing too many ruminants on land unable to recover its vegetation or of grazing ruminants on land not suitable for grazing because of its slope. Overgrazing exceeds the carrying capacity of a pasture.
Overplowing - The practice of moving agricultural activity onto marginal land, which often is steep-sloped, of low fertility and subject to low and unreliable rainfall.
Ozone hole - A growing hole in the stratospheric ozone layer appearing larger each year over the Antarctic for a few weeks in October.
Ozone layer - A stratospheric layer composed of a form of oxygen with three atoms to the molecule, 03. Ozone forms from 6 to 35 (reports vary as to the number) miles above the earth when highenergy ultraviolet light in sunlight strikes oxygen molecules, splitting them into oxygen atoms, which when free attach themselves to other oxygen molecules. A potential effect of the loss of this protective layer could be a sharp rise in the incidence of skin cancer. An unrelated ozone problem occurs as ground-level ozone or smog, a respiratory-irritant pollutant, which forms in a series of chemical reactions when urban air pollutants react in sunlight and oxygen.
P
pH - A numerical designation of relative acidity and alkalinity of a chemical solution, from 0 to 14. The term pH tells how many hydrogen atoms (H+) are in a liquid. While a pH of 7.0 is neutral, higher values indicate increasing alkalinity and lower values indicate increasing acidity. Some pH values of common liquids are: bleach 12.7, ammonia 11.3, blood 7.3, milk 6.8, vinegar 2.8, battery acid 0.2.
Phytotoxic - Poisonous to plants.
Point-source pollution - Any pollution from a confined and discrete conveyance such as a pipe, ditch, channel tunnel, well, fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal-feeding operation or vessel or other floating craft. The return flow from irrigated agriculture is generally not considered pointsource pollution.
Pollution - Contamination of air, water, land or other natural resources that will or is Rely to create a nuisance or render such resources harmful to public health or which is harmful to domestic, municipal, commercial, industrial, agricultural, recreational or other legitimate beneficial uses, or to livestock, wild animals, birds, fish or other life.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - A series of hazardous compounds used for a number of industrial purposes. PCBs are toxic to some marine life at concentrations of a few parts per billion and are known to cause skin diseases and even death in humans at higher concentrations. PCBs are persistent in the environment and do not decompose easily. They biomagnify up the food chain; that is, they concentrate in high and higher amounts as larger animals eat a number of smaller animals that have ingested PCBs directly or in turn from still smaller organisms.
ppm - Parts per million: a scientific unit commonly used to represent the level of pollutant concentrations where concentrations are small. An example of 1 ppm would be 1 grain of brown rice in 1 million white grains. ppb: parts per billion.
R
Radiation - Measured two ways: in disintegration at the source and in dose absorbed. Measured in becquerels or curies, it is nuclear particles and rays emitted by decaying atoms in a radioactive source as they change to more stable forms. A roentgen or coulomb is a measurement of X- or gamma-radiation, which produces positively and negatively charged ions in gas. A gray (another term is rad) is a measure of radiation energy, in joules, deposited in or absorbed by the body. A rem is a biological dose equivalent measurement that qualifies a gray (or rad), with other mitigating factors. A dose of 600 rem will usually result in death within 60 days.
Radiation terms and equivalents
Radioactive waste - Conventional materials that have been contaminated with radiation. In the United States, radioactive wastes are not classified as hazardous, but are controlled by various specific government regulations.
Reforestation - The replanting of cut or bare forest. See afforestation.
Run-off - Water which, having fallen, flows across the surface of the ground (or a landfill or other accumulation of material), picking up materials such as soil, agricultural chemicals and other transportable materials, continuing into a watercourse.
S
Salinization - Destruction of productive land by an increase in its salt content. Occurs frequently from overirrigated soil when evaporation of water at the surface draws salts from underground rocks and soils, causing salts to crystallize and interfere with root growth.
Sedimentation - The accumulation of earthy matter (soil and mineral particles) washed into a river or other water body, normally by erosion, which settles on the bottom. Another use of the word is as a hazardous waste physical treatment method that separates and removes suspended particles that are heavier than the liquid in which they are present by gravitational settling.
Siltation - The same as sedimentation.
Sludge - Solid, semi-solid or liquid waste from municipal, commercial or industrial waste-treatment facilities, waste-water treatment plants and air pollution control facilities. In discussions of environmental controls, the mud-like residue that results from the cleaning process of scrubbers or certain other devices designed to prevent solid particles from entering the environment.
Soil erosion - Movement of soil due to wind, rain and related natural forces that carries surface soil downslope toward streams and on into rivers and eventually bays and the oceans.
Solid waste - Waste including, but not limited to, municipal, residual or hazardous waste, including solid, liquid, semi-solid or contained gaseous materials.
Species extinction - Elimination of any species of living thing as a result of habitat destruction, hunting for sport and trophies and collection and hunting for food, pleasure, research and trade. "Incidental take" of mammals and other marine life during fishing threatens certain species.
Sustainable development - The concept of using resources in an ecologically sound manner so that they will be sustainable over the long term. Put another way, by the Executive Secretary of the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, it is "an approach to progress that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs."
T
Teratogen - A substance that alters the formation of cells, tissues and organs and which results in physiological and biochemical changes in a fetus during growth.
Thermal pollution - A harmful increase in water temperature caused by discharging heated coolant water, particularly from electricity generating stations. Harms aquatic life and any interdependent species, such as birds and mammals using the same habitat.
Toxic metals - Often called heavy metals because most are high density matallic elements such as mercury, chromium, cadmium, arsenic and lead, which are generally toxic to plant and animal life in low concentrations.
Toxic substances - Poisonous substances known or believed to be harmful to people's health, often producing chronic, irreversible physical problems and possibly harming subsequent generations. Examples are acrylonitrile, arsenic, asbestos, benzene, beryllium, cadmium, chloroform, chromates, EDB, ethylene oxide, mercury, PCBs and many others.
Toxic waste - A waste that poses a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly managed. It includes wastes that are poisonous, carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic, phytotoxic or toxic to aquatic species.
W
Waterlogging - Soaking of agricultural land caused by a rising water-table or excessive irrigation. Compacts soil, deprives roots of oxygen and contributes to salinization.
Water pollution - The introduction of substances that make water impure compared with undisturbed water. Usually this comes from soil erosion, introduction of poisonous chemicals from industries and spills and introduction of domestic sewage or industrial and agricultural wastes.
Water table - The top of the zone of saturation in the ground. See ground water.
Copyright 1994. Adapted from Reporting on the Environment: A Handbook for Journalists by Sharon M. Friedman and Kenneth A. Friedman, published by the Asian Forum of Environmental Journalists in cooperation with The U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, 1988.