APES Jan 2019 Flashcards

12078031318	Highly developed countries	Countries with complex industrialized bases, low rates of population growth, and high per person incomes	0
12078031319	moderately developed countries	developing countries with a medium level of industrialization and average per capita incomes that are lower than those of highly developed countries	1
12078031320	less developed countries	Also known as developing country, a country that is at a relatively early stage in economic development	2
12078031321	renewable resources	resources provided by nature that can replace themselves within a relatively short period of time	3
12078031322	nonrenewable resources	resources that are often formed by very slow geologic processes, so we consider them incapable of being regenerated within the realm of human existence.	4
12078031323	ecological footprint	The amount of biologically productive land and water needed to support a person or population.	5
12078031324	environmental sustainability	the ability to meet the current human need for natural resources without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs	6
12078031325	global commons	Those parts of our environment available to everyone but which no single individual owns -the atmosphere, fresh water, forests, wildlife, and ocean fisheries.	7
12078031326	green roofs	roofs partially or completely covered by plants	8
12078031327	stewardship	responsibility for conserving and restoring the Earth's resources for future generations	9
12078031328	environmental science	the study of how humans interact with the environment of living and nonliving things.	10
12078031329	ecology	the branch of biology concerned with the relations between organisms and their environment	11
12078031330	system	any set of interacting components that influence one another by exchanging energy or materials	12
12078031331	ecosystem	collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place, together with their nonliving environment	13
12078031332	dynamic equilibrium	A form of equilibrium where opposing forces balance each other out, and the system as a whole does not change.	14
12078031333	negative feedback mechanism	one change triggers a second change which slows or reverses the original change	15
12078031334	positive feedback mechanism	one change triggers a second change which speeds up, reinforces, or enhances the original change	16
12078031335	hypothesis	a prediction that can be tested	17
12078031336	control group	in an experiment, the group that is not exposed to the treatment; contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.	18
12078031337	theory	a scientific explanation supported by much evidence collected over a long period of time	19
12078031338	cyanobacteria	Photosynthetic, oxygen-producing bacteria (formerly known as blue-green algae).	20
12078031339	externality	The cost or benefit of a good or service that is not included in the purchase price of that good or service.	21
12078031340	ecosystem services	benefits to humans provided by natural systems	22
12078031341	marginal cost of pollution	the additional cost imposed on society by an additional unit of pollution.	23
12078031342	marginal cost of abatement	the cost associated with reducing a small additional amount of pollution.	24
12078031343	natural capital	the natural resources and natural services that keep us and other species alive and support out economies	25
12078031344	estuary	an area where fresh and salt water mix	26
12078031345	biotic	the living organisms in an ecosystem	27
12078031346	abiotic	nonliving, physical features of the environment, including air, water, sunlight, soil, temperature, and climate	28
12078031347	population	a group of organisms of the same species that live in the same geographic area at the same time	29
12078031348	community	all the different species that share some degree of mutual interdependence and that live together in the same habitat	30
12078031349	landscape	region including several interacting ecosystems	31
12078031350	biosphere	the part of the Earth's atmosphere, oceans, land surface and soil containing all its living organisms	32
12078031351	potential energy	stored energy	33
12078031352	kinetic energy	energy of motion	34
12078031353	First Law of Thermodynamics	energy is neither created nor destroyed although it can be changed from one form to another	35
12078031354	Second Law of Thermodynamics	when energy is converted from one form to another some of it is always converted into a lower-quality, less usable form. Thus with each energy transformation, less energy is available to do work.	36
12078031355	producers	synonym for autotroph; an organism which makes its own food converting inorganic substances into organic substances	37
