Environmental Studies: Threats to the Environment

The concept of pollution consists of the inappropriate or undesirable mixing of items or elements that may in themselves be quite appropriate or desirable.

Contamination of the air by noxious gases and minute particles of solid and liquid matter (particulates) in concentrations that endanger health.

Human-created noise harmful to health or welfare.

The radioactive and toxic by-products of the nuclear energy and nuclear weapons industries.

Oil discharged from an ocean-going tanker, pipeline, or oil installation, often as a result of damage.

Smog (smŏg) [smoke+fog], dense, visible air pollution. Smog is commonly of two types.

Contamination of water resources by harmful wastes; see also sewerage, water supply, pollution, and environmentalism.

Acidic precipitation thought to be caused mainly by the release into the atmosphere of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and oxides of nitrogen.

Destruction of forest for timber, fuel, charcoal burning, and clearing for agriculture and extractive industries, such as mining.

Increase in average global temperature, amounting to approximately 0.74°C/1.3°F from 1906 to 2005.

Act of seeking, following, and killing wild animals for consumption or display.

Wearing away and redistribution of the Earth's soil layer.

Town in northern Ukraine, 100 km/62 mi north of Kiev; site of a former nuclear power station.

Section of Niagara Falls, N.Y., that formerly contained a canal that was used as chemical disposal site.

From The Reader's Companion to American History
An unlikely series of mechanical and human errors in Unit 2 of the nuclear generating plant at Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1979 resulted in an accident that profoundly affected the utility industry.