AIRCRAFT: make a lot of noise. Make polluting exhaust gases which damage the atmosphere and add to global warming
BOMB: high explosive bombs kill and maim people, other animals and plants. They also destroy or set fire to buildings and factories (like oil refineries) which can cause terrible pollution.Nuclear bombs cause mass destruction (Weapons of Mass Destruction, WMD) and create dangerous radiation
CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2): Produced by burning fossil fuels like oil, coal and gas in transport, electricity generation and heating. Also produced when forests are burned. The main greenhouse gas, also known as CO2
CAR: the world has hundreds of millions of cars. Cars produce CO2 and lots of other pollution by burning oil (as gasoline, diesel, petrol) in their engines
CARCINOGEN: type of pollutant which causes cancer in people and animals. There are many carcinogens, the best known being poisons in cigarette smoke
CIGARETTE: cause smoke pollution which injures smokers and people around them because of the compounds the smoke contains. See Carcinogen
COAL: the filthiest fossil fuel, mostly solid carbon. Burning coal releases smoke pollution and more than its own weight of CO2 into the air
COW: cows fart and belch a lot, releasing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas
DIOXIN: one of the most poisonous chemicals known, produced when burning plastics containing chlorine (e.g. PVC)
EXHAUST: the smelly pollution which comes out of factory chimneys and car, bus and truck tailpipes. Mostly CO2
FACTORY: can produce all kinds of pollution (smoke, liquids and solids) depending on the type of stuff being made. Not all factories pollute and many install special equipment to stop pollution
FUMES: smelly gases which burning fuels make
GARBAGE: the rubbish people throw away, often very smelly and a source of pollutants for many years unless it is recycled or reused
JET: engine that burns fuel to produce continuous, powerful and directed blast of hot exhaust gas, used for most modern aircraft. Also used to mean an aircraft powered by jet engines
LANDFILL: where unusable human rubbish gets dumped, usually in a large hole in the ground such as an old quarry. Landfills produce a lot of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas
METHANE: a hydrocarbon gas (also called 'natural gas') which will burn in air to produce heat for anything from cooking to electricity generating stations. Methane comes from underground reservoirs like oil
MERCURY: a silvery metal, liquid at normal temperatures, which is highly toxic (poisonous)
MINING: how people get metals like gold and iron out of the Earth. Mining causes serious pollution
NOISE: you know what noise is. Very loud noise can ruin people's hearing. Noise in the oceans (from ships, oil exploration, drilling rigs and military sonar equipment) can be hazardous to marine mammals like whales and dolphins who rely on sound to find their food. Sound travels much further in water than in air.
OIL: liquid hydrocarbon fuel; a fossil fuel (except for a liquid biofuel called biodiesel which is produced from crops such as canola and oil palms). Some power stations and almost all transport (cars, aircraft, ships, trucks, buses, military vehicles) depend totally on oil for engines to work. Burning oil in engines produces CO2 and other poisonous fumes (e.g. smog)
OZONE: a poisonous form of oxygen which is produced by the action of sunlight on pollutants in smog. However, naturally-produced ozone high in the atmosphere protects life against ultraviolet radiation from the sun: the ozone layer which itself has been seriously damaged by human pollution
PESTICIDE: poison for killing pests. It can also unintentionally kill many other things including people, and can pollute waterways
PLASTIC: useful substances invented by people for all kinds of purposes. Burning waste plastic can cause serious pollution( see Dioxin). Not easily recyclable so most ends up in landfills or in the sea
RADIATION: see here
SEWAGE: human bodily waste compounds with all sorts of rude names. It all goes down the toilet to become sewage
SMOG: pollution from exhaust fumes, industry, fast food outlets and barbecues which gathers over cities in calm weather to form a choking brown cloud
SMOKE: pollution which comes out of chimneys (e.g. from coal-burning) and exhaust pipes (not just cars; ships' engines can produce clouds of black smoke too). Smoke also comes from burning forests, the burning often started deliberately to clear land for farming
SUV: stands for Sports Utility Vehicles which are large, heavy cars which burn much more fuel than smaller ones and which have become 'fashion accessories'
TOXIN: poisonous substance
TRAFFIC: cars, trucks, planes in large numbers, all burning oil and producing pollution
TRAVEL: people seem to love to travel. Once, they just walked or rode a horse. Now, they drive, fly or go by rail or ship - and all these things create serious amounts of pollution
TRUCK: large vehicle which carries goods from one place to another by road or rail. Because they are large, the road versions create a lot of pollution
WAR: people killing other people using machines to do it. The machines may be tanks, guns, missiles or aircraft (and many other things). Most burn lots of fuel and all create terrible pollution as well as killing and harming people, animals and plants like trees that happen to be in the way.