Term
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Definition
| People forced to migrate as a result of changes to the environment |
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Term
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Definition
| a natural event or process which affects people, e.g causing loss of life or injury, economic damage, disruption to people's lives or environmental degredation |
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Term
| hydro-meteorological hazards |
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Definition
caused by running water and it's processes (hydro) and those associated with or caused by weather patterns (meteorological)
e.g.
- flood, debris and mud flows
- hurricanes, coastal storm surges, thunder and hailstorms, rain and wind storms, blizzards and other sever storms
- drought, bushfires, temperature extremes, sand and dust storms |
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Term
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Definition
caused by earth processes
e.g.
- internal earth processes of tectonic origin (earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic activity)
- external earth processes of geomorphological origin involving mass movements (landslides, rockslides, rock falls) |
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Term
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Definition
| the capacity of a person or group to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of a natural hazard |
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Term
| enhanced greenhouse effect |
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Definition
| the increase in the natural greenhouse effect, said to be caused by human activities which increase the quantity of greenhouse gases in the atmousphere |
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Term
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Definition
| the flow of warm and cod water that circulates around the world's oceans |
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Term
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Definition
| the amount of solar radiation reflected by the Earths surfaces. Ice and snow (light coloured surfaces) reflect most, and dark rock surfaces reflect least |
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Term
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Definition
| where many african countries have become so heavily indebted that repayments sometimes exceed their entire GNP |
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Term
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Definition
| are those crops sold for income, rather than one's own food supply |
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Term
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Definition
| is the way in which climate change and over-grazing turn previously fertile land into desert |
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Term
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Definition
the extent to which a country can rely upon food supplies,
e.g. upon the weather, or, if unable to grow all its food, the extent to which it can pay for imports to feed itself |
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Term
| mitigation of global warming |
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Definition
| refers to policies which are meant to delay, reduce or prevent climate changes caused by global warming - such as cutting CO2 emissions (congestion charging, increasing renewable energy) and increasing carbon sinks (afforestation) |
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Term
| adaptation to global warming |
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Definition
| refers to policies which are designed to reduce the existing impacts of global warming, such as protection against flooding and coastal erosion |
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Term
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Definition
| refers to a point beyond which the Earth cannot recover from the effects of carbon emissions, even with drastic action (the point of no return) |
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Term
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Definition
| is where natural processes, such as plant respiration, are used to offset carbon emissions. trees absorb CO2 and give out oxygen, thus removing greenhouse gases from the atmousphere |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
| the disaster risk equation (risk =) |
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Definition
hazards x vunerability
capacity to cope
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Term
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Definition
| a warm ocean current that flows along the equator from the date line and south off the Coast of Equador at Christmas time |
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Term
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Definition
| an extensive, below normal cooling of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean that is the counterpart of El Niño |
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Term
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Definition
| these make the planet warmer. they include carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane, Nitrous Oxide and Halocarbons |
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Term
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Definition
| the way that gases in the atmousphere trap heat from the sun. the gases act like the glass in a greenhouse, letting heat in but preventing most of it from getting out. |
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Term
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Definition
| a layer of gases above the earths surface |
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Term
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Definition
| change in the sea level due to change in the amount of water in the oceans |
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Term
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Definition
| movement of land in response to loss or gain of land mass (e.g. melting ice sheets leads to uplift) |
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Term
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Definition
| as the sea becomes warmer, it expands in size. this accounts for most of the current sea level rise |
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