Glossary of Terms

Afforestation - Planting trees in areas where trees have been absent in recent times.

Alternative Energy - Energy derived from sources that do not deplete natural resources, such as solar, wind and geothermal, and serve to replace or supplement traditional fossil fuel sources.

Anthropogenic - Human-induced or human-caused. In the context of greenhouse gases, emissions that are produced as the result of human activities.

Atmosphere - The gaseous layer covering the Earth's surface. It is constituted mainly of nitrogen (78.1%) and oxygen (20.9%). The remaining 1% is made of various gases - the major one is argon (0.9%), others are ozone, carbon dioxide, methane, sulfur dioxide, water vapor.

Basalt - a dark-colored, fine-grained, igneous rock formed from molten rock that flowed onto the Earth's surface.

Biofuels - Biofuel is any fuel that derives from biomass. It is a renewable energy, unlike other natural resources such as petroleum, coal and nuclear fuels. The carbon in biofuels was recently extracted from atmospheric carbon dioxide by growing plants, so burning it does not result in a net increase of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere.

Biomass - Any organic, non-petroleum-based matter that can be used as fuel, such as wood residue from forest clearing and mills, livestock waste, aquatic plants, and sugarcane.

Cap &Trade - Market-based policy tool for curbing carbon emissions. Generally, a maximum limit on carbon emission allowance is set. Carbon producers are then allowed to design their own compliance strategy to meet the overall reduction requirement, which may include the sale or purchase of carbon credits, installation of pollution controls, and implementation of efficiency measures, among other options.

Carbon allowance - A government issued authorization to emit a certain amount of carbon into the atmosphere. In carbon markets, an allowance is commonly denominated as one ton of carbon dioxide, or equivalent carbon dioxide (CO₂e).

Carbon credits - Units of carbon emissions that can be purchased or sold between participating members (i.e. countries, corporations, etc.) in order to meet compliance with carbon emission allowance.

Carbon Dioxide - A colorless, odorless, non-poisonous gas that is a normal part of the ambient air. The molecule is made up of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms.

Carbon footprint - The impact of human activities on the environment, measured in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced through energy use, travel, food choices, etc.

Carbon neutral - A product or process that does not add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere over its life cycle.

Carbon offset - Activities or processes that offset or mitigate the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. Carbon offset options include sequestration activities, tree planting, and renewable energy sources.

Carbon Sequestration - Capturing atmospheric carbon (carbon dioxide) and storing it by one of several mechanisms to reduce this greenhouse gas and its contribution to global warming. Carbon may be stored in living (green vegetation and forests) or non-living reservoirs (soil, geologic formations, oceans, wood products).

Carbon Sources - A carbon source is any activity that emits Carbon Dioxide. Sources can be stationary emitters such as power plants or refineries, or they can be emitted from activities such as driving automobiles.

Carbon tax - A fixed tax rate on the carbon content of fuels. As a policy tool, carbon taxes serve as a way for renewable energy sources to compete with the fossil fuels and curb carbon emissions.

Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) - The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) is a voluntary cap and trade program for reducing and trading greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Deforestation - The removal of forest stands by cutting and burning to provide land for agricultural purposes, residential or industrial building sites, roads, etc., or by harvesting the trees for building materials or fuel.

Fossil Fuels - Coal, petroleum, and natural gas are called fossil fuels because they are made of fossilized, carbon-rich plant and animal remains. These remains are buried in sediments and compressed over geologic time, slowly being converted to fuel. Fossil fuels can be extracted from the sediment millions of years after its deposition. Its stored energy can be used as fuel when it is burned.

Geologic Sequestration - Geologic sequestration is the process of capturing carbon dioxide and storing it in underground formations. Carbon Dioxide can be stored in exhausted oil fields, deep unminable coal seams, saline formations or basalts. Geologic sequestration has the potential for long term carbon storage.

Geoportal - A geoportal is a type of web portal used to find and access geographic information (geospatial information) and associated geographic services (display, editing, analysis, etc.) via the Internet

Geospatial - Geospatial is a term widely used to describe the combination of spatial software and analytical methods with terrestrial or geographic datasets.

GIS - Geographic Information System. GIS links features commonly seen on maps such as roads, town boundaries, and water bodies with related information not usually presented on maps, such as type of road surface, population, type of agriculture, type of vegetation, or water quality information. A GIS is a unique information system in which individual observations can be spatially referenced to each other.

Global Warming Potential (GWP) - A concept developed to compare the ability of each greenhouse gas to trap heat in the atmosphere relative to another gas. The GWP of a particular gas is measured as the ratio of heat trapped by one unit mass of the greenhouse gas to that of one unit mass of carbon dioxide.

Greenhouse Effect - Greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere permit solar radiation to pass through and prevent most of the reflected infrared radiation from escaping into outer space. Live on earth would not be possible without the natural greenhouse effect. However, increased emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities has led to climate change and the warming of our atmosphere.

Greenhouse Gases - Gases that trap the heat of the sun in the Earth's atmosphere, producing the greenhouse effect. The two major greenhouse gases are water vapor and carbon dioxide. Other greenhouse gases include methane, ozone, chlorofluorocarbons, and nitrous oxide.

IPCC -Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - The role of the IPCC is to assess the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change.

Methane - (CH4) a colorless, odorless gas formed naturally by the decomposition of organic matter.

Nitrogen Oxides - (NOX) one of the three major greenhouse gases responsible for climate change. Soils and oceans are the primary natural sources of nitrous oxide. Humans contribute to nitrous oxide emissions through soil cultivation and the use of nitrogen fertilizers and the burning of organic material and fossil fuels.

PPM - Parts Per Million. A volume unit of measurement; for example, 379 ppm Co2 in the atmosphere.

Saline Aquifer - An underground reservoir comprised of salt water.

Sink - A potential storage site for Carbon sequestration. Potential sinks include forests, agricultural and rangelands, exhausted oil fields, unimable coal seams, deep saline aquifers, and basalts.