- Industry: Broadcasting & receiving
- Number of terms: 5074
- Number of blossaries: 1
- Company Profile:
The largest broadcasting organisation in the world.
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
Draught proofing is the process of filling in unwanted gaps in the fabric of a building to reduce the heat loss and discomfort they cause. Common sources of draughts are gaps round window and door frames, places where pipes enter the building, ill-fitted floorboards, letter boxes and even keyholes. Materials used include foams, brushes and thin sections of rubber, plastic or metal.
Industry:Natural environment
A dual-fuel vehicle is one designed to run on a combination of traditional fuels (petrol or diesel) and alternative fuels (such as liquid petroleum gas or biodiesel). The term is usually applied to cars with separate tanks for each fuel but is sometimes used to describe those diesel engines that accept a blend of traditional fuel and bio-diesel.
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
All white goods and other household appliances sold in the UK are now required by law to carry a rating indicating their energy efficiency. Goods are graded A to G, with A the most efficient. Information on the EU-wide labelling scheme is available from the government's environment department, Defra.
Industry:Natural environment
Embodied energy - sometimes referred to as 'embedded energy' - is the energy used (and therefore the CO2 emissions) in manufacturing, packaging and transporting a product, material or service. So when calculating the CO2 savings from a new energy-efficient product such as a boiler or washing machine, its embodied energy needs to be taken into account. Usually the energy saved in use will quickly compensate for the embodied energy, but in some cases - such as small urban wind turbines - it may be that a product will use more energy in its manufacture than it will save across its lifetime.
Industry:Natural environment
