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| material found in nature that is useful or necessary for living organisms |
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| natural resource, such as water, that is recycled or replaced by ongoing natural processes |
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| natural resource, such as petroleum, that is available in limited amounts and cannot be replaced or is only replaced slowly |
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| nonrenewable energy source, such as natural gas, that formed from the bodies of organisms that died hundreds of millions of years ago |
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| device made of silicon that turns sunlight directly into electric current |
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| electricity produced by the energy of flowing water |
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| heat energy from below the surface of Earth |
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| energy produced when the nuclei of uranium atoms split apart in a nuclear fission reaction |
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| removal of soil nutrients from land used for agriculture due to the replacement of native plants with crops that do not decay and replenish the soil |
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| wearing away of soil by wind and water |
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| use of plowing methods to prevent or reduce soil depletion and erosion |
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| dying out of an entire species either naturally or through the actions of humans |
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| species that is in danger of becoming extinct unless action is taken to protect it |
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| process that reduces the use of natural resources by reusing an item after it has been changed or reprocessed |
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| any substance that contaminates the environment and causes pollution |
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| air pollution that forms when sunlight reacts with pollutant chemicals produced by burning fossil fuels |
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| rain or snow with a pH below 5.6 that results from the mixture of water vapor and air pollutants in the atmosphere |
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| thinning of Earth's protective ozone layer, primarily from chlorofluorocarbons reacting with and destroying ozone molecules |
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| warming of Earth due to a blanket of gases in the atmosphere that prevents heat from radiating back into space |
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| increase in the average yearly temperature of Earth |
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| waste materials, such as pesticides and nuclear waste, that are harmful to human health or poisonous to living organisms and that must be properly disposed of |
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| water contained in the soil or trapped in underground pockets formed by nonporous rock that comes from rainfall and runoff that soaks through the soil |
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