IELTS Environment Vocabulary – Words, Phrases, Questions – IELTS Jacky (2024)

Part1

1) Do you think pollution is a big problemnowadays?

I thinkit’s a massive issue. It really worries me how much damage we are doing to the naturalenvironment, especially how we pollute the oceans with plastic wasteand release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

2) What do you do to prevent the environmentfrom pollution?

I recycle as much rubbish as I can and I walk when possiblerather than driving or taking public transport in order to reduce my carbon footprint.

3) Are you worried about climate change?

Mostdefinitely. In my country, the weather is changing because of global warming and we get morebad storms than before. Governments and individuals need to do more to combat climate change.

4) Do you use renewable energy?

Notat the moment. I wanted to change my house to solar power but the panels are too expensive for me to buyso, unfortunately, I still use fossilfuels.

5) Do you take an interest in nature?

Ilove all wildlife. My gardenis the perfect habitat forhedgehogs. They are nocturnalbut if I go out after dark with a torch I sometimes see one.

Part 2

There are a number of serious environmental problems beingcovered by the media at the moment but the one I’d like to talk about is the deforestation of vast areas ofrainforest to grow palm oil. I’m not sure when it started to become a concernto environmentalist but Iknow that they’re increasingly worried about it.

This land clearance is on a huge scale and the forest is oftenjust burned down. This sends large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere which contribute to global warming and climatechange. This affects everyone on the planet.

Just as important is the effect on thenative wildlife. Deforestation to grow palm oilin Borneo and Sumatra destroys the natural habitatof orang utans as well as many other animals. Conservationists estimate that unless the situation changes,the orang utan and Sumatran tiger could become extinct in the wild in the next 5-10 years. In fact, a thirdof all mammal species inIndonesia are thought to be critically endangeredbecause of this type of unsustainabledevelopment.

Furthermore, the oil palm plantationsthat replace the rich vegetationof the rainforest support very low levels of biodiversity and create atotally a different ecosystem.I don’t fully understand why the loss of biodiversity is such a problem but Idid read somewhere that it means that our food crops are more vulnerable topest and diseases. This could lead to serious food shortages in the future.

I think that the palm oil industry andits associated problems are going to be difficult to change. Perhaps it’sconsumers who can have the biggest impact by refusing to buy productscontaining palm oil which is in around 40-50% ofcommon household products in many developed countries. In the UK, there’salready one major foodretailer that has promised to ban palm oil in its own products. This I reallyencouraging and I hope other companies will do the same soon.

Part 3

1) What do you consider to be the most seriousenvironmental issues in the world today?

I’d say that global warming and climatechange have to come top of the list because these threaten the very futureof life on our planet. There are many contributing factors such as the burning offossil fuels, deforestation for agriculture anddue to illegal logging, and large-scalelivestock farming.

Another serious concern is for themarine life in our oceans whichis under serious threat from pollution, especially waste plastics.These kill or injure thousands of sea creaturesevery day. Many species of wildlife are also being pushed tothe verge of extinction by poaching. It’s shocking to thinkthat beautiful animals such as the tiger are dying out in the wild because of the actions of human beings.

There are many other environmental problems that we needto solve but these are the ones I believe to be the most serious.

2) Do you think it is the responsibility ofgovernments alone to protect the environment?

Not at all. It’s theresponsibility of every individual to do their bit to protect the environment.Of course, governments can do a lot to address environmental issues through their policies and the laws theypass. I certainly think that governments should put more pressure on industryto use clean energy and to cutdown on the emission of greenhouse gases that pollute the atmosphere and add to globalwarming.

In my country, the government encouragespeople to live an environmentally-friendlylifestyle by providing recyclingservices and facilities and subsidising renewableenergy by giving grants to people wanting to run their homes on solar power. If more people tookadvantage of this, it would certainly help the environment.

3) What measures can individuals take to protectthe environment?

There are many ways that each ofus can help to care for the natural environment.Firstly, we can recycle asmuch of our rubbish as possible or, even better, cut down on our use of disposable products.

