This work is part of the Erasmus+ and eTwinning project Hello, Dear Cli-Mates.

This eco-friendly dictionary has been developed by students and teachers from the partner schools in Romania, Turkey, Spain and Italy.

Each school involved in the project has contributed with environment and climate change related entries.

A

Air    The invisible gaseous substance surrounding the earth, a mixture mainly of oxygen and nitrogen.

Atmosphere    The gaseous envelope surrounding the Earth. The dry atmosphere consists almost entirely of nitrogen (78.1% volume mixing ratio) and oxygen (20.9% volume mixing ratio), together with a number of trace gasses, such as argon (0.93% volume mixing ratio), helium, radiatively active greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide (0.035% volume mixing ratio), and ozone. In addition the atmosphere contains water vapor, whose amount is highly variable but typically 1% volume mixing ratio. The atmosphere also contains clouds and aerosols.

A

Adaptation    Changes in processes, practices and structures to

 help cope with the effects of climate change - such as building 

flood defenses or switching to drought-resistant crops.

Anthropogenic    Made by people or resulting from human activities. Usually used in the context of emissions that are produced as a result of human activities.

Abrupt Climate Change    Sudden (on the order of decades), large changes in some major component of the climate system, with rapid, widespread effects.

Aerosols    Small particles or liquid droplets in the atmosphere that can absorb or reflect sunlight depending on their composition.

Alternative Energy    Energy derived from nontraditional sources (e.g., compressed natural gas, solar, hydroelectric, wind).

Biodiversity    A wide range of living organisms, such as animals and plants, in an environment. Biodiversity is essential for ecosystems to survive. For example, without plants, there would be no oxygen - and without bees to pollinate, there would be no fruit or nuts. The total diversity of all organisms and ecosystems at various spatial scales (from genes to entire biomes).

Biomass/biofuel    Any organic matter that comes from plants and animals, such as cow dung, corn crops or wood chips that can be used for renewable energy. Biofuel is the fuel derived from biomass. The UK considers biofuel renewable, but some scientists say it is not as it emits CO2.

Biogeochemical Cycle    Movements through the Earth system of key chemical constituents essential to life, such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus.

 Biosphere    The part of the Earth system comprising all ecosystems and living organisms, in the atmosphere, on land (terrestrial biosphere) or in the oceans (marine biosphere), including derived dead organic matter, such as litter, soil organic matter and oceanic detritus.

Black Carbon    Black carbon (BC) is the most strongly light-absorbing component of particulate matter (PM), and is formed by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuels, and biomass. It is emitted directly into the atmosphere in the form of fine particles (PM2.5). 

Borehole    Any exploratory hole drilled into the Earth or ice to gather geophysical data. Climate researchers often take ice core samples, a type of borehole, to predict atmospheric composition in earlier years.

Barrier    Any obstacle to reaching a goal, adaptation or mitigation potential that can be overcome or attenuated by a policy, program, or measure.

 Basin    The drainage area of a stream, river or lake.

Benthic community    The community of organisms living on or near the bottom of a water body such as a river, a lake or an ocean.

Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)    The amount of dissolved oxygen consumed by microorganisms (bacteria) in the biochemical oxidation of organic and inorganic matter in wastewater.

Biocovers    Layers placed on top of landfills that are biologically active in oxidizing methane into CO2.

Bioenergy    Energy derived from biomass.

Biofilters    Filters using biological material to filter or chemically process pollutants like oxidizing methane into CO2.

Biological options    Biological options for mitigation of climate change involve one or more of the three strategies: conservation, sequestration, substitution.

Biome    A biome is a major and distinct regional element of the biosphere, typically consisting of several ecosystems (e.g. forests, rivers, ponds, and swamps within a region). Biomes are characterized by typical communities of plants and animals.

Biota    All living organisms of an area; the flora and fauna considered as a unit.

Boreal forest    Forests of pine, spruce, fir and larch stretching from the east coast of Canada westward to Alaska and continuing from Siberia westward across the entire extent of Russia to the European Plain.

 Breakwater    A hard engineering structure built in the sea which, by breaking waves, protects a harbor, anchorage, beach or shore area. A breakwater can be attached to the coast or lie offshore.

