GC: n

CT: The government is working to protect our environment by reducing pollution, reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill, protecting areas of parkland, wildlife reserves and marine biodiversity, and enforcing regulations that kecep our water and air clean. We also help communities avoid or recover from flooding and other weather-related hazards.

S: https://www.gov.uk/government/topics/environment (last access: 26th August 2014)

N: 1. c.1600, “state of being environed”; sense of “nature, conditions in which a person or thing lives” first recorded 1827 (used by Carlyle to render German Umgebung); specialized ecology sense first recorded 1956.
2. All the physical surroundings on Earth are called the environment. The environment includes everything living and everything nonliving.
The nonliving part of the environment has three main parts: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the lithosphere. The atmosphere is the air—the layer of nitrogen, oxygen, and other gases that surrounds Earth.
3. The environment is the complex set of physical, geographical, biological, social, cultural and political conditions that surround an individual or organism and that ultimately determine its form and the nature of its survival.
4. The environment influences how people live and how societies develop. For that reason, people, progress, economic development and the environment are closely linked.
5. The environment can also pose risks. Air pollution, waterborne diseases, toxic chemicals and natural disasters are some of the challenges the environment presents for Mankind.

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=environment (last access: 26 August 2014). 2. http://kids.britannica.com/elementary/article-399445/environment (last access: 26th August 2014). 3, 4 & 5. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/0,,contentMDK:23262083~pagePK:51123644~piPK:329829~theSitePK:29708,00.html?argument=value (last access: 26 August 2014).

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CR: air pollution, artificial reef, biosafety, biosphere, carbon dioxide, carbon footprint, circular economy, combustion , ecological footprint, ecology, environmental chemistry, environment, green economy, household waste recycling centre, ionosphere, keystone species, light pollution, mesopause, mesosphere, natural environment, phenology, planned obsolescence, radioactive contamination, spill, soil pollution, stratosphere, stratospheric ozone, sustainable agriculture, sustainable development, thermodynamic cycle, tropospheric ozone, umbrella species, waste of electrical and electronic equipment.