TERMIUM Plus®

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ALTERATION ENVIRONMENT [1 record]

Record 1 2010-04-19

English

Subject field(s)
  • Effects of Pollution
CONT

Since alteration means change, change in the environment is synonymous with alteration. In this case, it is a change for the worse. Often the effects of alteration are neither immediately discernible nor accurately predictable. Who can foresee what will happen to a 1970 American baby who is born in an air-conditioned hospital, taken home in an air-conditioned car, reared in an air-conditioned apartment, schooled in an air-conditioned school and amused by recreational activities in an air-conditioned bubble? This unnatural alteration of normal rises and falls in daily temperature may result in eventual genetic changes. And what alteration is being wrought on the urban atmosphere during the summer while hundreds of thousands of air-conditioned apartments and homes pump their waste heat out into the atmosphere and the occupants undergo alteration of temperature and humidity inside? Undesirable levels of pollutants - toxic and otherwise - of course cause alteration of air, water and soil.

French

Domaine(s)
  • Effets de la pollution
OBS

La source CILFG-20 («Dict. des secours d'urgence en cas de catastrophe», par William S. Gunn) définit le terme «altération de l'environnement» comme une «Modification, favorable ou défavorable, de l'état de l'environnement». Selon nous, cependant, «altération» ne peut en fait être considéré comme un synonyme de «modification» que si la modification est défavorable (ce qui est presque toujours le cas néanmoins). En effet, altérer veut dire «modifier en mal l'état normal d'une chose, dénaturer l'état normal de quelque chose» [d'après le Grand dict. encycl. Larousse].

Spanish

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