Glossary
Glossary for various common global climate change/global warming/insulating technologies terms:
- Carbon monoxide (CO1): An odourless and tasteless gas commonly found in polluted air along with several other harmful chemicals. It is fatal to the human body because it replaces oxygen in the body with carbon monoxide which in turn results in a lack of oxygen for the cells. It is one of the most common atmospheric pollutants found.
- Carbon dioxide (CO2): A greenhouse gas that is most commonly released when burning fossil fuels. It is also released along with carbon monoxide while burning firewood. It is the second most common greenhouse gas and has risen in amount in the Earth's atmoshphere by almost 50% since the Industrial Revolution.
- Industrial revolution: An historical period of time in Europe, mainly in Great Britain where the invention of modern technology started to change and affect people's lives. During this time, people started to invent pollutants such as steam trains and coal electricity generation. During this period of time, capitalism came to rise as everybody tried to make money out of the rapidly appearing new technologies.
- Environment: The surroundings of an organism. This includes their ecosystem and all biotic/abiotic items in their ecosystem and surrounding environment.
- Methane: A non-toxic greenhouse gas that has a greenhouse potential close to carbox dioxide. It is produced by factories, landfills, livestock and humans. It can cause unexpected health effects if it displaces too much oxygen in the air in the atmoshpere.
- Atmosphere: The layer of gas that surrounds Earth and makes it inhabitable by providing air and oxygen to breathe in and ozone to protect us from UV rays.
- Radiation: A method of heat transfer in which heat is radiated from an object and travels via heat waves without any air or oxygen to move it.
- Chlorofluorocarbons: A harmful and toxic gas found in refridgerators, anti-freeze and firefighting materials. If released to the atmosphere, it contaminates it and destroys it, leaving a gap where dangerous ultraviolet rays may penetrate the ozone layer and cause cancer to humans on Earth.
- Ozone layer: A layer in the Earth's atmosphere that contains a concentration of ozone gas found in the upper atmoshpere that protects us from ultraviolet rays and other harmful rays that can cause skin problems such as skin cancer.
- Ozone hole: A series of holes caused by the destruction of ozone gas in the atmosphere by CFCs which will destory ozone gas particles if they are released to the atmosphere.
- Ultraviolet rays: A special type of light with a wavelength shorter than normal light and therefore invisible to the naked eye. It is emitted by the sun and other natural and artifical sources such as X-rays and black lights. It causes damages to skin structure and causes sunburn, skin cancer and eye damage.