12078031356	autotrophs	synonym for producer; an organism which makes its own food converting inorganic substances into organic substances	38
12078031357	consumer	synonym for heterotroph; an organism which feeds on other organisms to obtain nutrients and energy	39
12078031358	heterotroph	synonym for consumer; an organism which feeds on other organisms to obtain nutrients and energy	40
12078031359	primary consumer	synonym for herbivore; organism which feeds on plants	41
12078031360	herbivore	synonym for primary consumer; organism which feeds on plants	42
12078031361	secondary consumer	an organism that eats herbivores	43
12078031362	tertiary consumer	an organism that eats secondary consumers	44
12078031363	omnivores	organisms that eat both plants and animals	45
12078031364	detritus feeders	synonym for detritivores; organism that eats dead, decaying organic matter	46
12078031365	detritivores	synonym for detritus feeders; organism that eats dead, decaying organic matter	47
12078031366	decomposers	synonym for saprotrophs; bacteria and fungi that break down organic matter and use the products of decomposition for food	48
12078031367	saprotrophs	synonym for decomposers; bacteria and fungi that break down organic matter and use the products of decomposition for food	49
12078031368	trophic level	level in a food chain	50
12078031369	biomass	the total mass of all organisms in an ecosystem	51
12078031370	gross primary productivity (GPP)	The total amount of solar energy that producers in an ecosystem capture via photosynthesis over a given amount of time.	52
12078031371	Net Primary Productivity (NPP)	gross primary productivity minus the losses due to respiration	53
12078031372	evolution	genetic changes that occur in a population over time due to 1 )natural variation in genes within a population; 2) the fact that generally more organisms are produced than will survive to maturity; 3) those best adapted are more likely to survive; and 4) characteristics that increase survival odds become more common over time due to natural selection	54
12078031373	natural selection	process by which individuals that are better suited to their environment are more likely to survive to reproduce and pass on these traits to their offspring; also called survival of the fittest	55
12078031374	mutation	change in the genes that may be due to random copying errors or the effects of radiation or mutagenic chemicals	56
12078031375	kingdom	broadest level of classification (unless you consider Domains Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya). Generally all life is divided into 6 kingdoms (Archaea, Bacteria, Protista, Plantae, Fungi and Animalia)	57
12078031376	succession	change in ecosystems that occur over time	58
12078031377	primary succession	succession that occurs on surfaces where no soil exists	59
12078031378	secondary succession	change in the species composition that exists in an area over time when one type of community replaces another	60
12078031379	climax community	this stage of succession has been reached when a stable and persistant community develops. It will a major disturbance like fire,hurricane, or deforestation to change the community.	61
12078031380	pioneer community	organisms (generally lichen) which start succession where soil did not previously exist	62
12078031381	symbiosis	close relationships or associations between species; includes mutualism, commensalism and parasitism	63
12078031382	Mutualism	symbiotic relationship which benefits both species (example: coral and zooxanthellae)	64
12078031383	commensalism	symbiotic relationship that benefits one organism and neither harms nor helps the other organism (ex: epiphytes such as mosses on a tree)	65
12078031384	parasistism	symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits by getting nourishment from another species but, though it may weaken it, does not generally kill it.	66
12078031385	intraspecific competition	competition between individuals of the same species (a population)	67
12078031386	interspecific competition	competition between individuals of different species	68
12078031387	symbionts	partners in a symbiotic relationship	69
12078031388	coevolution	The mutual evolutionary influence between two different species interacting with each other and reciprocally influencing each other's adaptations.	70
12078031389	predation	consumption of one organism (the prey) by another (the predator)	71
12078031390	pathogen	an organism that can cause disease	72
12078031391	competition	the struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resources	73
12078031392	habitat	the environment used by a species or population	74
12078031393	niche	description of an organism's adaptations, habitat, use of resources and relationships with other organisms	75
