Weekly green glossary: Shandong, Erin Brockovich, wolverines and recycling

Environmental and "green" buzz words of the week (February 5-13).

 

Acid - Leaking acid water from mines close to Johannesburg in South Africa could soon start eating away at the city, posing a threat to its 4 million inhabitants. ( Reuters)

Bushfire - After Australia's northeastern coast bore the brunt of the recent cyclone, residents in Perth now have to contend with raging bush fires. ( Western Australia Today)

Erin Brockovich - The environmental campaigner and human rights activist whose life was made into a film starring Julia Roberts has launched a new organization to help protect Australia's natural environment. ( Herald Sun)

Greenhouse gases - Australia predicts that by 2020 its greenhouse gas emissions will exceed predicted levels - something authorities attribute to the country's recent mining boom. ( AFP)

Greenland - A new play called Greenland tackles society's current position on climate change and is playing at Britain's biggest theater, The National. ( Tree Hugger)

Gringrich ­- The former US House Speaker Newt Gringrich attacked Obama's environmental policies, labeling the President's plans as a "war on American energy." ( Huffington Post)

Methane - Construction is underway on a gas processing facility in Brooklyn which will capture the excess gas from a nearby sewage processing plant, remove the methane and then add the gas to the national grid. ( Inhabitat)  

One billion - the amount in US dollars China has pledged in emergency water aid to deal with the most severe drought the country has experienced in 60 years. ( Guardian)

Recycling - The amount of people recycling their household waste, at least in the UK, is increasing, according to new reports by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). ( Environmental Technology)

Self-healing solar cells - Using carbon nanotubes and DNA, researchers are trying to create solar cells that "self-repair" in a similar fashion to plants. ( Science Daily)

Shandong - China's eastern Province of Shandong, known as the bread basket of China, is bracing for its worst drought in 200 years after water shortages caused grain to begin to fail in October. ( Xinhua)

Wolverines - A new study claims that global warming could endanger wolverines, which are rarely found in temperatures above 22°C. ( National Geographic)