- Industry: Broadcasting & receiving
- Number of terms: 5074
- Number of blossaries: 1
- Company Profile:
The largest broadcasting organisation in the world.
Mineral wool refers to any of several lightweight, fibrous materials used as insulation and created by blowing air or steam through molten blast-furnace slag (slag wool), molten rock (rock wool) or molten glass (glass wool). Definitions vary, but fibreglass is sometimes referred to as a mineral wool.
Industry:Natural environment
Action that will reduce man-made climate change. This includes action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or absorb greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Industry:Natural environment
Monoculture is the practice of planting a single crop, or genetically similar crops, over a wide area. Its advantages to growers are that the crop may thrive in conditions tailored to its success and without competition from other species. However, the practice will also reduce the region's biodiversity by limiting the number of other species for which it is a suitable habitat. Scientists warn that extensive forest clearance to make way for widespread growth of crops such as sugarcane to create biofuels is creating a monoculture harmful to biodiversity. The opposite of a monoculture is a polyculture.
Industry:Natural environment
Oil refining is the process of taking crude oil and turning it into fuels such as petrol and diesel. Crude oil varies in its composition, consisting of hydrocarbons and other organic compounds containing nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur. Refining oil requires energy and releases air-polluting chemicals. However, the majority of the CO2 produced by oil is emitted only once it has been turned into fuel and then burnt.
Industry:Natural environment
There is no universally accepted definition of organic farming, and each country regulates what can and cannot be labelled "organic". In general, it describes a form of agriculture that avoids use of synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, growth regulators, and livestock feed additives, and relies instead, as far as possible, on "natural" products and techniques - such as crop rotation and animal manures.
Industry:Natural environment
Ozone is made up of three oxygen atoms. It has benefits and dangers depending on where in our atmosphere it occurs: near ground level, it is a pollutant that affects respiration; 10-50km up, in the stratosphere, the ozone layer filters out potentially harmful ultraviolet rays (which cause skin cancer) from reaching the earth. Ozone also functions as a greenhouse gas, though it is considered a less potent one than CO2.
Industry:Natural environment
The total amount of greenhouse gas emitted by a country per unit of population.
Industry:Natural environment
A pesticide is a substance used to kill a pest, and in a farming context a pest is anything that attacks or competes with crops. Hence, there are many different types of pesticides: for example, insecticides kill insects, and herbicides kill weeds. The chemicals used in pesticides can sometimes be toxic to humans, however, so organic farming endeavours to use natural rather than synthetic substances as pesticides.
Industry:Natural environment
Photovoltaics are materials that produce electricity from sunlight. A single photovoltaic cell can be used to power small devices such as calculators; combined in solar panels they can be used to power solar water heating. Most cells are manufactured from silicon.
Industry:Natural environment
A polymer is a giant molecule made up of thousands of atoms. It can be natural or man-made (synthetic). Many plastics in everyday use are polymers, such as polythene or PVC; but then so is cellulose, which makes up wood pulp from which paper is manufactured.
Industry:Natural environment