12078031394	fundamental niche	the range of conditions that a species can potentially tolerate and the range of resources it can potentially use if there is no competition from other species	76
12078031395	realized niche	the part of its fundamental niche that a species actually occupies when there is competition from other species	77
12078031396	limiting resource	resources that due to scarcity (or overabundance) restricts or limits the niche of a species	78
12078031397	resource partioning	species that have similar niches will often reduce interspecific competition by not utilizing the resources in exactly the same way. For example, different species of birds may use of different parts of a tree when hunting for insects. Hawks and owls reduce competition by feeding at different times (day vs night)	79
12078031398	keystone species	a species whose impacts on its community or ecosystem are much larger and more influential than would be expected from mere abundance	80
12078031399	biodiversity	The number of different species in an area	81
12078031400	ecotone	a transitional zone where ecosystems meet	82
12078031401	biogeochemical cycle	the cycling of chemical elements or compounds through the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere	83
12078031402	combustion	rapid oxidation of organic molecules, rapid reaction between oxygen and fuel that results in fire.	84
12078031403	nitrogen fixation	conversion of N2 to ammonia (NH3) by nitrogen-fixing bacteria or by lightening, combustion, industrial processes or volcanic activity	85
12078031404	nitrification	conversion of ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH4+) to nitrates (NO3-) by soil bacteria	86
12078031405	assimilation	absorption of nitrates, ammonia or ammonium and conversion into plant proteins and nucleic acids	87
12078031406	ammonification	the conversion of biological nitrogen compounds (proteins and amino acids) into ammonia and ammonium ions.	88
12078031407	denitrification	the reduction of nitrate to N2	89
12078031408	hydrologic cycle	water cycle	90
12078031409	transpiration	evaporation of water from leaves	91
12078031410	runoff	water running over the surface of the ground	92
12078031411	watershed	all the land drained by a body of water	93
12078031412	groundwater	water occupying cracks and pores in the ground	94
12078031413	photochemical smog	brownish orange haze formed by chemical reactions involving sunlight, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons. Some of the pollutants in photochemical smog include peroxyacetyl nitrates (PANs), ozone, and aldehydes	95
12078031414	acid deposition	sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions that react with water vapor in the atmosphere to form acids that return to the surface as either dry or wet deposition.	96
12078031415	aerosols	tiny solid particles or liquid droplets that remain suspended in the atmosphere for a long time	97
12078031416	coriolis effect	the tendency of moving air or water to be deflected from its path to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere as a result of the rotation of the Earth	98
12078031417	prevailing winds	major surface wind that blows more or less constantly	99
12078031418	gyres	a large circular pattern of surface ocean currents found in each ocean basin; forms due to global wind patterns and earth's rotation	100
12078031419	upwelling	a rising ocean current that carries cold, nutrient-rich water to the surface	101
12078031420	lithosphere	Earth's outermost rigid rock layer that is composed of seven major and several minor plates	102
12078031421	athenosphere	The soft layer of the Mantle on which the tectonic plates move	103
12078031422	plate tectonics	the study of the processes by which the lithospheric plates move over the asthenosphere	104
12078031423	plate boundary	region where two tectonic plates meet	105
12078031424	subduction	process by which one tectonic plate descends under an adjacent plate	106
12078031425	seismic waves	vibrations that move through rock as a result of an earthquake	107
12078031426	faults	a fracture in the crust along which rock moves forward and backward, up and down, or side to side. Faults are often found along plate boundaries.	108
12078031427	focus	the place within the Earth that an earthquake originates	109
12078031428	epicenter	the location on the surface of the Earth directly above the focus	110
12078031429	magma	molten rock found within the Earth	111
12078031430	lava	molten rock that has reached the surface of the Earth	112
12078031431	biome	large, relatively distinct terrestrial region with a similar climate, soil, plants and animals regardless of its location in the world	113
12078031432	permafrost	soil that is permanently frozen	114
