Water Pollution
This type of pollution comes from a single, easy-to-find place like a pipe.
What is point-source pollution?
This type of gas traps heat in the atmosphere and is the main cause of climate change.
What is a greenhouse gas?
These three energy sources -- oil, natural gas, and coal -- together supply about 87% of the world’s primary energy.
What are fossil fuels?
This term, defined by the IPCC, describes adjusting to actual or expected climate impacts to reduce harm or take advantage of opportunities.
What is climate adaptation?
This economic tool shows the maximum net benefit per acre a land use can generate as distance from the city center changes.
What is a bid rent function?
Pollution that comes from many places at once -- like farms or cities -- is called this.
What is nonpoint-source pollution?
The most important human-produced greenhouse gas, created mainly by burning fossil fuels.
What is carbon dioxide (CO₂)?
Improving this means using less input energy to provide the same service, like better insulation or more efficient appliances.
What is energy efficiency?
This concept refers to the ability of systems to prepare for, absorb, recover from, and adapt to hazardous events.
What is resilience?
This phenomenon occurs when new development jumps beyond the current urban boundary instead of expanding outward continuously.
What is leapfrogging?
Water stored underground that can be polluted by chemicals leaking into soil is called this.
What is groundwater?
This term measures how much warming a gas creates compared to CO₂.
What is global warming potential (GWP)?
This strategy reduces emissions by shifting from high-carbon fuels like coal to lower-carbon fuels like natural gas or renewables.
What is fuel switching?
Subsidized flood insurance can create this economic problem, where people take on more risk because they don’t bear the full cost.
What is moral hazard?
These fees are charged to developers to cover the cost of added public services such as roads, schools, and utilities required by new growth.
What are development impact fees?
This giant area in the Pacific Ocean is filled with floating plastic and debris.
What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?
Planting forests, storing CO₂ underground, and capturing carbon all fall under this strategy.
What is carbon sequestration?
Switching from gasoline cars or gas furnaces to electric versions powered by clean electricity is called this.
What is beneficial electrification?
Efficiency in water use requires that this economic measure -- the vertical distance between demand and extraction cost -- be equal across users.
What is marginal net benefit (MNB)?
Under this type of agreement, landowners voluntarily restrict development to protect conservation values, often receiving tax benefits in return.
What is a conservation easement?
When factories return heated water to rivers or lakes, it causes this type of pollution.
What is thermal pollution?
A small change that can push natural systems into a new, irreversible state is known as this.
What is a tipping point?
This policy guarantees a fixed, above-market price for renewable electricity for many years to encourage new investment.
What is a feed-in tariff?
This water pricing structure charges higher prices as households use more water, encouraging conservation.
What is an inverted block rate?
This source of sprawl occurs when transportation costs are artificially low, encouraging people to live farther from the city center.
What are inefficiently low transportation costs?