Sustainability
While often thought to be the "greener" choice because it's biodegradable, this common grocery bag actually requires four times more water and significantly more toxic chemicals to manufacture than its plastic counterpart.
What is a Paper Bag?
This efficient watering method delivers water directly to the base or roots of a plant, cutting down on evaporation and waste.
What is drip irrigation?
To save up to 20 gallons of water per cycle, you should only run this kitchen appliance when it is completely full.
What is a dishwasher?
This two-word term describes how certain gases trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere, similar to how glass walls keep a garden warm in winter
What is the Greenhouse Effect?
These blue or black "cells" are often seen on rooftops, where they convert sunlight directly into electricity.
What are solar panels?
Turning this off while brushing your teeth can save up to 8 gallons of water a day, helping to conserve this finite resource.
What is a Faucet?
To keep the soil healthy, farmers use this practice of planting different types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.
What is crop rotation?
Although 70% of Earth is covered in water, only about this small percentage is fresh water that is actually accessible for human use.
What is less than 1%? (Acceptable: 1% to 3%)
As these massive bodies of ice on land melt and flow into the ocean, they are the primary cause of rising global sea levels.
What are glaciers? (Also acceptable: ice sheets)
These tall, three-bladed structures use the kinetic energy of moving air to spin a generator and create power.
What are wind turbines?
This 2-word term describes the trend of buying cheap, mass-produced clothes that are worn only a few times before being thrown away.
What is Fast Fashion?
This 11-letter term describes animals like bees and butterflies that are essential for the growth of three-quarters of the world’s food crops.
What are pollinators?
This 2-word term describes the "invisible" water used to produce things we buy, like the 2,000 gallons needed to make one pair of jeans.
What is a water footprint?
Climate change doesn't just make things hotter; it also increases the frequency of these "dry spells" that can lead to water shortages and wildfires.
What are droughts?
This form of renewable energy uses the force of flowing water, often through a dam, to generate electricity.
What is hydroelectric power? (Also: hydropower)
This term refers to a person who primarily eats food grown or produced within their local region to reduce transportation emissions.
What is a Locavore?
Known by the acronym IPM, this strategy uses natural predators (like ladybugs) to control pests instead of relying solely on chemical sprays.
What is Integrated Pest Management?
These vast underground layers of rock or sand act like giant sponges, storing the groundwater that many farmers rely on for crops.
What are aquifers?
These massive ecosystems, like the Amazon, are often called the "lungs of the planet" because they absorb vast amounts of CO2.
What are rainforests?
This type of energy is tapped from deep underground, using the natural heat from the Earth's core to create steam.
What is geothermal energy?
This term is used when a company spends more time and money on marketing itself as environmentally friendly than on actually minimizing its environmental impact.
What is Greenwashing?
This farming approach goes beyond "doing no harm" by using techniques like no-till farming to actually pull carbon out of the air and put it back into the soil.
What is regenerative agriculture?
This expensive and energy-intensive process removes salt from ocean water to make it drinkable for cities in dry climates.
What is desalination?
This 14-letter term refers to the goal of a country or company to remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as it emits.
What is carbon neutrality?
This renewable resource is made from organic materials like wood, corn, or even used cooking oil, and can be used to power vehicles.
What is biomass? (Also: biofuel)