People Development and Environment- Chapter-wise Quiz Khelo- NTA UGC NET

Tripura is the smallest North-east State in India while Arunachal Pradesh is the largest.

With increased use of surface water, the flow of water into the sea from the rivers is decreasing steadily. With increasing exploitation of ground water, seepage of seawater into the earth takes place, reducing sea water level.

A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift or fault.

Soil erosion is the displacement of the upper layer of soil, it is one form of soil degradation. For example- a forest with heavy deforestation, the trees are removed. During heavy rains the water runs off causing floods and eventually soil erosion.

Quartiles tell us about the spread of a data set by breaking the data set into quarters, just like the median breaks it in half.

A choropleth map is a thematic map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the statistical variable being displayed on the map, such as population density or per-capita income.

A tsunami is a large ocean wave that is caused by sudden motion on the ocean floor. This sudden motion could be an earthquake, a powerful volcanic eruption, or an underwater landslide.

India witnesses flood due to excessive rain which then results in overflow of rivers, lakes and dams, which adds to cause large amounts of damage to people’s lives and property.

Environmental impact assessments commenced in the 1960s, as part of increasing environmental awareness. It is the assessment of the environmental consequences (positive and negative) of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action.

Melting glaciers worldwide could result in almost 10 inches of sea level rise by the end of this century, a study warns.

Most industrial pollution sources are stacks with discharges of momentum and heat as well as pollutants. The resulting plume rise can be considerable—hundreds of meters—and can substantially aid the dilution of plume constituents before they reach ground level. Thus, plume rise is an important factor to consider in diffusion modeling.

Deforestation leads to the emission of greenhouse gas. Gases such as methane and carbon dioxide trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere, leading change in climate. Trees absorb the carbon dioxide and release oxygen and water into the atmosphere and this contributes to global warming.

Tsunami of December 2004, caused by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake affected more than 18 countries from Southeast Asia to Southern Africa, killing more than 250,000 people in a single day.

Natural hazard mitigation is defined as any action taken before, during or after a disaster or emergency to permanently eliminate or reduce the long-term risk to human life and property from natural hazards or disasters.

Rural–urban migration is one of the causes attributed to the formation and expansion of slums. rural migrants, mainly lured by higher incomes, continue to flood into cities. They thus expand the existing urban slums.

Great Indian bustard, (Ardeotis nigriceps), large bird of the bustard family (Otididae), one of the heaviest flying birds in the world. The great Indian bustard inhabits dry grasslands and scrublands on the Indian subcontinent; its largest populations are found in the Indian state of Rajasthan.

GSAT-3, also known as EDUSAT, was a communications satellite which was launched on 20 September 2004 by the Indian Space Research Organisation. EDUSAT is the first Indian satellite built exclusively to serve the educational sector. It is mainly intended to meet the demand for an interactive satellite-based distance education system for the country.

Human hearing range is called the audible range. While 20 to 20,000Hz forms the absolute borders of the human hearing range.

Decibels,measure the loudness of a sound and Hertz measures the frequency of the sound.

Maximum sustainable yield (MSY) aims to maintain the population size at the point of maximum growth rate by harvesting the individuals that would normally be added to the population, allowing the population to continue to be productive indefinitely. MSY is extensively used for fisheries management.

The weathering of rocks by chemicals is called chemical weathering . Rainwater is naturally slightly acidic because carbon dioxide from the air dissolves in it. Minerals in rocks may react with the rainwater, causing the rock to be weathered.

The NTUH waste consisted of 99.02% combustible wastes and 0.97% noncombustible wastes by mass. The combustible wastes constituted paper (16.17%), textiles (9.77%), cardboard, wood, and leaves (1.12%), food waste (21.51%), and plastics (50.45%). The noncombustible waste included 0.40% metal and 0.57% glass.

Water has its maximum density of 1g/cm³ at 4 degrees Celsius. When the temperature changes from either greater or less than 4 degrees, the density will become less then 1 g/cm³. Water has the maximum density of 1 g/cm³ only when it is pure water.