Carbon cycle    The biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged between Earth's biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide    A colorless, odorless gas produced by burning carbon and organic compounds and by respiration. It is naturally present in air (about 0.03 per cent) and is absorbed by plants in photosynthesis.

Chemical ecology    A branch of ecology which studies the use by organisms of naturally occurring chemical compounds for various purposes.

Climate    The weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period.

Climate change    A change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.

Climatology    The scientific study of climate, defined as weather conditions averaged over a long period of time.

Coal    A black brown sedimentary rock with combustible properties formed by carbonization  (enrichment in carbon and absence of oxygen) of the remains of some plants from geological epochs.

Cryosphere    One of the interrelated components of the 

Earth's system, the cryosphere is frozen water in the form 

of snow, permanently frozen ground (permafrost), floating 

ice, and glaciers. Fluctuations in the volume of the cryosphere cause changes in ocean sea level, which directly impact the atmosphere and biosphere.

Deforestation    The practice of clear-cutting all the trees of forests by humans for wood products, for croplands and grazing lands which completely destroys the forest. In some cases, however, even accidental fires thin out the trees enough to change the forest structure dramatically.

Dress recycling    Textile recycling is the process of recovering fiber, yarn or fabric and reprocessing the textile material into useful products. The end result of this processing can vary from the production of energy and chemicals to new articles of clothing.

Drink water    Water that is clean enough to drink.

Drought    Lack or insufficiency of rain for an extended period that causes a considerable hydrologic (water) imbalance and, consequently, water shortages, crop damage, streamflow reduction, and depletion of groundwater and soil moisture. It may be the result of climate change.

Desertification    Desertification, also called desertization, is the process by which natural or human causes reduce the biological productivity of drylands. Declines in productivity may be the result of climate change, deforestation, overgrazing, unsustainable irrigation practices, or combinations of these factors.

Eco friendly    Environment friendly processes or marketing terms referring to goods and services (also referred to as nature-friendly, and green), which are sustainable,  producing minimal, or no harm upon ecosystems or the environment.

Ecolabel    Ecolabels (also "Eco-Labels") and Green Stickers are labeling systems for food and consumer products. They are a form of sustainability measurement directed at consumers, intended to make it easy to take environmental concerns into account when shopping.

Ecology    Also called bioecology, bionomics, or environmental biology, it is the study of the relationships between organisms and their environment. Some of the most pressing problems in human affairs are expanding populations, food scarcity, environmental pollution including global warming, extinctions of plants and animal species.

Ecosystem    Ecosystem is the complex of living organisms, their physical environment, and all their interrelationships in a particular unit of space.

Electricity    Electricity is a phenomenon associated with stationary or moving electric charges. Electric charge is a fundamental property of matter and is borne by elementary particles. In electricity the particle involved is the electron, which carries a charge designated, by convention, as negative.

Emissions    An amount of something, especially a gas, that harms the environment, that is sent out into the air.

Energy    Energy, in physics,is the capacity for doing work. It may exist in potential, kinetic, thermal, electrical, chemical, nuclear, or other various forms like heat and work. After it has been transferred, energy is always designated according to its nature. Heat transferred may become thermal energy, while work done may manifest itself in the form of mechanical energy.

Energy efficiency    Efficient use of energy, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal of reducing the amount of energy required to provide products and services, and can also reduce the effects of air pollution.

Energy saving    Energy saving is the effort made to reduce the consumption of energy by using less of an energy service. This can be achieved either by using energy more efficiently (using less energy for a constant service) or by reducing the amount of service used (for example, by driving less).

Energy source    Energy extracted or captured directly from natural sources.There are renewable resources which include sources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal power, and  nonrenewable resources like fossil fuels, which are being used far more quickly than they are being replenished. Although most renewable energy sources are sustainable, some are not. For example, some biomass sources are considered unsustainable at current rates of exploitation.

Flood    A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land that is usually dry. Climate change and sea level rise, human changes to the environment (deforestation and removal of wetlands, changes in waterway course or flood controls like levees) often increase the intensity and frequency of flooding.