Secondly, we can become more energy-efficient by insulatingour homes, turning off lights when they don’t need to be on and making shortjourneys by bicycle or on foot rather than going by vehicle. Cutting down oncar journeys also means fewer polluting exhaust fumes entering the atmosphere.

Finally, we can make sure that weknow about the major conservationissues our world is currently facing. If we are well-informed then we can takeaction to bring about change.

These are all measure we can takeas individuals to help safeguardthe environment.

EnvironmentVocabulary Set 1: Key Definitions

environment – thenatural world, as a whole or in a particular geographical area, especially asaffected by human activity.

- Picking up litter is a simple way to help protect the environment.

environmental – relating to the naturalworld and concerning the impact of human activity on its condition.

- A survey revealed anumber of environmentalissues concerningthe development of the land for housing, most notably, that it was the habitat ofa rare breed of frog.

environmentalist – a person who chooses alifestyle that is designed to minimise their impact on the natural environmentand who campaigns for environmental issues.

- Plansto build a new road alongside the lake drew fierce oppositions from environmentalists.

environmentally-friendly – not harmful to theenvironment.

- Thereare many environmentally-friendly cleaning products on themarket that don’t contain chemicals that damage the environment.

naturalenvironment – the natural world as opposed to, for example, aworking environment.

- When the injured sealhad been nursed back to health in the rescue centre, it was returned to its naturalenvironment.

environmentalhazard – a substance or anevent which has the potential to threaten the surrounding naturalenvironment.

- The illegal storage of toxicwaste presents a significant environmentalhazard.

environmentaldisaster – a catastrophic event affecting theenvironmentdue to human activity.

- When the oil tanker ran aground, it caused an environmental disaster from which it took thelocal wildlife many years to recover.

conservation – the protection of plants, animalsand natural resources, usually by planned human action.

- It was Dimitri’sdream to get a job in conservation.

conservationist – a person who takes action to protect theenvironment from damage caused by humans.

- Conservationists are working hard toprotect the breeding grounds of sea turtles.

conservationprogramme – an organised plan to protect a specific naturalarea or aspect of the natural environment.

- Nextyear I’m planning to volunteer on a conservation programme in Spainwhich researches dolphins.

Collocations:

• wildlifeconservation– the protection of wildlife.
• nature conservation– workthat protects natural resources including wildlife, rivers, forests and othernatural landscapes.
• energy conservation – theeffort made to use less energy.

EnvironmentVocabulary Set 2:The natural world – wildlife, plant life & habitats

wildlife – animals thatlive in the wild in natural conditions. Birds, fish and insects are oftenincluded in the definition.

- Every evening, a wide varietyof wildlife came to the waterhole todrink.

localwildlife – the wildlife to be found in a particular area.

- The children did aschool project on their local wildlife.

nativewildlife – wildlife that naturally lives in a particular areaand is not there as a result of human intervention.

When cats were introducedto the island, they hunted the native wildlife and cause a rapid declinein many species.

creature – any living thing that can move independently.

There are some fascinatingcreatures living in the deep ocean that we know hardly anything about.

fauna – theanimals of a particular region or habitat.

- The group ofscientists lived in tents while studying the fauna of the remote mountain region.

flora – the plants of a particular region or habitat.

- Much of the native flora of Australia isn’t found naturallyanywhere else in the world.

vegetation – the collective name for all theplants growing in a particular place or area.

- Tropical regions are known for theirdense vegetation.

species – a group of animals or plants that havesimilar characteristics and can reproduce together.

- Lions are a species of wild cat.

Collocations:

• endangeredspecies – a species that is in seriousdanger of extinction.
• threatenedspecies – a species that is likely tobecome endangered in the near future.
• rarespecies – anuncommon or scarce species.
• protectedspecies – a species which it isforbidden to harm by law.
• extinctspecies – a species of which there areno more alive.

ecosystem – all the living things in anenvironment and the complex relationship between each of them and thatenvironment.

- Coral reefs have a delicatelybalanced ecosystem which can beseriously damaged by overfishing.

