Acid Rain: Rainfall made sufficiently acidic by atmospheric pollution that it causes environmental harm, typically to forests and lakes.
Noun: Acid rain has caused severe erosion on the hillside
Air pollution: The presence in or introduction into the air of a substance which has harmful or poisonous effects.
Noun: Air pollution in the city had reached four times the acceptable levels.
Climate change: A change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Noun: Climate change is a major environmental issue.
Coastal flooding: When a coastal process—such as waves, tides, storm surge, or heavy rainfall from coastal storms.
Noun: The authors say this raises the projection for the number of people affected each year by coastal flooding by the end of the century from 360 million to 4
Deforestation: The action of clearing a wide area of trees.
Noun: A key aim is to try to halt widespread deforestation in the Amazon
Endangered species: A species of animal or plant that is seriously at risk of extinction.
Noun: The giant panda is an endangered species.
Fossil fuel: A natural fuel such as coal or gas, formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms.
Noun: A major cause of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels to create energy.
Global warming: A gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants.
Noun: To stop the meltdown we must slow global warming.
Greenhouse gas: A gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation, e.g., carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons.
Noun: The largest source of greenhouse gas contributing to global warming is the burning of fossil fuels.
Overfishing: deplete the stock of fish in (a body of water) by too much fishing.
Verb: This part of the Mediterranean is terribly overfished.
Solid waste: A solid waste is any material that is discarded by being: Abandoned: The term abandoned means thrown away.
Noun: Solid waste includes garbage, construction debris, commercial refuse, sludge from water supply or waste treatment plants.
Untreated sewage: Untreated sewage refers to wastewater which contains harmful waterborne pathogens and bacteria and which has not yet gone through a sewage treatment plant.
Noun: Marine biologists are concerned about the effects of untreated sewage that is flowing into coastal waters.
Effect: A change which is a result or consequence of an action or other cause.
Noun: The lethal effects of hard drugs
Country: A nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory.
Noun: The country's increasingly precarious economic position
Flooding: The covering or submerging of normally dry land with a large amount of water.
Noun: A serious risk of flooding
Expanding: Become or make larger or more extensive.
Verb: Their business expanded into other hotels and properties