12078031433	monoculture	growing only one species	115
12078031434	desertification	conversion of land to desert	116
12078031435	alpine	mountain	117
12078031436	salinity	salt concentration	118
12078031437	plankton	free-floating organisms in aquatic ecosystems that are carried by currents	119
12078031438	phytoplankton	photosynthetic plankton such as diatoms and cyanobacteria	120
12078031439	zooplankton	animal plankton such as jellyfish, protozoa, krill, and also larvae of many organisms including shrimp, crabs, lobsters, barnacles	121
12078031440	nekton	organisms that are relatively strong swimmers such as whales, most fish, and turtles	122
12078031441	benthos	bottom-dwelling organisms such as worms, clams, scallop, sea stars, lobsters	123
12078031442	headwater streams	small, cool, fast flowing streams that are feed a river and are its source	124
12078031443	flood plain	flat areas along a river bank that are prone to flooding	125
12078031444	tributaries	rivers which feed into a larger river	126
12078031445	delta	low lying plain formed by sediments deposited at the mouth of a slow-moving river	127
12078031446	limnetic zone	open water farther from shore than the littoral zone and extending down to the depth reached by sunlight	128
12078031447	profundal zone	deeper areas of a lake which light does not reach	129
12078031448	zooxanthellae	algae that live in the tissues of coral animals and carry out photosynthesis	130
12078031449	intertidal zone	region between low tide and high tide marks	131
12078031450	pelagic environment	all ocean water from the shoreline to the deep sea floor (divided into the neritic and oceanic provinces)	132
12078031451	euphotic zone	zone of the ocean where there is enough light to support photosynthesis	133
12078031452	neritic province	part of the pelagic environment that overlies the ocean floor from the shoreline to a depth of 200 m	134
12078031453	oceanic province	open ocean that does not lie over the continental shelf	135
12078031454	bycatch	fish, birds, sea turtles, dolphins and other organisms unintentionally caught in nets and other fishing gear	136
12078031455	aquaculture	farming aquatic organisms (mussels, salmon, oysters, etc)	137
12078031456	persistence	characteristic describing the stability of chemicals. Persistent chemicals are very slow to break down and may remain in the environment for many years.	138
12078031457	bioaccumulate	the accumulation of toxic chemicals in an organism, often the chemicals are stored in fatty tissue	139
12078031458	biological magnification	the increase in the concentration of chemicals in the tissues as the chemical moves through the food chain; organisms higher in the food chain have higher concentrations of chemicals that bioaccumulate	140
12078031459	hormones	chemical messengers, mostly those manufactured by the endocrine glands, that are produced in one tissue and affect another	141
12078031460	endocrine disrupter	chemicals that mimic or interfere with the function of the endocrine system in humans or wildlife	142
12078031461	toxicant	chemicals harmful to human health	143
12078031462	acute toxicity	harmful effects that occur shortly after exposure to a toxic chemical	144
12078031463	chronic toxicity	harmful effects that result from extended exposure to a toxin or long after an exposure to a toxin	145
12078031464	response	when used in reference to toxins, it is the harmful effect or damage resulting from exposure to a toxin	146
12078031465	LD50 or lethal dose 50%	the amount of a chemical that kills 50% of the animals in a test population	147
12078031466	ED50 or effective dose-50%	the dose of toxin that affects 50% of the population (the effects may be beneficial as in pain relief OR harmful as in causing vomiting).	148
12078031467	TC50 or toxic concentration-50%	compare with the TD50 except exposure is generally by inhalation or contact.	149
12078031468	carcinogen	cancer causing chemical (carcinogenic chemical)	150
12078031469	toxicology	study of the effects of toxic chemicals on health	151
12078031470	epidemiology	the study of populations of people to assess the effects of chemicals and diseases on health	152
12078031471	additive effects	when the combined effects of a mixture of chemicals is the sum of their individual effects	153
12078031472	synergistic effects	combined effects of two pollutants are greater than the sum of their separate effects	154
12078031473	antagonistic effect	one chemical interferes with the action of another	155
12078031474	dispersal	movement of individuals from one region to another (includes immigration and emigration)	156
12078031475	immigration	movement of individuals into an area	157
12078031476	emigration	movement of individuals out of an area	158