Collocations:

• delicatelybalanced ecosystem –an ecosystem where the loss of a key species, or several significant species,can seriously affect it.
• fragileecosystem – anecosystem that does not adapt easily to change and is easily destroyed by human or physical impact.

Mother Nature– nature or weather considered as a force that controls all living things.

- It’s far better to try and work withMother Naturethan again it.

diverse– varied and very different from one another.

- They were able to grow adiverserange of crops in the rich, fertile soil.

biodiversity–the variety of animal and plant life found in a particular place.

It is important to preservebiodiversityin order to protect our ecosystems.

Collocation:

• loss of biodiversity– when species become extinct in an area and there is no longer such a great variety of species.

ecology – therelationship between animals, plants, people and their environment in aparticular area, or the study of this.

- Ben studied the coastal ecology of Lundy Island in his finalyear at university.

habitat – the natural home or environment ofan animal, plant or other organism.

- The loss of their natural habitatthrough deforestation is a serious threat to the orang utan in Borneo.

toinhabit – to livein a certain place.

- The rainforest is inhabited by many different species ofmonkey.

naturalsurroundings –the habitat in which a species would naturally live.

- The best thing about going on safariis seeing the animals in their naturalsurroundings rather than caged up in a zoo.

toadapt– to change or adjust in response to new conditions.

- With the loss of large areas ofcountryside to housing development, foxes have had to adapt to living in towns.

toevolve – changeor develop gradually.

- Scientists now believe that humans evolved from apes.

evolution – the process by which living thingsslowly change and develop over a long period of time.

- The theory of evolution states that all life on Earth today evolved over millionsof years from simple organisms.

thrive – to grow and develop well orquickly.

- The leopard seal is well adapted tothe cold and thrives in the fish-richwaters of the Arctic.

marine – related to or found inthe sea.

- Marinewildlife is badly affected by the amount of waste plastic in our oceans.

nocturnal – active at night.

- Almost all species of bats are nocturnal, preferring to hunt or searchfor food at night rather than during the day.

migrate – to move from one region or habitatto another, usually when the season changes.

- Many birds migrate south to warmer climates in the winter.

extinction – being completely destroyed so that it no longerexists.

- The dodo, a flightless birdonce found in Mauritius, washunted to extinction by 1681.

dying out – to become increasingly less common, almost tothe point of extinction.

- Tigers are in serious danger ofdying out in the wild.

EnvironmentVocabulary Set 3:The natural world –resources & environment

climate – the general weather conditionsusually found in a particular place.

- Egypt has a hot, dry climate with very little rainfall.

climatechange – a changein global or regional temperature patterns.

- Climatechange has led to the melting of the polar ice caps.

Collocation:

• combatclimate change– to stop or reverse the effects of climate change.

- It is only by countries workingtogether to combat climate changethat we will save our planet.

natural resources – materialsor substances that exist in nature, such as coal,oil, and timber, and can be used bypeople.

- The success of humans as aspecies has been largely due to their ability to exploit the Earth’s natural resources.

Collocation:

• rich innatural resources– having a lot of natural resources.

- It is believed that Antarctica is rich in natural resources but many fear anecological disaster if mining is allowed to go ahead.

fossilfuels – a fuel,such as coal, oil and gas, that is formed in the earth from dead plants andanimals.

- Fossilfuels give off large amounts of carbon when burned which is damaging to theatmosphere.

atmosphere – the layer of gases surrounding theEarth or any other planet.

- Asteroids usually burn up when theyenter the Earth’s atmosphere.

ozonelayer – a layerof the colourless gas ozone that exists highabove the Earth's surface and which prevents harmful ultraviolet lightfrom the sun from reaching the Earth.

- Without theozonelayer, it would be very difficult for anything to survive on Earth.

carbondioxide – a gasformed when carbon is burned, or when people or animals breathe out.

- Trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen which helps to keep ouratmosphere healthy.

carbonmonoxide – apoisonous gas formed by the burning of carbon, especially in the form of carfuel.

