Chapter 13 Flashcards
Human centered, in sustainable development, refers to ideas that focus solely on the needs of people without considering the creatures with whom we share the planet or the ecosystems upon which we depend
Anthropocentric
Rainfall made sufficiently acidic by atmospheric pollution that it causes environmental harm, typically to forests and lakes
Acid rain
A body of permeable rock that can contain or transmit groundwater
Aquifer
The envelope of gases surrounding the earth or another planet
Atmosphere
The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem
Biodiversity
Any of a class of compounds of carbon, hydrogen, chlorine, and fluorine, harmful to the ozone layer in the earth’s atmosphere owing to the release of the chlorine atoms upon exposure to ultraviolet radiation
Chlorofluorocarbons
To cut down and clear away the trees or forests
Deforestation
The action of dividing or splitting something into two or more parts
Fission
Energy derived from the heat in the interior of the earth
Geothermal energy
The trapping of the Suns warmth in a planets lower atmosphere due to the greater transparency of the atmosphere to visible radiation from the sun than to infrared radiation emitted from the planets surface
Greenhouse effect
Of or relating to a period of milder climate between two glacial periods
Interglacial
A layer in the earth’s stratosphere
Absorbs most of the ultraviolet radiation
Ozone layer
The presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance or thing that has harmful or poisonous effects
Pollution
Emitting or relating to the emission of ionizing radiation or particles
Radioactive
Any natural resources that can replenish itself in a relatively short period of time, usually no longer than the length of a human life
Renewable resources
