ABSTRACT
The terminology found in the venous areas of industrial technology can be extremely confusing to the uninitiated; excellent examples of the confusion that abounds are to be found in the area of fossil fuel technology. Environmental issues permeate everyday life, especially the lives of workers in various occupations where hazards can result from exposure to many external influences. To start with an extremely relevant definition, environmental technology is the application of scientific and engineering principles to the study of the environment, with the goal of the improvement of the environment. Since ecology is that branch of science related to the study of the relationship of organisms to their environment, an ecosystem is an ecological community considered together with the nonliving factors of its environment as a unit. In some cases environmental pollution is a clear-cut phenomenon, whereas in others it remains a question of degree. This chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