- You can’t smell carbonmonoxide which makesit a deadly killer, so it’s important to installa carbon monoxide alarm near your gas boiler.

greenhousegas – a gas inthe atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, that absorbs radiation and gives offheat.

- Greenhousegases contribute to the problem of global warming.

greenhouseeffect – thegradual warming of the surface of the Earth due to greenhouse gases beingtrapped in the atmosphere above the Earth.

-The greenhouse effect is believed by many to be responsible for climatechange.

EnvironmentVocabulary Set 4:Environmental issues

erosion – the gradual wearing-away ofsomething by the natural forces of the wind, rain and water.

- Crop rotation is important to ensurethe soil isn’t left bare and subject to erosionby the wind and rain.

Collocations:

• coastalerosion – damageto the coastline caused mainly by waves.
• soilerosion – removalof the upper layer of the soil, mainly by water or wind.
• winderosion – a process where soil or rocks are worn away by thewind.

deforestation – the cutting down or burning of all thetrees in an area.

- Deforestation results in the loss ofhabitat for millions of species, leads to soil erosion and, according toscientists, is a major cause of climate change.

landclearance – the process of removing vegetation to create new areasof land suitable for farming.

- Landclearance leaves the soil bare and at risk of serious erosion.

logging – to cut down trees for their timber.

- Uncontrolled logging is destroying vast areas of our precious rainforests.

pollution – damage to water, air or land byharmful substances and waste materials.

- In some cities, the air pollution isso bad that people have to wear face masks when they go out.

topollute – tocontaminate water, air or land with harmful substances and waste materials.

- In many countries, heavy industrycontinues to seriously pollute the environment.

emissions – the production and discharge ofsomething, especially gas.

- Manycountries are reluctant to reducetoxic emissionsas the hugeexpense involved can affect the rate of economic growth.

carbon footprint – the amountof carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities ofa particular individual or organization.

- I have reduced my carbon footprint by cycling to workinstead of driving.

globalwarming – agradual increase in world temperatures caused by polluting gases, such ascarbon dioxide, which are collecting in the air around the Earth and preventingheat from escaping into space.

- It’s not too late to reverse the effects of global warming but we must act right now.

Collocations:

• to fight /to combat / to tackle global warming – takeaction to reverse the effects or promote the issue of global warming.
• contributeto global warming – to addto the problem of global warming.
• theeffects of global warming – the environmental changes caused by globalwarming such as climate change.

disposable products– items that are intended to be thrown away after use, generally after just one or a few uses.

- When I was young, things were made to last a long time and be used over and over again, but now we live in a world ofdisposable productsand have a huge waste problem.

dumping ground–a place where things that are not wanted are left

- If we continue treating our oceans as adumping ground, it will eventually become too polluted to sustain life.

acid rain– rain rainfall made so acidic by atmospheric pollution caused by burning fossil fuels that it causes environmental harm, especially to forests and lakes.

- In Poland, large areas of forest have been destroyed byacid rain.

to contaminate– to make something poisonous as a result of adding waste or chemicals.

- Pesticide and fertilisers used on the field cancontaminaterivers and kill all the fish.

degradation– the process in which the quality of something is damaged or destroyed.

- Soildegradationdue to over-farming means that many farmers have had to move to the cities in search of work.

depletion– the reduction in the number or quality of something.

- Over-fishing has led to thedepletionof the ocean’s fish stocks.

fumes– strong, unpleasant and sometimes dangerous gas or smoke.

- Car exhaustfumesare a major contributor to air pollution.

smog– a mixture of smoke, gases, and chemicals, especially in cities, that makes the atmosphere difficult to breathe and harmful for health.

- Some days thesmogis so bad that people are forced to stay indoors.

air quality– the extent to which the air is free of pollution.

- When the company was forced to install filters in their factories chimneys, theair qualityin the area improved considerably.

poisonous– having chemical properties that can cause harm or kill.

- Hundreds of people became seriously ill whenpoisonouschemicals from the nearby factory seeped into the water system.

toxic– poisonous.