Food chain   A food chain is a linear network of links among living beings, starting from producer organisms (such as grass or trees which use radiation from the Sun to make their food via photosynthesis) and ending at  predator species (like grizzly bears or killer whales), detritivores (like earthworms or woodlice), or decomposer species (such as fungi or bacteria). A food chain shows how organisms are related to each other by the food they eat.

Food waste    It is a food loss which occurs at all stages of the food supply chain – production, processing, sales, and consumption. When we waste food, we also waste all the energy and water it takes to grow, harvest, transport, and package it. And if food goes to the landfill and rots, it produces methane—a greenhouse gas even more powerful than carbon dioxide.

Footprint    The impact that a particular activity, person, or group has on the environment. The ecological footprint measures how fast we consume resources and generate waste.

Forest    Complex ecological system in which trees are the dominant life form. It can occur wherever the temperatures rise above 10 °C (50 °F) in the warmest months and the annual precipitation is more than 200 mm (8 inches).

Fossil fuel        Any of a class of hydrocarbon containing materials of biological origin occurring within Earth’s crust that can be used as a source of energy.

Geography    The scientific study of the Earth’s surface, physical features, divisions, products and population.

Geology    The scientific study of the physical structure of the Earth, including the origin and history of the rocks and soil of which the earth is made.

Glacier    A slow-moving mass or river of ice, formed from snow on mountains or near the North or South Poles.

Global warming    The increase in temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere that is caused by the increase of particular gases, especially carbon dioxide.

Grassland    A large area of open land covered with wild grass.

Greenhouse effect    The problem of the slow steady rise in temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere, caused by an increase of gases such as carbon dioxide in the air surrounding the Earth, which trap the heat of the Sun.

Greenhouse gas    Any of the gases that are thought to cause the greenhouse effect, especially carbon dioxide.

Grey water    The water that has been used before (e.g. washing), and can be stored and used again in toilets, for example.

Ground water    Underground water that is held in the soil and rocks.

Habitat    The place where a particular type of animal or plant is normally found.

Heavy metals    The elements that have a relatively high density and is toxic or poisonous such as arsenic.

Hydrology    The scientific study of the Earth’s water, especially its movement in relation to land.

Heat    The quality of being hot or the act of making something such as food hot.

Herbicide    A chemical that is poisonous to plants, used to kill plants that are growing where they are not wanted.

Hydrosphere    All of the water on or over the Earth’s surface.

Iceberg    An extremely large mass of ice floating in the sea.

Jungle    Wild land overgrown with thick, dense plant life, often nearly impossible to penetrate.

Kilowatt    One thousand watts, a watt being a unit of measure of power, or how fast energy is used. Kilowatts are typically used to describe intermediate quantities of power, such as power usage in a home.

Kilowatt Hour (kwh)    A unit of measure for energy, typically applied to electricity usage. It is equal to the amount of energy used at a rate of 1000 watts over the course of one hour.

Lagoon    An artificial pool for storage and treatment of polluted or excessively hot sewage, industrial waste.

Lake    An expanse of water entirely surrounded by land and unconnected to the sea except by rivers or streams.

Landfill    The process of getting rid of large amounts of rubbish by burying it, or a place where rubbish is buried.

Landscape    To improve the appearance of (an area of land, a highway, etc.), as by planting trees, shrubs, or grass, or altering the contours of the ground.

Land-use change    A change in the use or management of land by humans, which may lead to a change in land cover. Land cover and land-use change may have an impact on properties of the climate system, and may thus have an impact on climate, locally or globally.

Leakage    A reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases within the state that is offset by an increase in emissions of greenhouse gases outside the state.

Life-support system    The natural structures and systems that are necessary for living things, especially humans, to be able to live.

Light emitting diode (LED)    A device composed of a semiconducting material that emits light upon the application of an electric current. LEDs produce light from electricity more efficiently than either compact fluorescent lights or incandescent lights.

Lıght pollutıon    Unwanted artificial light that has a negative effect on the environment.

Litter    Small pieces of rubbish that have been left lying on the ground in public places.

Litterbug    Someone who drops rubbish on the ground in public places.

Low emission zone    An area of a city that vehicles that produce more than a low level of harmful emissions (waste gases) must pay to enter.

Low-energy    Using less electricity or other fuel than other similar things.

