Unit 5 Vocabulary

1. Unit 5 Vocabulary • Environmental Impact of Chemical Reactions

2. Environment • The combination of physical, chemical, and biotic factors that act upon an organism or community of organisms.

3. Environmental Impact • Possible negative affects on an ecosystem caused by development (businesses, factories, houses, etc) or by the release of a substance in the environment.

4. Chemical Reaction • A process that involves the rearrangement of the molecular structure of a substance or substances.

5. Ozone Depletion • Destruction of the upper atmospheric layer of ozone gas by ozone depleting substances (such as aerosols).

6. Economic Impact • Deals with the costs and benefits of a policy or decision. • Costs refer to the loss, effort, or sacrifice needed to obtain or achieve something. • Benefits are the advantages or profits from something.

7. Degradation • The breakdown or decomposition of a chemical compound in stages.

8. Heavy Metals • A metal of relatively high density, or of relatively high atomic weight.

9. Sulfur Dioxide • SO2 • A colorless, toxic gas formed by burning sulfur in the air.

10. Rust • A reddish-brown, flaky coating that is formed on iron or steel by oxidation.

11. Pollutants • A foreign substance or waste matter that contaminates the water, soil, or air.

12. End Products • What is produced as the final result of an activity, process, or reaction.

13. Acid Rain • Rainfall made sufficiently acidic by atmospheric pollution, typically by burning coal and other fossil fuels. • The sulfur and nitrogen gases released from burning fossil fuels combines with atmospheric water to form acids.

14. Greenhouse Effect • The warming of Earth due to the presence of certain gases in the atmosphere, which let sunlight come in but don't let heat go back out into space.