The focus of an earthquake is the point where the rocks start to fracture. It is the origin of the earthquake. The epicenter is the point on land directly above the focus. A seismograph, or seismometer, is an instrument used to detect and record earthquakes.

The tallest trees in the world are redwoods which tower above the ground in California. These trees can easily reach heights of 300 feet (91 meters).

Click here to see the list of national parks of India

UNEP defines Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a tool used to identify the environmental, social and economic impacts of a project prior to decision-making.

A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses, and in a majority of cases, sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands.

The Himalaya are among the most seismically active regions in the world, the result of an ongoing collision between two continental plates: the Indian and the Eurasian. The frequency of earthquakes in the Himalayas is high because of the speed at which the Indian plate is moving.

A tsunami is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake.

A large bird with a horizontal body and long bare legs, giving it an ostrich like appearance, this bird is among the heaviest of the flying birds.(wikipedia)

Sagarmatha National Park is a protected area in the Himalayas of northeast Nepal. It’s dominated by snow-capped mountains including Mount Everest (Sagarmatha), and encompasses glaciers, valleys and trails. It’s home to rare species like the snow leopard, musk deer and red panda. (wikipedia)

Soot is a byproduct of burning fossil fuels, particularly coal. It is emitted by a variety of sources, including burning coal for electricity or industrial fuel, manufacturing, oil refining, and motor vehicles. (gkseries)

Surface Ozone (O3), also called Troposheric Ozone, is a critical atmospheric species that drives much of tropospheric photochemistry. (esrl.noaa.gov)

Natural resources like wind, tides, solar, biomass, etc generate energy which is known as “Non-conventional resources“. These are pollution free and hence we can use these to produce a clean form of energy without any wastage.(toppr.com)

Floods are the most common natural disaster in India. The heavy southwest monsoon rains cause the Brahmaputra and other rivers to distend their banks, often flooding surrounding areas. (researchgate.net)

The National Sample Survey (NSS) is one of the oldest continuing household sample surveys in the developing world. The survey is conducted on a regular basis by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), India’s premier data collection agency. (encyclopedia.com)

Meteorological hazards include extreme temperatures, hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, and severe storms. Hydrological hazards are hazards involving water processes. Examples include floods, droughts, and tsunamis. (wiki.seg.org)

Dioxins are a group of highly toxic chemical compounds that are harmful to health. They can cause problems with reproduction, development, and the immune system. They can also disrupt hormones and lead to cancer. (medicalnewstoday)

Social forestry refers to the management and protection of forests and afforestation on barren lands with the purpose of helping in the environmental, social and rural development. The term was first used in India in 1976 by The National Commission on Agriculture, Government of India. (jagranjosh.com)

Biogas is the mixture of gases produced by the breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen (anaerobically), primarily consisting of methane and carbon dioxide. Biogas can be produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste or food waste. (wikipedia)

NAAC accreditation helps the higher learning institutes to know its strengths, opportunities, and weaknesses through an informed review process. NAAC identifies the internal areas of planning and allocation of resources. (collegedekho.com)

The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) was launched in 2008 by the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change.

It aims at creating awareness among the representatives of the public, different agencies of the government, scientists, industry and the communities on the threat posed by climate change and the steps to counter it. (drishtiias.com)

Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) is measured in milligrams per unit volume of water (mg/L) and also referred to as parts per million (ppm). For drinking water, the maximum concentration level set by EPA is 500 mg/L. (theberkey.com)

Sunderlal Bahuguna, a noted environmentalist who initiated the Chipko Movement, was born on January 9, 1927. The man who has been fighting for the preservation of forests in the Himalayas celebrates his 90th birthday today. (indiatoday.in)

Photochemical smog is a mixture of pollutants that are formed when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) react to sunlight, creating a brown haze above cities. It tends to occur more often in summer, because that is when we have the most sunlight. (eps.sa.gov.au)