Lumen    A unit of luminous flux represents the amount of light emitted that is visible to the human eye. It is used in measuring and comparing the amount of light visible to the human eye produced by lamps such as light-emitting diodes, compact fluorescent lights, and incandescent bulbs.

Maritime climate    A maritime climate occurs in regions whose climatic characteristics are conditioned by their position close to a sea or an ocean.

Mass extinction    Any substantial increase in the amount of extinction (lineage termination) suffered by more than one geographically wide-spread higher taxon during a relatively short interval of geologic time.

Megadrought    A severe drought lasting for two or more decades.

Megafire    It is an extraordinary fire that devastates a large area. They are characterized by their intensity, size, duration, and uncontrollable dimension.

Melting poles    It is a consequence of climate change.

Methane    A gas with no smell or colour, often used as a fuel.

Migration    Movement of a person either across an international border(international migration), or within a state (internal migration) for more than one year irrespective of the causes, voluntary or involuntary, and the means, regular or irregular, used to migrate.

Mitigation     Making something less harmful, unpleasant or bad.

Natural gas    An odorless, colorless gas found in the Earth. Natural gas is a type of fossil fuel.

Nature    All the plants, creatures, and things that exist in the world that are not made by people.

Nitrogen    A gas that has no colour and smell and is the main part of the air.

Non renewable resources    It is a natural substance that is not replenished with the speed at which it is consumed. Its supply is finite.

Nuclear energy    The energy released during nuclear fission or fusion, especially when used to generate electricity.

Nuclear pollution    Also called Radioactive contamination, is the deposition of, or presence of radioactive substances on surfaces or within solids, liquids, or ...

Ocean acidification    Refers to a reduction in the pH of the ocean over an extended period of time, caused primarily by uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.

Oil-slick     A film or layer of oil floating on an expanse of water.

Organic    Not using artificial chemicals in the growing of plants and animals for food and other products.

Oxidize    If a substance oxidizes, it combines with oxygen and loses hydrogen to form another substance, and if something oxidizes a substance, it causes it to do this.

Oxygen    A gas in the air that people and animals need to breath.

Ozone    A form of oxygen that has a strong smell.

Ozone-friendly    A product that does not produce gases that are not harmful to the ozone layer.

Ozone layer    A layer of gases around the earth that protects it from the sun’s heat.

Planet    A large, round object in space that moves around the sun or another star.

Plant    A living thing that grows in the soil or water and has leaves and roots, especially one that is smaller than a tree.

Plastic     A light, artificial substance that can be made into different shapes when it is soft and is used in a lot of different ways.

Plastic pollution    The accumulation of plastic waste in the environment which negatively affects all living things and their habitat.

Polar    Relating to the North or South Pole.

Polar bear    A large, white bear that lives in the Arctic.

Pollution    Damage caused to water, air, etc by harmful substances or waste.

Preserve    To keep something the same or prevent it from being damaged or destroyed.

Prevent    To stop something happening or to stop someone doing something.

Protect    To keep someone or something safe from something dangerous or bad.

Quag     An area of wet ground that you can sink into.

Quake    A sudden movement of the Earth's surface, often causing severe damage.

Quench    To pour water over plants.

Radiation    A form of energy that comes from a nuclear reaction and that in large amounts can be very dangerous.

Radioactive    Containing harmful radiation.

Rain    Water that falls from the sky in small drops.

Rainforest    A forest with a lot of tall trees where it rains a lot.

Ray    A narrow beam of light, heat, or energy.

Reduce    To make something less.

Renewable energy    Energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale.

Reuse    To find a new use for something so that it does not have to be thrown away.

River    A long, natural area of water that flows across the land and into a sea, lake, or another river.

Rock    The hard, natural substance that forms part of the Earth's surface.

Sand    A substance that is found on beaches and in deserts, which is made from very small grains of rock.

Save    To stop someone or something from being killed or destroyed.

Sea-level rise    An increase in the level of the world’s oceans due to the effects of global warming.

Soil    The top layer of earth that plants grow in.

Solar panel    A piece of equipment that changes light from the sun into electricity.

Solar power    Energy that uses the power of the sun.