12078031477	intrinsic rate of increase (biotic potential)	maximum rate a population can increase under ideal conditions	159
12078031478	exponential growth	accelerating growth that results from a constant rate of change over time (produces a J-shaped growth curve as the populations grows faster and faster the larger it gets)	160
12078031479	environmental resistence	limits to population size set by factors such as the availability of food, water, space, shelter and limits set by disease	161
12078031480	carrying capacity (K)	the maximum population a particular environment can sustainably support for an indefinite period of time	162
12078031481	logistic population growth	an S-shaped population growth curve that results when small populations no where near the carrying capacity grow very rapidly then level off at or near the carrying capacity	163
12078031482	density-dependent factors	environmental factors whose effects on a population increase as the population density increases (Examples: disease, predation, competition for food)	164
12078031483	density-independent factors	environmental factors whose effects on a population are not influenced by the density of the population (Examples: flood, fire, hurricanes)	165
12078031484	survivorship	the probability a given individual will survive to a particular age	166
12078031485	demography	branch of sociology that involves the study of population statistics and describes the populations of countries, regions and ethnic groups of people	167
12078031486	demographic transition	the demographic stages a country goes through as it changes from a preindustrial society to an industrial society	168
12078031487	age structure	a description of the proportion and number of people in each age class in a population	169
12078031488	total fertility rate	average number of children borne per woman during her lifetime	170
12078031489	food insecurity	condition in which people live in hunger or fear of hunger	171
12078031490	economic development	expansion of a government's economy; seen by many as the best way to raise the standard of living	172
12078031491	culture	ideas and customs of a group of people at a given period of time. It is passed on from generation to generation but evolves over time.	173
12078031492	family planning services	Services that enable men and women to limit family size, safeguard individual health rights, and improve the quality of life for themselves and their children	174
12078031493	population growth momentum	continued growth of a population after the fertility rate decreases as a result of having a large percentage of the population in pre-reproductive and reproductive years	175
12078031494	pronatalist	a person who is in favor of population growth	176
12078031495	energy density	the amount of energy contained in a given volume or mass of an energy source	177
12078031496	hydrocarbon	molecules containing only carbon and hydrogen	178
12078031497	resource recovery	process of removing material such as sulfur or heavy metals from emissions or solid waste and selling it as a resource of value	179
12078031498	fluidized-bed combustion	A clean-coal technology in which crushed coal is mixed with limestone and burned in a strong current of air; reduces SOx and NOx emissions	180
12078031499	structural traps	underground geologic structures that trap oil or gas if it is present	181
12078031500	synfuel	A liquid or gaseous fuel synthesized from coal or other naturally occurring sources and used in place of oil or natural gas.	182
12078031501	fossil fuels	coal, oil, and natural gas	183
12078031502	methane	CH4; the primary component of natural gas and a powerful greenhouse gas	184
12078031503	energy efficiency	using less energy to accomplish a given task (ex: designing more fuel-efficient automobiles or light bulbs)	185
12078031504	cogeneration	simultaneous production of two useful forms of energy from the same fuel Ex: using coal to generate electricity and using the waste heat to heat buildings	186
12078031505	hydraulic fracturing (fracking)	Pumping chemicals, water, and sand under high pressure into underground rock to recover natural gas or oil	187
12078031506	tar sands	mixture of clay, sand, water and bitumen. Bitumen (a thick asphalt-like material) can be extracted and refined into oil.	188
12078031507	boreal forest (taiga)	biome limited to the northern hemisphere, coniferous trees (spruce and fir) with waxy needles to reduce water loss, cold and long winters	189
12078031508	temperate deciduous forest	moderate rainfall spread out fairly evenly through year, dominant vegetation deciduous trees (lose their leaves during winter) such as oak and maple, cold winters and warm summers	190
