Glossary of environmental terms, 2014-2017
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The following article is a glossary of the terms used in the Environmental Policy project. Each term on this page includes a brief definition. For more information, click on a term for a more in-depth article on the subject.
Note: If the term is not clickable, an expanded page has not yet been created. Ballotpedia staff are working on building those term pages on a regular basis.
Terms
- Endangered species: These species are classified by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as animal or plant species in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of their range.
- Natural resources: Natural resources are naturally-occurring things or objects that are for human needs, such as air, water, land, food as well as energy sources such as oil, natural gas, and coal.
- Solid waste: Solid waste refers to discarded materials that have been abandoned, recycled, or are considered non-useful. They are disposed of through storage or incineration.[1]
Environmental policy legislation
- Endangered Species Act: The Endangered Species Act gives the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service authority to classify species as threatened or endangered and to establish rules and regulations for the conservation of these species and their habitats.
- Clean Air Act: The Clean Air Act mandates national air quality standards to control air pollution. The law permits the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and enforce regulations to reduce airborne contaminants from various sources.
- Clean Water Act: The Clean Water Act requires the regulation of water pollutants from various sources such as industrial facilities, government buildings, and agricultural operations.
- Monitoring: Monitoring refers to the periodic or continuous sampling or measuring of air, water, and soils to determine their physical, chemical and biological status.[2]
EPA regulations
- Ground-level ozone standards: These standards are meant to limit ground-level ozone, commonly known as smog, as part of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) implemented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
- Clean Power Plan: The Clean Power Plan is the Obama administration's signature climate change policy. It permits the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide emissions at new and existing power plants under the Clean Air Act. The plan is meant to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2030.
Climate change terms
- Climate change: Climate change refers to significant shifts in various statistical measures of climate over decades, centuries, or more. These measures include temperature, precipitation, wind patterns, drought, storms, and more. Changes in the climate are caused by solar radiation, volcanic eruptions, and plate tectonics. The term is associated with global warming, which is an increase in global surface temperatures.
- Greenhouse gas: These gases, such as carbon dioxide, absorb infrared radiation in the atmosphere. Without greenhouse gases, Earth would be inhospitable for life, and scientists debate the extent to which higher greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere contribute to climate change.
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): The IPCC is a United Nations panel comprised of scientists, economists, and government administrators from various countries. The panel was organized to collect and assess scientific, technical, and socioeconomic information related to the theory of human-caused climate change.
- Carbon footprint: Carbon footprint is commonly used to refer to the total amount of greenhouse gases produced by an individual, household, building, organization, private company, or country over a particular period of time.
- Climate: Climate is defined as the statistical description of global weather over a period of months or years. The statistical quantities used to determine climate can include temperature, precipitation, and wind levels.
- Greenhouse effect: This is the process in which radiation from the sun is trapped in the Earth's atmosphere.
- Atmosphere : The atmosphere is a gaseous layer enveloping the earth. It is composed of several layers.[3]
- Anthropogenic : Anthropogenic is an adjective indicating that something is human-caused.[3]
- Ice core : Ice cores are cylindrical sections of ice removed from a glacier or an ice sheet. They are removed in order to reconstruct a rough timeline of climate variability since the Earth's formation.[3]
- Methane (CH4): Methane is a colorless, odorless, nontoxic, and flammable gas that is the main component of natural gas. It is a naturally occurring gas emitted from sources such as wetlands, oceans, sediments, wildfires, and volcanoes. Human beings cause methane to be emitted during livestock cultivation, natural gas extraction, and other industrial activities.
- Ozone layer: The ozone layer begins roughly nine miles above the Earth's surface. It shields the Earth from ultraviolet radiation from the sun.[3]
- Particulate matter: Particulate matter includes small pieces of solid or liquid matter like soot, dust, fumes, mists, or aerosol particles.[3]
- Sea surface temperature: Sea surface temperature is the temperature of the topmost feet of the ocean and is measured by ships, buoys, and drifters.[3]
Water terms
- Water contaminant: These contaminants are water-based organisms or particles, such as microorganisms, minerals, and chemicals.[4]
- Watershed: A watershed is an area of land that catches rain or snow.[4]
- National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES): NPDES is a federal program administered by the EPA for the regulation of water pollutants. Regulated industries are required to hold federal permits in order to operate.