Sun    The large, bright star that shines in the sky during the day and provides light and heat for the Earth.

Thermal energy    It is the heat (or cold) used to produce something. Thermal emissions include the greenhouse gases released from the processes of heating and cooling.

Thermometer    An instrument for measuring temperature. It usually consists of a narrow glass tube containing a thin column of a liquid which rises and falls as the temperature rises and falls.

Thunderstorm     A thunderstorm is a storm in which there is thunder and lightning and a lot of heavy rain.

Tidal power    The use of the rise and fall of tides involving very large volumes of water at low heads to generate electric power.

Tornado    A violent wind storm consisting of a tall column of air which spins round very fast and causes a lot of damage.

Toxic    A toxic substance is poisonous.

Transition    The period of time during which something changes from one state or stage to another. Energy transition is the shift from an energy mix based on fossil fuels to one that produces very limited, if not zero, carbon emissions, based on renewable energy sources.

Unleaded petrol    Petrol containing a reduced amount of tetraethyl lead. Unleaded petrol does not release lead 

compounds from exhaust fumes into the atmosphere and causes less pollution.

Unsustainable    Maintained at a steady level exhausting natural resources or causing severe ecological damage.

Ultraviolet    Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation that comes from the sun. Climate change may have indirectly influenced the levels of UV radiation in the past by altering the amounts of ozone, UV-absorbing tropospheric gases, aerosols, and clouds in the atmosphere.  

Urbanization    The process by which large numbers of people become permanently concentrated in relatively small areas, forming cities. Urban areas are major contributors to climate change.

Use up    To consume entirely.

Vegetation    Plants, trees, and flowers can be referred to as vegetation. It influences the amount of water vapor and carbon dioxide in the air.

Vehicle    A vehicle is a machine such as a car, bus, or truck which has an engine and is used to carry people from place to place. The principal emissions from motor vehicles (by volume) are greenhouse gases, which contribute to climate change.

Volcano    A volcano is a mountain from which hot melted rock, gas, steam, and ash from inside the Earth sometimes burst. 

Waste    The materials which are no longer needed and are thrown away.

Waste disposal   The collection, processing and recycling or deposition of the waste materials of human society. The process of getting rid of unwanted materials or substances.

Waste water    Contaminated water with waste substances from homes, factories and farms.

Wastewater Treatment Plant    A place or factory that is set to clean the water from certain chemicals.

Water    A liquid without any colour, smell or taste that falls as rain and exists in lakes, rivers and seas, and used for drinking, washing, and many other purposes.

Water footprint    An environmental indicator that measures the volume of fresh water used throughout the entire production chain of a consumer item or service.

Water supply   The water provided for a town, an area or a building; the act of or system for supplying water to a town, city or certain area. 

Water vapor    Water in the form of a gas that results from the heating water or ice.

Watershed    A line of high land where streams on one side flow into one river, and streams on the other side flow into a different river.

Watercycle    The way that water is taken up from the sea, rivers, lake, soil, etc. and then the way it comes back down as rain or snow.

Wave    A raised line of water that moves across the surface of the sea, ocean, river or lake.

WCC    The acronym for World Climate Conference.

Weather    The condition of the atmosphere at a particular place and time, such as the temperature.

Wetlands    An area of land that is naturally wet most or all of the time.

Wildlife    Animals, birds, insects, etc. that are wild and live in a natural environment.

Wind power    Electricity produced using wind turbines, wind energy.

Winter    The coldest season coming after Autumn.

World    The Earth.

WWF    World Wide Fund for Nature: A well-known foundation set to protect wildlife and environment.

Xenon    A chemical element which is a gas that is found in very small quantities in the air, the troposphere which is the lowest layer of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Xeric    A land which is mostly dry and without humidity.

Xerophile    An organism that can even flourish in a very dry environment.

Yard    A piece of land next to or around houses where people can grow fruit, vegetables, flowers or other plants.

Yield    The total amount of crops, profits, etc. that are produced.

Zero emission    Used to describe a vehicle that does not produce gases which cause air pollution.

Zero waste    Not producing any waste material.

Zoning    The practice of allowing areas of land to be used only for particular purposes.

Zoology    The scientific study of animals and their behaviour on Earth.