Dominic Cole’s IELTS Blog www.dcielts.com Environment Vocabulary The natural world word/phrase notes/explanations the natural world includes both animal and plant life the Earth note the capital letter and “the” the planet a synonym for the Earth a habitat the natural habitat of an animal is where it lives biodiversity variety of plant and animal life in a region (endangered) species examples include the Giant Panda an ecosystem the system where plants and animals support one another rainforests a useful example when discussing environmental problems deforestation cutting down forests Energy word/phrase notes/explanation conserve energy another way ot saying “to save energy” sources of energy a good collocation renewable sources sources of energy such as wind power and solar energy natural resources for example water, coal and gas fossil fuels a collective term for coal, petrol and gas solar energy energy from the sun solar panels the implement used to create solar energy wind turbines modern windmills used to create power from the wind clean energy energy that does not create pollution Dominic Cole’s IELTS Blog www.dcielts.com Pollution word/phrase notes/explanation pollution remember “air and water pollution”: other forms of the word include “pollute” and “pollutants” smog an extreme form of air pollution almost like fog air/water quality this can be affected by pollution (industrial) waste we also talk about waste products chemicals and fertilisers useful examples of products that cause water pollution fumes/emissions these are the gases that are produced by cars and factories that cause pollution carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide names of two gases useful for discussing acid rain and the green house effect factories and power stations two examples of sources of pollution acid rain rain that is “poisonous” because of the poor air quality dump waste if factories dump waste, they illegally deposit (normally dangerous) waste Global warming word/phrase notes/explanation green (issues) a very common synonym for “environmental” global warming an example of man’s effect on the environment the greenhouse effect connected to global warming Dominic Cole’s IELTS Blog www.dcielts.com Useful verbs word/phrase notes/explanation harm cause or harm to/ harmful endanger the verb of “danger”/endangered species impact “have an impact on” contaminate almost the same meaning as poison: another form of the word is “contaminated” threat a threat to/be under threat/ to threaten/to be threatened by exercises and examples on how to use this vocabulary