Glossary

calcareous:

a material or substance that contains or resembles calcium carbonate

carboniferous period:

a period 360 - 286 million years ago. It takes its name from the thick coal-producing carbon layers. This carbon was formed from the remains of swampy tropical forests that were flooded by shallow seas.

colonisation:

the establishment of political control by one country over another.

combustion:

burning, often used to describe the use of fuels

communal:

shared by all members of a community, for common use.

commune:

the smallest administrative unit in France, it may vary from a tiny village to a town

compensation:

something given or paid to make up for loss, suffering or injury.

coniferous:

trees bearing cones, usually evergreens like pine and larch

contamination:

pollution by unwanted or damaging material, often bacterial, chemical or radioactive

conurbation:

a group of towns with no gaps between them, forming one continuous urban area

corrasion:

erosion by material being driven into rock. This usually happens at the base of a cliff where eroded material is washed against the cliff face by wave action

corrode:

to destroy or wear away a substance, usually a metal, especially by chemical action

criterion:

the standard by which something is judged

Comparative advantage:

When one nation's opportunity cost of producing an item is less than another nation's opportunity cost of producing that item. A good or service with which a nation has the largest absolute advantage (or smallest absolute disadvantage) is the item for which they have a comparative advantage

chaparral:

(in the southwestern U.S.) a dense growth of shrubs and trees, esp. evergreen oaks

Crude Birth rate (CBR) :

the number of births per 1,000 population in a given year

Crude death rate (CDR) :

the number of deaths per 1,000 people in a given year

Climax Community :

a community that is capable of perpetuation under the prevailing climatic and edaphic (soil) conditions

Climatic climax :

If you have a community that is disturbed by some agent (e.g. fire, ploughing, landslide, flooding), the community structure in that community is altered. Gradually the community will rebuild itself, tending towards a more stable structure that can be supported by the environment in that particular climate

Conservative margin :

where two plates slide jerkily past each other (also known as transform faults)

clawback:

finding a way to take money back from people that they were given in another way; "the Treasury will find some clawback for the extra benefits members received

core and periphery :

areas with different degrees of economic development. Within any particular region or country, development is unlikely to take place evenly. Areas with geographical advantages (such as soil fertility, raw materials, and access to trade routes) will become more developed than others. These are the core areas, where capital, infrastructure, and employment are concentrated, leaving periphery areas that lack these resources. Core and periphery regions may be identified at many levels. On a national scale, for example, the UK has a northern periphery and southeast core.

cumulative causation :

the process by which economic activity leading to prosperity and increasing economic development tends to concentrate in an area with an initial advantage, draining investment and skilled labour from the peripheral area (part of the backwash effect).

census:

official gathering of information about the population in a particular area. The data collected are used by government departments in planning for the future in such areas as health, education, transport,

Canadian tar sand reserves:

Canadian tar sand is strip mined and hauled in trucks to a facility that uses solvents, detergents, heat and centrifuges to extract bitumen, a tarry substance. (The local indigenous people used bitumen to waterproof their canoes.) The heat comes from local stranded natural gas. (Stranded natural gas is gas that can not be exported out of the local area because there is not enough of it to justify the expense of the construction of a pipeline.) Bitumen is not suitable as feedstock for oil refineries because it is low in hydrogen. Condensates from the same local stranded natural gas are available to add to the bitumen to increase the hydrogen content. The result is called synthetic oil and it is a suitable feedstock for oil refineries. The entire process is energy intensive.

carrying capacity :

the optimum number of people that can be sustained by an environment and its resources

Communist:

A member of a Marxist-Leninist party.

communist:

often a radical viewed as a subversive or revolutionary

Climatic climax community:

community of organisms, especially plants, is stable and capable of perpetuating itself, developed in a local climate which differs from the climate normal to the area

Carbon footprint:

Carbon Footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide (tons) as a result of fossil fuels being used to provide energy for homes, personal transport and the manufacture and transport of goods for personal consumption.