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Week 13 Vocabulary for Environmental Science

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Term
Definition
pollutant   Anything that contaminates the soil, water or the air  
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Air pollution   any unwanted pollutant (chemical, particulate matter, or biological material) in the air which causes harm to humans and the environment  
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primary pollutants   pollutants that are emitted directly into the atmosphere  
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secondary pollutant   form when a primary pollutant comes in contact with other primary pollutants or naturally occurring substances  
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Sulfur oxides (SOx)   produced by volcanoes and in various industrial processes  
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Nitrogen oxides (NOx)   emitted from high temperature combustion; reddish-brown toxic gas has a characteristic sharp, biting odor  
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Carbon monoxide   a colorless, odorless, non-irritating but very poisonous gas. It is a product of incomplete combustion of fuel such as natural gas, coal or wood  
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Carbon dioxide (CO2)   a greenhouse gas emitted from combustion; a natural gas in the atmosphere  
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Volatile organic compounds   a major indoor air pollutant, often divided into the separate categories of methane (CH4) and non-methane (NMVOCs); significant greenhouse gases  
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Particulate matter   tiny particles of solid or liquid suspended in a gas;originating from volcanoes, dust storms, forest and grassland fires, living vegetation, and sea spray; burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, power plants and various industrial processes  
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Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)   harmful to the ozone layer; emitted from products currently banned from use such as aerosols, refrigerants, etc.  
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Ammonia (NH3)   emitted from agricultural processes; a gas with a characteristic pungent odor  
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Odors   from garbage, sewage, and industrial processes  
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Radioactive pollutants   produced by nuclear explosions, war explosives, and natural processes such as the radioactive decay of radon  
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Smog   smoke/fog which results from large amounts of coal burning in an area or auto and industrial emissions; caused by a mixture of smoke and sulfur dioxide  
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Ground level ozone   formed from NOx and VOCs; At abnormally high concentrations brought about by human activities (largely the combustion of fossil fuel), it is a pollutant, and a constituent of smog when close to earth's surface  
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combustion   also called burning  
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Ozone   a poisonous form of oxygen, harmful at Earth's surface, but helpful by blocking radiation from the sun when it is in the atmosphere  
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acid rain   occurs when pollution in the air is carried to the Earth with rain or snow, mostly caused by air pollution from factories that burn fossil fuels and by vehicles  
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pH scale   measures the amount of acid in a substance  
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EPA   Environmental Protection Agency: protects human health and the environment through the regulatory process and voluntary programs such as Energy Star and Commuter Choice  
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Clean Air Act   the law that allows the EPA to set limits on how much of a pollutant is allowed in the air anywhere in the United States  
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Air Quality Index (AQI)   a "public-friendly" way of using actual monitoring data to help assess how clean our air is;The color codes, which range from green to purple, correspond to specific pollution levels  
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greenhouse effect   warming of earth's atmosphere caused by atmospheric gases that trap the heat from the sun's rays  
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Greenhouse gas   molecules of gas that allow the passage of visible and UV radiation from incoming sunlight, but they absorb the longer wavelength infrared (heat) radiated from the warm earth  
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Heat   the total kinetic energy of all atoms or molecules in a substance  
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Temperature   the measure of the average kinetic energy within a body  
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heat budget   The measurement of energy absorbed and the amount of energy lost by the Earth to space  
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climatology   the study of our climate  
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