12078031509	grassland	dominant vegetation is grass and other nonwoody plants, hot to warm summers and cool to cold winters, less precipitation than temperate forests but more than deserts, frequent fire	191
12078031510	chaparral	mild winters with abundant rainfall, very dry summers, dominant vegetation is shrubs and small trees with small, leathery leaves to reduce water loss	192
12078031511	tundra	long cold winters, permafrost, lichens and low growing plants are dominant vegetation, also scattered stunted trees and shrubs	193
12078031512	desert	very low precipitation, may be very hot or cold depending on latitude, dominant plants are cacti, many animals are nocturnal	194
12078031513	tropical rainforest	warm year round, rainy season and dry season but overall high precipitation and enough rain falls even during the dry season to support forest growth, poor soil, extremely high biodiversity	195
12078031514	temperate rainforest	high annual precipitation, cool but not cold winters, coastal fog, characterized by large, long lived evergreens such as Douglas fir and Western hemlock, found in a few limited areas including the Pacific northwest coast	196
12078031515	savanna	warm year round, seasonal rainfall with extended dry periods, dominant vegetation is grasses with scattered trees	197
12078031516	tropical dry forest	warm year round but with an extended dry season, dominant vegetation is deciduous trees that have small leaves they lose during the dry season	198
12078031517	nuclear energy	energy released by the fission or fusion of the nuclei of atoms	199
12078031656	fission	splitting the nuclei of atoms into smaller fragments and in the process releasing large amounts of energy	200
12078031657	fusion	fusing together the nuclei of small atoms into a larger atom of a different element and in the process releasing large amounts of energy	201
12078031658	atomic number	number of protons in a atom (a unique number for each element)	202
12078031659	mass number	the sum of the number of neutrons and protons in an atom	203
12078031660	isotope	forms of an element that have different mass numbers	204
12078031661	radioactive decay	the breakdown of unstable nuclei that is accompanied by the release of radiation (alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays)	205
12078031662	enrichment	the process of refining uranium ore to increase the concentration of U-235	206
12078031663	breeder reactor	type of nuclear power plant in which nonfissionable U-238 is converted into fissionable Pu-239	207
12078031664	spent fuel	used fuel elements from a nuclear reactor	208
12078031665	low-level radioactive waste	radioactive solids, liquids or gases that give off small amounts of ionizing radiation	209
12078031666	high-level radioactive waste	radioactive solids, liquids or gases that give off large amounts of ionizing radiation	210
12078031667	infrared energy	heat	211
12078031668	passive solar heating	using the sun's energy without using mechanical devices to distribute the heat	212
12078031669	active solar heating	using a series of collectors to absorb the sun's energy and pumps or fans to distribute the collected heat	213
12078031670	solar thermal electric generation	producing electricity by the use of mirrors or lenses to concentrate sunlight and heat a fluid-filled pipe or Stirling engine	214
12078031671	photovoltaic solar cell	converts sunlight directly to electricity	215
12078031672	biomass	plant material, including undigested fiber in animal waste, used as fuel	216
12078031673	wind energy	electric or mechanical energy obtained from wind (resulting from the uneven heating of the surface of the Earth creating differences in atmospheric pressure)	217
12078031674	hydropower	generation of electrical or mechanical energy from falling or flowing water	218
12078031675	geothermal energy	use of energy from within the Earth's interior for space heating or the generation of electricity	219
12078031676	tidal energy	use of the ebb and flow of tides to generate electricity	220
12078031677	energy conservation	using less energy by reducing use and waste (ex: carpooling, reducing driving speeds, or shutting off lights that are not in use)	221
12078031678	fuel cell	device that directly converts chemical energy into electricity without needing to produce steam and use a turbine and generator. Fuel cells use combine the fuel (hydrogen) with oxygen from the air	222
12078031679	alpha particles	a type of ionizing radiation	223
12078031680	half-life	The time required for half the atoms in a sample of a radioactive isotope to decay.	224
12078031681	deforestation	the temporary or permanent conversion of forests to land for agriculture, suburban development or other uses	225
12078031682	landscape ecology	the study of ecological processes over large areas and multiple ecosystems found in a region	226