- Discharge permit: This permit is issued by the EPA or an authorized state agency under the Clean Water Act. It allows a municipality or industry to discharge certain pollutants into particular bodies of water.[4]
- Groundwater: Groundwater is a supply of fresh water found beneath the Earth's surface and is a major source of drinking water.
- Nonpoint source pollution: Nonpoint source pollution refers to pollution that originates from multiple sources over a certain area.
- Point source pollution: Point source pollution refers to pollution discharged at specific locations, such as municipal wastewater treatment plants or industrial waste treatment facilities.
- Surface water: Surface water includes all water naturally open to the atmosphere, such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs, ponds, streams, impoundments, seas, and estuaries.[4]
- Wastewater: Wastewater refers to discharges from a sewage treatment plant.[4]
- Wastewater treatment: Wastewater treatment involves chemical, biological, and mechanical procedures to remove, reduce, or neutralize contaminants in water.[4]
- Water quality criteria: These criteria are used to measure whether a body of water is suitable for designated uses, such as recreation, swimming, fishing, or drinking.[4]
Land use terms
- Payments in lieu of taxes: These are federal payments to state or local governments to offset the losses these governments face as a result of non-taxable federal land.
- BLM grazing permit: This is a document authorizing grazing on federal land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
- Federal land: Federal lands are owned and managed by the United States federal government on behalf of the American people.
- State park: These areas are parks or protected areas managed by state governments. They are used for conservation or recreation purposes.
Air terms
- National Ambient Air Quality Standards: These are federal standards for six pollutants regulated under the Clean Air Act.
- Air pollutants: Air pollutants are substances that can harm human health or the environment, depending on the pollutant and its concentration level.
- Hazardous air pollutant: This is a pollutant that can cause serious disease or illness, such as reproductive effects, cancer, or birth defects. It may produce adverse environmental and ecological effects.
- Ozone: Ozone is a gaseous atmospheric substance that protects the Earth's surface from harmful UV radiation.
- Air Quality Index: This is a federal daily index of air quality administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
- Major source: In the context of the Clean Air Act, a major source refers to a stationary source that emits certain levels of air pollutants each year.[5]
- Source category: This refers to a group of industrial sources that release similar kinds of pollutants.[5]
- Mercury and air toxics standards: These standards are national limits on mercury and other emissions from power plants. They require power plants to adopt pollution control technologies.[6]
Environmental agencies
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): The EPA is a federal agency responsible for implementing environmental policy in the United States.
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS): The FWS is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior that is responsible for managing fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. It is also responsible for enforcing the Endangered Species Act.
- U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM): The BLM is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior that administers roughly 247.3 million acres of federal land nationwide.
Other terms
- Pesticide: A pesticide is a substance intended to repel, kill, or control pests such as rats, mice, insects, and more.
- Superfund: Superfund refers to a federal program intended to clean up contaminated sites.
- Public water system: These systems provides the public with drinking water through pipes and other constructed systems.
- Radioactive waste: Radioactive waste is a byproduct of nuclear power generation.
- Wetland: A wetland is an area where a surface is flooded for an extended period of time or where the soil is saturated by groundwater that moves or stays close to the surface. Wetlands can include many kinds of locations, including oceans, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, swamps, bogs, potholes, and areas that are dry during parts of the year.
See also
- Environmental policy in the United States
- Energy policy in the United States
- Fracking in the United States
Footnotes
- ↑ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Wastes - Glossary of Terms," accessed November 26, 2014
- ↑ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Environmental Monitoring Master Glossary," accessed November 26, 2014
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Glossary of Climate Change Terms," accessed November 16, 2014
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Glossary of Water Terms," accessed November 20, 2014
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Glossary of Air Quality Terms," accessed November 21, 2014
- ↑ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Basic Information on Mercury and Air Toxics Standards," accessed January 5, 2015