Carbonaceous aerosols are the major, dominant component of the mass of suspended particles in polluted atmospheres. Their composition spans the range from ‘Organic Carbon’ (often denoted “OC”); to ‘Black’ or ‘Elemental’ Carbon (denoted “BC” or “EC”). (mageesci.com)

A volcanic eruption occurs when hot materials from the Earth’s interior are thrown out of a volcano. Lava, rocks, dust, and gas compounds are some of these “ejecta”. Some eruptions are terrible explosions that throw out huge amounts of rock and volcanic ash and can kill many people. Some are quiet outflows of hot lava. (simple.wikipedia.org)

The Ganga Action Plan was, launched on 14 Jan. 1986 by the then Prime Minister of India Shri Rajeev Gandhi, with the main objective of pollution abatement of the river Ganga, to improve the water quality by interception, diversion, and treatment of domestic sewage, and to identify grossly polluting units to prevent. (toppr.com)

Thermal power describes how fast heat is produced. For most energy systems such as a gasoline engine, thermal power is how fast fuel is converted into heat.

Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions that release nuclear energy to generate heat, which most frequently is then used in steam turbines to produce electricity in a nuclear power plant.

Hydropower or hydroelectricity refers to the conversion of energy from flowing water into electricity.

Wind power or wind energy is the use of wind to provide the mechanical power through wind turbines to turn electric generators and traditionally to do other work, like milling or pumping. (wikipedia)

Chromium (III) toxicity is unlikely, at least when it is taken up through food and drinking water. It may even improve health, and cure neuropathy and encephalopathy. (epa.gov)

Coal fires can emit significant clouds of smoke that contribute to the formation of winter smog. Coal fires can be used to heat individual buildings or to provide energy in a power-producing plant. (wikipedia)

Flash flooding occurs when it rains rapidly on saturated soil or dry soil that has poor absorption ability. Flash flooding can also be caused by extensive rainfall released by hurricanes and other tropical storms, as well as the sudden thawing effect of ice dams. (Wikipedia)

Municipal waste is defined as waste collected and treated by or for municipalities. It covers waste from households, including bulky waste, similar waste from commerce and trade, office buildings, institutions and small businesses, as well as yard and garden waste, street sweepings, the contents of litter containers, and market cleansing waste if managed as household waste. (data.oecd)

Sulfur dioxide (SO2), a colorless, bad-smelling, toxic gas, is part of a larger group of chemicals referred to as sulfur oxides (SOx). These gases, especially SO2, are emitted by the burning of fossil fuels — coal, oil, and diesel — or other materials that contain sulfur.

Carbon monoxide (CO)—a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and toxic air pollutant—is produced in the incomplete combustion of carbon-containing fuels, such as gasoline, natural gas, oil, coal, and wood. The largest anthropogenic source of CO in the United States is vehicle emissions.

Solar power is energy from the sun that is converted into thermal or electrical energy. Solar energy is the cleanest and most abundant renewable energy source available, and the U.S. has some of the richest solar resources in the world.

Soil contamination or soil pollution as part of land degradation is caused by the presence of xenobiotics (human-made) chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil environment. It is typically caused by industrial activity, agricultural chemicals or improper disposal of waste.

Natural hazards are naturally occurring physical phenomena caused either by rapid or slow onset events which can be geophysical (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis and volcanic activity), hydrological (avalanches and floods), climatological (extreme temperatures, drought and wildfires), meteorological (cyclones).

The Ecological Footprint of a person is calculated by adding up all of people’s demands that compete for biologically productive space, such as cropland to grow potatoes or cotton, or forest to produce timber or to sequester carbon dioxide emissions.

Peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) is a phytotoxic air pollutant generated by the reaction of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides under the action of light.

chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are nontoxic, nonflammable chemicals containing atoms of carbon, chlorine, and fluorine. They are used in the manufacture of aerosol sprays, blowing agents for foams and packing materials, as solvents, and as refrigerants.

A renewable resource is a natural resource that will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of time on a human time scale. The five major renewable energy resources are solar, wind, water (hydro), biomass, and geothermal.