12078031683	biosphere	parts of the Earth that contain living organisms	227
12078031684	open system	A system in which matter and energy can enter from or escape to the surroundings.	228
12078031685	closed system	a self-contained system that does not exchange energy or matter with its surroundings	229
12078031686	gross primary productivity	the total amount of energy captured and assimilated by plants by photosynthesis in a given period of time	230
12078031687	net primary productivity	the rate at which organic matter accumulates into plant tissue	231
12078031688	El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)	periodic, large-scale warming of surface waters of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean that affects both oceanic and atmospheric circulation patterns	232
12078031689	metapopulation	a group of spatially separated populations of the same species	233
12078031690	endocrine disruptor	a chemical that mimics or interferes with the actions of the endocrine system	234
12078031691	brownfields	an urban area of abandoned, vacant buildings and lots whose redevelopment is hindered due to possible contamination	235
12078031692	food desert	neighborhoods with little access to nutritious, fresh foods	236
12078031693	urban heat island	local heat buildup in areas of high population density	237
12078031694	dust dome	dome of heated air surrounding urban areas that contains higher concentration of air pollution	238
12078031695	compact development	design of cities in which tall, multiple-unit residential buildings are close to shopping and jobs, and all are connected by public transport	239
12078031696	suburban sprawl	expansion of human populations away from central urban areas into low-density and usually car-dependent communities	240
12078031697	payback time	time needed to recover the cost of an investment through energy savings and longer product life	241
12078031698	smart grid	efficient, self-regulating electricity distribution network that accepts any source of electricity and distributes it automatically to end users	242
12078031699	zero net energy buildings	buildings that produce as much or more energy than they use	243
12078031700	subsidies	government support (such as public financing or tax breaks) of businesses or institutions to promote that group's business or activity	244
12078031701	acid mine drainage	pollution caused when sulfuric acid and dissolved chemicals such as lead, arsenic, and cadmium flow from coal and metal mines into nearby lakes and streams	245
12078031702	moderator	often water, it slows neutrons so they are traveling at the proper speed to split U-235 atoms	246
12078031703	vitrification	solidifying liquid high-level radioactive by mixing it with molten glass	247
12078031704	primary air pollutant	a harmful substance released directly into the atmosphere	248
12078031705	secondary air pollutant	a harmful substance that forms in the atmosphere as a result of chemical reactions between primary air pollutants or other chemicals normally found in the atmosphere	249
12078031706	particulates	solid or liquid particles suspended in the air	250
12078031707	hydrocarbons	compounds containing only hydrogen and carbon	251
12078031708	mobile sources	pollution from cars, trucks, planes and other sources of transportation	252
12078031709	stationary sources	air pollution from power plants, homes, industries, etc.	253
12078031710	ozone	pale blue gas that is a secondary pollutant in the troposphere but shields us from UV in the stratosphere	254
12078031711	volatile organic compounds (VOCs)	organic compounds that evaporate easily at room temperature	255
12078031712	temperature inversion (thermal inversion)	when a layer of cold air is trapped beneath a layer of warm air causing air pollutants to accumulate close to ground level	256
12078031713	ultraviolet radiation	part of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths that are just shorter than visible light	257
12078031714	Montreal Protocol	an international agreement to phase out the use of CFCs and other ozone depleting chemicals	258
12078031715	global distillation effect	the process whereby volatile chemicals evaporate from land as far away as the tropics and are carried by air currents to higher latitudes where they condense and fall to the ground.	259
12078031716	cap and trade	The government allots permits to businesses to emit certain amounts of pollution. Companies can choose whether to use their permit to emit pollution or to reduce their emissions and sell their permit. Over time, the cap shrinks and less pollution is permitted.	260
12078121901	Paris Agreement	agreement signed by 195 countries in 2015 to limit climate change to below 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels	261