Environment & Sustainability

Vocabulary for ecological and environmental discourse

Introduction

Environmental issues dominate global conversation, and discussing them requires specific vocabulary. From climate science to sustainability initiatives, these words help you engage with one of the defining topics of our time.

This chapter presents vocabulary for environmental discussions, ecological concepts, and sustainability. These words appear frequently in news, policy debates, and everyday conversations about our planet's future.

Themes

All Advanced Vocabulary in This Chapter (26)

• biodiversity The variety of plant and animal life in a particular habitat or in the world ...
• ecosystem A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environmen...
• renewable Capable of being replenished naturally, especially referring to energy source...
• emission The production and discharge of something, especially gas or radiation; most ...
• deforestation The clearing or removal of forests or trees from land, typically for agricult...
• habitat The natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism.
• conservation The protection, preservation, and careful management of natural resources, wi...
• sustainability The ability to maintain or support a process continuously over time, especial...
• ecological Relating to or concerned with the relation of living organisms to one another...
• contamination The action or state of making something impure by exposure to or addition of ...
• erosion The gradual wearing away of rock, soil, or land surface by natural forces suc...
• watershed An area of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers or basins; ...
• ozone A form of oxygen with three atoms per molecule (O3), found naturally in the E...
• greenhouse A glass or transparent structure for growing plants; also used attributively ...
• reclamation The process of claiming something back or of returning land to a usable state...
• compost Decayed organic material used as fertiliser for growing plants, or the proces...
• pesticide A chemical substance used to kill insects, weeds, fungi, or other organisms t...
• herbicide A chemical substance used to destroy unwanted vegetation, especially weeds th...
• endangered At serious risk of extinction, used especially of species whose numbers have ...
• extinction The permanent disappearance of a species from Earth when the last individual ...
• resilience The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; the ability of a system, c...
• mitigation The action of reducing the severity, seriousness, or painfulness of something.
• adaptation The process of adjusting to new conditions, or a feature that has developed t...
• sequestration The process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or m...
• geothermal Relating to or produced by the internal heat of the Earth, especially as a so...
• biomass Organic matter derived from living or recently living organisms, used as a fu...