The discharge of a large amount of wastewater, which causes an increase of ozone-depleting substances in the water and decrease of dissolved oxygen, accounts for the major reason for the death of fish. According to the EPA, pH, TDS, hardness, suspended solids, odor, and fluoride that are believed to be the only measurements of water quality are among the 15 secondary parameters.

P waves travel through any kind of material, whether it is a solid, liquid or gas. On the other hand, S waves only move through solids and are stopped by liquids and gases.

25. The ozone hole is the region over Antarctica with total ozone of 220 Dobson Units or lower.

The greenhouse effect is the problem caused by increased quantities of gases such as carbon dioxide in the air. These gases trap the heat from the sun, and cause a gradual rise in the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Ultraviolet (UV) is electromagnetic radiation with wavelength. The sun emits three different types of UV radiation: UVA, UVB, and UVC.

Sustainable development is important as it saves the national budget, fulfills the need of people, conserves natural resources, helps in the coordination between the natural resources and people, and conserves natural resources for future generations.

Ecocentrism expands the moral community (and ethics) from being just about ourselves. It means we are not concerned only with humanity; we extend respect and care to all life, and indeed to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems themselves.

Methane is produced by the breakdown or decay of organic material and can be introduced into the atmosphere by either natural processes – such as the decay of plant material in wetlands, the seepage of gas from underground deposits or the digestion of food by cattle – or human activities – such as oil and gas production, rice farming or waste management.

Minimata disease is a neurological syndrome which affects mainly the central nervous system and caused by mercury poisoning. It happens by the consumption of large quantities of fish and shellfish living in Minimata Bay. Fishes are contaminated with high concentration of mercury.

Minimata disease is a neurological syndrome which affects mainly the central nervous system and caused by mercury poisoning. It happens by the consumption of large quantities of fish and shellfish living in Minimata Bay. Fishes are contaminated with high concentration of mercury.

The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Generic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their utilization to the convention on Biological Diversity, also known as the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit sharing is a 2010 supplementary agreement to 1992 convention on Biological Diversity.

India, along with 10 other countries has signed the signed the Nagoya Protocol on Generic Resources with an aim to promote sustainable use of biological diversity.

Hydropower contributes around 17% in meeting energy needs of Indian Nuclear energy contributed around 3-4%, and wind energy and solar energy contributes just 1-2%.

The Richter scale grows by power of 10. An increase of one point means the strength of a quake is 10 times greater than the level before it². This is calculated using information gathered by seismograph. The biggest quake is recorded history was the 9.5 quake that struck Chile in 1960. It killed nearly 1900 people and caused $4 billion in damage in 2010 dollars.

HDI is statistic composite index of life expectancy, per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tires of Human Development. it is prepared by the United Nations development programe (UNDP). it was developed by Pakistani economist Mahbub Ul Haq in 1990. Norway rank first and India ranks 130 out of 189.

The tragedy of the commons is often brought up when people discuss environmental issues. For example, in fishing, if fishing provides an income, then each fisher would have his or her own best interest in mind and try to catch as many fish as possible even if all the other fishers are doing the same thing.

The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (part one) global warming is occurring and (part two) it is extremely likely that human-made CO2 emissions have predominantly caused it. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005.

Transport emissions — which primarily involve road, rail, air and marine transportation — accounted for over 24% of global CO2 emissions in 2016.

The atmospheric pollutants or gases that form smog are released in the air when fuels are burnt. When sunlight and its heat react with these gases and fine particles in the atmosphere, smog is formed. It is purely caused by air pollution.

Droughts occur when an abnormally long dry period uses up available water resources. Floods happen when watercourses or rain swallow up land that is usually uncovered. These natural disasters are often made worse by human action.

The total potential for renewable power generation in India as on 31.03. 11 is estimated at 89762 MW out of which wind power potential is 55%, small-hydro power potential is 17%, biomass power potential is 20% and power from bagasse-based cogeneration in sugar mills is about 6%.

The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) was launched in 2008 by the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change.

It aims at creating awareness among the representatives of the public, different agencies of the government, scientists, industry and the communities on the threat posed by climate change and the steps to counter it.

The Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve encompasses a large part (some 85%) of the island of Great Nicobar, the largest of the Nicobar Islands in the Indian Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Nicobars lie in the Bay of Bengal, eastern Indian Ocean, 190 km to the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Agricultural pollution is the main source of pollution in water and lakes. Chemicals from fertilizers and pesticides make their way into the groundwater that ends up in drinking water.

The Group of Five (G5) encompasses five nations which have joined together for an active role in the rapidly evolving international order. Individually and as a group, the G5 nations work to promote dialogue and understanding between developing and developed countries. The G5 seek to find common solutions to global challenges.

G5 was recently used in the 2000s to refer to the five largest emerging economies: Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.

The biggest absolute emissions come from China and the United States. In terms of CO2 emissions per capita, China is ranked only ranked 47th, at 7.5 metric tonnes per capita. The US is ranked 11th at 16.5 per capita.

The Limits to Growth by Dennis Meadows and William Behrens is a 1972 report on the computer simulation of exponential economic and population growth with a finite supply of resources.

a. Silent Spring is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. The book was published on September 27, 1962, documenting the adverse environmental effects caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides.

b. Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report in recognition of former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland’s role as Chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development, was published in 1987 by the United Nations through the Oxford University Press.

c. Simon and Herman Kahn’s The Resourceful Earth (1984), emphasized humanity’s ability to find or to invent substitutes for resources that were scarce and in danger of being exhausted.

Desertification is triggered mainly by the overuse of land and unsustainable agricultural practices (overcropping, overgrazing, poor irrigation and deforestation) which lead to­ a loss of natural vegetation and healthy soil.

Essentialism is the view that every entity has a set of attributes that are necessary to its identity and function. In early Western thought, Plato’s idealism held that all things have such an “essence”—an “idea” or “form”.

Tropical forests are closed canopy forests growing within 28 degrees north or south of the equator. They are very wet places, receiving more than 200 cm rainfall per year, either seasonally or throughout the year.

Watershed development approach is based on participatory planning following a bottom-up approach for developing a context appropriate plan for execution; empowerment and employment of people through establishment and strengthening of local level institution; conservation and appropriate management of watershed’s natural resources through holistic development of the watershed; sustainability through people’s participation in the process of development, voluntary contribution and formulation and adoption of a withdrawal strategy for post-project sustainability of the project.

Carbon monoxide is a temporary atmospheric pollutant in some urban areas, chiefly from the exhaust of internal combustion engines (including vehicles, portable and back-up generators, lawn mowers, power washers, etc.

In a flame of pure hydrogen gas, burning in air, the hydrogen (H2) reacts with oxygen (O2) to form water (H2O) and releases energy. If carried out in atmospheric air instead of pure oxygen, as is usually the case, hydrogen combustion may yield small amounts of nitrogen oxides, along with the water vapor.

Beijing has long been notorious for its smog – but statistics show that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have worse air by far.

Sewage is a complex mixture of chemicals, with many distinctive chemical characteristics. These include high concentrations of ammonium, nitrate, nitrogen, phosphorus, high conductivity (due to high dissolved solids), high alkalinity, with pH typically ranging between 7 and 8.

Volcanic mudflows (lahars and debris flows) occur more commonly after a landscape has been covered by loose volcanic material. Lahars pick up material as they travel, which can cause damage to structures in their path. Damage here from Mt.

“Catastrophic Consequences of Climate Change” is an aggressive, year-long investigation into the devastating effects we can expect from anthropogenic global warming—and how scholars, activists, diplomats, and legislators can help stave off its most dire consequences.

NDMA is responsible for framing policies, laying down guidelines and best-practices for coordinating with the State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) to ensure a holistic and distributed approach to disaster management. It is headed by the Prime Minister of India and can have up to nine other members.

Greenhouse gases cause the greenhouse effect on planets. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.

The Jaduguda Mine (also spelt as Jadugoda or Jadugora) is a uranium mine in Jaduguda village in the Purbi Singhbhum district of the Indian state of Jharkhand. It commenced operation in 1967 and was the first uranium mine in India. The deposits at this mine were discovered in 1951.

