Environment Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Citations in the Category Environment

Environment, environmentalism, green movement, conservation, forestry, wild-life preservation. You can also see entries assigned to this category.

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14-er n. As a man in his 70s, Dr. Reed started climbing the “14-ers,” as they are called: the dozens of mountains in Colorado that rise to 14,000 feet or higher. Friends said that on those steep mountains, where the air grows thin, he outclimbed friends two to three decades younger. [Colorado English Environment] [full cite] (Apr. 14, 2007)

Anthropocene n. Considering these and many other major and still growing impacts of human activities on earth and atmosphere, and at all, including global, scales, it seems to us more than appropriate to emphasize the central role of mankind in geology and ecology by proposing to use the term “anthropocene” for the current geological epoch. [English Environment Science] [full cite] (Mar. 22, 2006)

Anthropocene n. Exactly when such an Anthropocene should be seen to replace a truncated Holocene is a matter of debate.…Some would undoubtedly advocated AD 1000, which roughly equates with the beginning of the industrial cycle of global population growth.…, while others would prefer c. AD 1500, so as to conform to what Roberts (1998) refers to as the culmination of the “taming of nature” phase and the commencement of “the modern era.” However, there is likely to be even greater support for c. AD 1750, approximately corresponding to the start of the Industrial Revolution. [English Environment Science] [full cite] (Mar. 22, 2006)

anthropogenic forcing n. Everyone’s talking about global warming. Or, actually, climate change. Or…uh…anthropogenic forcing?…Basically, this phrase—which is mainly used by climate researchers—can be loosely interpreted as “human-made doom.” [English Environment Science] [full cite] (Jun. 24, 2005)

AONB n. “For anything with sea views we tend to go for sealed bids. They can go as much as £100,000 over the top although £25,000 is more usual.” This is occurring in an area where, says an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) study, 40% of households have an annual income of under £20,000. [English United Kingdom Environment Acronym] [full cite] (Dec. 4, 2006)

arribada n. Known as an arribada, the Spanish word for arrival, the group nesting event on May 22nd is yet another positive sign this year that the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, the smallest and most endangered sea turtle in the world, is on its way to recovery. [Spanish Mexico United States Environment] [full cite] (May. 30, 2004)

bag night n. Perhaps “bag nights” could use further clarification, since it’s a backpacker’s term that, even then, is subject to personal preferences. Henceforth (how’s that for sounding official?), here are my qualifications for claiming a “bag night:” You must sleep outdoors overnight. You could be in a tent, in a shelter that’s open to the air, or even just outside with no protection. For me, well, I count what I call “primitive car camping,” another of my personal definitions. To me, it means camping in any of the above situations, but you are near a car. So you have access to some sup-plies. Now a regular campground with shower and toilet facilities does not qualify, to me. Most importantly, there’s a sleeping bag involved. Oh yeah, and sleeping overnight in the Jeep en route to a location does not count. [English Environment] [full cite] (Jan. 22, 2007)

bait bucket biologist n. While pike have not been stocked extensively in Colorado waters since the early 1980s, some fish have escaped, or been “planted” illegally by “bait bucket biologists” in other Colorado waters where they were not intended to be, sometimes repeatedly. [English Animals, Insects, & Birds Biology Environment] [full cite] (Sep. 1, 2006)

banana belt n. That’s because Pueblo sits at the center of a geographic phenomenon that the locals refer to as a “banana belt” and weather service forecasters call the “brown hole.” “We call it the brown hole because during a serious winter storm, more often than not, the ground here is brown and dry when it’s covered in snow everywhere else,” said NWS meteorologist Steve Hodanish. [English Environment] [full cite] (Jan. 3, 2007)

belt air n. Stricken from Yonts’ bill was a provision that would have barred the use of conveyor-belt tunnels for coal-mine ventilation. “Belt air,” as it is known in the industry, may contain coal dust and toxic chemicals, and is considered a grave hazard by mine-safety advocates, who say it can feed fires and expose miners to harmful airborne substances. The industry, by contrast, contends that the use of belt air is safe if certain precautions are taken. [English Environment Jargon] [full cite] (Feb. 26, 2007)

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