annual: Adjective for something that happens every year. (in botany) A plant that lives only one year, so it usually has a showy flower and produces many seeds.
Antarctica: A continent mostly covered in ice, which sits in the southernmost part of the world.
average: (in science) A term for the arithmetic mean, which is the sum of a group of numbers that is then divided by the size of the group.
boil: To heat a liquid to the temperature at which it turns to vapor.
climate: The weather conditions that typically exist in one area, in general, or over a long period.
colleague: Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.
data: Facts and/or statistics collected together for analysis but not necessarily organized in a way that gives them meaning. For digital information (the type stored by computers), those data typically are numbers stored in a binary code, portrayed as strings of zeros and ones.
greenhouse gas: A gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing heat. Carbon dioxide is one example of a greenhouse gas.
Greenland: The world’s largest island, Greenland sits between the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic. Although it is technically part of North America (sitting just east of Northern Canada), Greenland has been linked more politically to Europe. Greenland’s ice sheet is the world’s largest. If its frozen water were to melt, it could raise sea levels around the world by 6 meters (about 20 feet). Although this is the 12th biggest nation (based on surface area), Greenland averages the fewest people per square kilometer of its surface area.
joule: The amount of energy needed to produce one watt for one second. Joule is a standard unit of energy.
New Zealand: An island nation in the southwest Pacific Ocean, roughly 1,500 kilometers (some 900 miles) east of Australia. Its “mainland” — consisting of a North and South Island — is quite volcanically active. In addition, the country includes many far smaller offshore islands.
pandemic: An epidemic that affects a large proportion of the population across a country or the world.
sea level: The overall level of the ocean over the entire globe when all tides and other short-term changes are averaged out.
seawater: The salty water found in oceans.