- Industry: Broadcasting & receiving
- Number of terms: 5074
- Number of blossaries: 1
- Company Profile:
The largest broadcasting organisation in the world.
Oil refining is the process of taking crude oil and turning it into fuels such as petrol and diesel. Crude oil varies in its composition, consisting of hydrocarbons and other organic compounds containing nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur. Refining oil requires energy and releases air-polluting chemicals. However, the majority of the CO2 produced by oil is emitted only once it has been turned into fuel and then burnt.
Industry:Natural environment
Acid rain is simply rain with higher than normal acidity. Its main cause is emissions of nitrogen and sulphur compounds from burning fossil fuels to power transport, power stations, forest fires, fertiliser and industry.
Industry:Natural environment
There is no universally accepted definition of organic farming, and each country regulates what can and cannot be labelled "organic". In general, it describes a form of agriculture that avoids use of synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, growth regulators, and livestock feed additives, and relies instead, as far as possible, on "natural" products and techniques - such as crop rotation and animal manures.
Industry:Natural environment
Action that helps cope with the effects of climate change - for example construction of barriers to protect against rising sea levels, or conversion to crops capable of surviving high temperatures and drought.
Industry:Natural environment
Ozone is made up of three oxygen atoms. It has benefits and dangers depending on where in our atmosphere it occurs: near ground level, it is a pollutant that affects respiration; 10-50km up, in the stratosphere, the ozone layer filters out potentially harmful ultraviolet rays (which cause skin cancer) from reaching the earth. Ozone also functions as a greenhouse gas, though it is considered a less potent one than CO2.
Industry:Natural environment
A fund for projects and programmes that help developing countries cope with the adverse effects of climate change. It is financed by a share of proceeds from emission-reduction programmes such as the Clean Development Mechanism.
Industry:Natural environment
Particulates - sometimes referred to as particulate matter or just particles - are tiny pieces of dust, soot and other materials suspended in the atmosphere. These can be produced naturally, by volcanoes or forest fires for example, but are also caused by incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, particularly from diesel engines. Because diesel is a denser fuel than petrol, it needs more oxygen for all its hydrocarbons to react completely, and the unburnt carbon - soot or black smoke - is emitted through the exhaust pipe.
Industry:Natural environment
An aerator is a device that breaks the flow from your shower head (or other water supply) into a finer spray of droplets - so you get just as wet while using less water.
Industry:Natural environment
Payback, or the payback period, is the time it takes for savings (often, in this context, in energy bills) to overtake the initial capital outlay on installation of an energy-saving device or system.
Industry:Natural environment
Air pollution usually refers to the presence of any chemical or particulate that alters the normal make-up of our atmosphere, causing direct threats to human health (such as breathing difficulties) or longer-term damage through its effects on our planet's ecosystem. Pollutants include smoke and dust, nitrogen oxides, methane, and the fumes from aerosol sprays and other solvents. Industrial processes and transport are major contributors to air pollution, but it can also be caused by natural processes such as forest fires and volcanoes. See also acid rain.
Industry:Natural environment
