W o W - Week of Words - March 2009

The “W o W” word - Environment Global Warming (Noun): An increase in the earth's average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect. A warmer Earth may lead to changes in rainfall patterns, a rise in sea level, and a wide range of impacts on plants, wildlife, and humans. When scientists talk about the issue of climate change, their concern is about global warming caused by human activities. The effects are coming closer to an ice age. We have to stop all this pollution so that all the ice doesn’t melt and polar bears and Arctic animals like the polar bears don’t die. Precautions to slow down global warming: Replacing an incandescent lamp with energy-saving bulbs prevents 75 kilograms (kg) of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere annually. Driving cars less will save 0.75 kg carbon dioxide for every 2 kilometers. Using hot water less will prevent energy consumption, and washing clothes with cold or warm water will save 250 kg of carbon dioxide annually. Electronic devices should be turned off totally; those such as televisions and DVD players are releasing 450 kg of carbon dioxide annually when kept at stand-by eight hours on a daily average.
The “W o W” word Closed loop waste management (noun): The Closed-loop Waste Management System is a process designed to address every aspect of the waste stream. Odors are controlled. All manure or food waste solids are processed to be extent-pathogen-free and to kill weed seeds while retaining the beneficial nutrients. The result is a stable composted material that can be handled, stored or moved as soil, no longer a toxic material that needs special handling. All liquid is processed for methane generation, filtered and clarified for reuse. It also includes recycling waste newspaper to make paper-board or other types of paper.
The “W o W” word Smog (smawg) noun: smoke or other atmospheric pollutants combined with fog in an unhealthy or irritating mixture. Smog is a kind of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Classic smog results from large amounts of coal burning in an area caused by a mixture of smoke and sulfur dioxide. Modern smog does not usually come from coal but from vehicular and industrial emissions that are acted on in the atmosphere by sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine with the primary emissions to form photochemical smog. Smog is a problem in a number of cities and continues to harm human health. Ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide are especially harmful for senior citizens, children, and people with heart and lung conditions such as emphysema, bronchitis, and asthma. It can inflame breathing passages, decreasing the lungs' working capacity, and causing shortness of breath, pain when inhaling deeply, wheezing, and coughing. It can also cause eye and nose irritation.
The “W o W” word Ozone Depletion (Noun): Ozone depletion is the destruction of ozone in the stratosphere, where it shields the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. Ozone depletion describes two distinct, but related observations: a slow, steady decline of about 4 percent per decade in the total volume of ozone in Earth's stratosphere (ozone layer) since the late 1970s, and a much larger, but seasonal, decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions during the same period. The latter phenomenon is commonly referred to as the ozone hole. It is suspected that a variety of biological consequences such as increases in skin cancer, damage to plants, and reduction of plankton populations in the ocean's photic zone may result from the increased UV exposure due to ozone depletion.