- Industry: Broadcasting & receiving
- Number of terms: 5074
- Number of blossaries: 1
- Company Profile:
The largest broadcasting organisation in the world.
A chemical combination of two or more elements, such as carbon and oxygen in carbon dioxide (CO2).
Industry:Natural environment
Broadly speaking, any ex-Soviet bloc state. At the time the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997, these countries were on the path from a Communist planned economy to a market economy. Many of them would now be categorised as market economies. Countries in transition to a market economy are grouped with industrialised countries in Annex I of the Kyoto Protocol, so they have emission reduction commitments to meet in the 2008-2012 period. In some cases their industrial base collapsed to such a degree in the early 1990s that they will have no difficulty meeting these commitments
Industry:Natural environment
Dangerous climate change is a term introduced by the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change - the treaty that led to the Kyoto protocol. In general terms, it refers to climate change of sufficient severity that it will have a major effect on societies, economies and the wider environment. The definition of what that level is varies, but Defra, for example, defines it as a rise in average global surface temperatures of 1-3 ºC (taking pre-industrial revolution average surface temperatures as the base).
Industry:Natural environment
The permanent removal of standing forests that can lead to significant levels of carbon dioxide emissions.
Industry:Natural environment
Deforestation is the conversion, long term, of areas of forested land to non-forested land through human activity. (Where cleared areas are quickly replanted, it is not regarded as deforestation.) Reforestation is the reversal of that process - i.e. planting trees on land that has historically been forested but has recently been used for other purposes. A less commonly seen term, afforestation, refers to the process of establishing forests on land that has never been forested, or not in recent history.
Industry:Natural environment
Ordinary diesel, like regular petrol, is refined from oil but it is a thicker, heavier liquid with a higher 'energy density' - meaning it offers better fuel economy. On the down side, unless you buy an air filter, diesel exhaust is a significant source of particulates and other sources of air pollution. A type of diesel not derived from petroleum is increasingly widely available, commonly referred to as biodiesel.
Industry:Natural environment
Dioxins are chlorine-containing chemical compounds formed and emitted into the atmosphere usually as byproducts of human activity - waste incineration and fuel combustion being common examples. They are also formed by natural processes such as forest fires and volcanoes. Some dioxins have harmful properties and could, in sufficient concentration, be harmful to the environment and human health.
Industry:Natural environment
Eco-friendly, or environmentally friendly, is a term applied to goods, services, processes or people deemed to do minimal harm to the environment. The term is shorthand for 'ecologically friendly', ecology being the study of the relationships between living organisms and their environment.
Industry:Natural environment
An ecosystem is the term applied to the interaction of a community of different living (organic) species - plants, animals and micro-organisms - with non-living (or inorganic) factors, such as atmospheric gases, temperature and light. When the balance of an ecosystem is changed - by the introduction of new elements or dramatic rises in one or more of them - the normal functioning of the ecosystem can be disrupted.
Industry:Natural environment
Natural and industrial gases that trap heat from the Earth and warm the surface. The Kyoto Protocol restricts emissions of six greenhouse gases: natural (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane) and industrial (perfluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons, and sulphur hexafluoride).
Industry:Natural environment