In 2017, the largest per capita CO2 producers included the United States and Middle East countries like, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. In terms of overall emissions, the United States, India and China were all ranked among the five largest emitters, with China taking the top spot.

Various anthropogenic activities have heavily destroyed fresh water supplies such as rivers, streams, and aquifers. Intensive agriculture is a leading cause on the account of the large amounts of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and other agro-chemicals that find way into waterways.

The foam industry is undergoing unprecedented change and growth as it adapts to new legislation and shifting consumer appetite. Factors driving expansion include greater attention to environmental sustainability and energy conservation, as well as rising demand for versatile, use-specific foams.

Hudhud has been named after the national bird of Israel. Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Hudhud was a strong tropical cyclone that caused extensive damage and loss of life in eastern India and Nepal during October 2014. Hudhud originated from a low pressure system that formed under the influence of an upper-air cyclonic circulation in the Andaman Sea on October 6.

A renewable resource is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of time in a human time scale.The five major renewable energy resources are solar, wind, water (hydro), biomass, and geothermal.

1. Anthropogenic activities have led to increased pollution of soil all over the world. These pollutants can be either organic (e.g., PCBs, PAHs, fertilizers, pesticides) or inorganic pollutants including various heavy metals (e.g., Cd, Cu, As, Zn, Hg, Pb).

Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes changes to biophysical environments and ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources caused directly or indirectly by humans, including global warming, environmental degradation (such as ocean acidification, mass extinction and biodiversity loss, ecological crisis, and ecological collapse.

Global carbon (C) emissions from fossil fuel use were 9.795 gigatonnes (Gt) in 2014 (or 35.9 GtCO2 of carbon dioxide). Fossil fuel emissions were 0.6% above emissions in 2013 and 60% above emissions in 1990 (the reference year in the Kyoto Protocol).

China, India, the United States and Brazil used the most, and they’re the first, second, third and fifth-most populous countries. The amount of water used per person in each country, though, varies significantly. Per capita, the United States used the most water at 2,842 cubic meters per annum.

The Richter magnitude scale is a scale of numbers used to tell the power (or magnitude) of earthquakes. Charles Richter developed the Richter Scale in 1935. His scale worked like a seismogram, measured by a particular type of seismometer at a distance of 100 kilometers (62 mi) from the earthquake.

The National Air Quality Index (AQI) in India was launched on 17 September 2014 in New Delhi under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by the Environment Minister Shri PrakashJavadekar. The air quality index is composed of 8 pollutants ((PM10, PM2. 5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3, and Pb).

The five major renewable energy resources are solar, wind, water (hydro), biomass, and geothermal. Since the dawn of humanity people have used renewable sources of energy to survive — wood for cooking and heating, wind and water for milling grain, and solar for lighting fires.

Nitrogen oxide pollution is emitted from vehicle exhaust, and the burning of coal, oil, diesel fuel, and natural gas, especially from electric power plants. They are also emitted by cigarettes, gas stoves, kerosene heaters, wood burning, and silos that contain silage.

Physical and chemical agents. Particular substances, known as carcinogens, have been linked to specific types of cancer. Common examples of non-radioactive carcinogens are inhaled asbestos, certain dioxins, and tobacco smoke.

Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution.

Natural hazards are naturally occurring physical phenomena caused either by rapid or slow onset events which can be geophysical (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis and volcanic activity), hydrological (avalanches and floods), climatological (extreme temperatures, drought and wildfires), meteorological (cyclones and storms/wave surges) or biological (disease epidemics and insect/animal plagues).

The National Climate Change Management Policy (NCCMP) seeks to guide programming of interventions for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, as well as adapting to the adverse effects of climate change and climate variability.

Sewage refers to liquid wastes containing a mixture of human feces and wastewater from non-industrial human activities such as bathing, washing, and cleaning. Untreated sewage poses a major risk to human health since it contains waterborne pathogens that can cause serious human illness.