- The dumping oftoxicwaste in the ocean is totally unacceptable and must be stopped.

threat– something or someone that is a risk or a danger.

The greatestthreatto the environment comes from the actions of human beings.

to endanger– to expose something to harm or destruction.

- Organised poaching isendangeringthe survival of the African rhino.

poaching–the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals.

- Elephant’s valuable tusks make them a target forpoaching.

drought– a long period when there is little or no rain.

- The severedroughtmeant that the crops failed for the second year running and many people faced starvation.

flooding– when an area of land that is normally dry is covered with water.

- We have been told to expect more violent storms and frequentfloodingas a result of global warming.

flash floods– a sudden, local flood caused by very heavy rainfall.

- Theflash floodwashed a whole village from the hillside, killing dozens of people.

EnvironmentVocabulary Set 5:Protecting the environment

toprotect – keepsafe from harm, injury or damage.

- Manycharities have been set up around the world for the purpose of protectingendangered species.

to preserve – to keep something as it is

If we don’t take steps to preserve the environment, we will losesome important natural habitats in the very near future.

Collocation:

• wildlifepreservation – the practice ofprotecting wild plant and animal species and their habitats.

torecycle – to collectwaste materials and process them to create new materials and products that canbe used again.

- Wecan dramatically reduce the amount of rubbish we send to landfill sites by recyclingour waste plastic.

biodegradable – able to decomposenaturally without harming or polluting the environment.

- Ialways try to buy products with biodegradable packaging.

carbon-neutral – replacing the sameamount of carbon dioxide as we produce through actions such as planting trees.

- Becomingcarbon-neutral is something for both individuals and industries to worktowards.

sustainable – involving methods that do not useup or destroy natural resources.

- With advances in technology, itis hoped that we will eventually be able to replace fossil fuels with sustainable energy sources.

sustainability – the idea that we should meet our own needs in waysthat do not damage the environment and that do not use resources that cannot bereplaced.

- It is encouraging to see anincreasing number of companies making a commitment to environmental sustainability.

renewableenergy – energyfrom a source that is not depleted when used.

- Where I live, both solar power andwind power are important sources of renewableenergy.

solarpower – power obtained by harnessing the energy of the sun'srays.

- Hussan fitted solarpanels to his roof last year and is now able to produce all the energy he needsto run his home from solar power.

energy-efficient – using only as much energy as isneeded without any waste.

- When I buy a new appliance, I look forone that is energy-efficient as itwill be cheaper to run and be more environmentally-friendly.

windturbine – a tall structure with blades that are blown round by the wind andproduce power to make electricity.

- Many farmers in my area haveinstalled wind turbines to providethe electricity they need.

windfarm – a group ofwind turbines.

- We were horrified when they gotpermission to build a wind farm inour beautiful countryside, but we’re used to it now and understand howimportant it is to generate renewable energy.

cleanenergy – energyproduced from renewable energy resources and which doesn’t produce emissionsthat contribute to global warming.

- Scientists predict that clean energy could reliably and affordably provide up to 80 per cent of U.S.electricity by 2050.

organicfarming – farming without the use of syntheticchemicals.

- Concern for the environment isleading to changes in agricultural methods and especially to a greater interestin organic farming.

afforestation– the action of planting trees on an area of land inorder to make a forest.

- Afforestation is vital if we are to reduce the carbon-dioxidelevels in the atmosphere.

to gogreen – to choose an environmentally-friendlylifestyle.

- In an attempt to go green, my family is recyclingeverything we can and we no longer buy bottled water.

on foot – to walk rather than use a form of transport.

- When the weather is fine, I goto work on foot rather thancatching the bus.

safeguard – take action to protect something from harm ordamage.

- It is the responsibility of allof us to safeguard the environmentfor future generations.

EnvironmentVocabulary Set 6:Other useful words

urban– relating to, or characteristic of a town or city.

- In the UK, foxes thrive inurbanareas and can often be seen on the streets at night.

rural– in, relating to, or characteristic of the countryside rather than the town.

- I was born in a small village and still prefer to live in aruralarea.

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