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Environmental Degradation And Oil Spillages: An Indictment To Environmental Law And Human Rights
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1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Environmental Degradation
Environmental
degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion
of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems;
habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is
defined as any change or disturbance to the environment perceived to be
deleterious or undesirable
Oil spillage
An oil spill is the
release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment,
especially marine areas, due to human activity, and is a form of
pollution. The term is usually applied to marine oil spills, where oil
is released into the ocean or coastal waters, but spills may also occur
on land. Oil spills may be due to releases of crude oil from tankers,
offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as spills of
refined petroleum products (such as gasoline, diesel) and their
by-products, heavier fuels used by large ships such as bunker fuel, or
the spill of any oily refuse or waste oil.
Environmental laws
Environmental
law – or “environmental and natural resources law†– is a collective
term describing the network of treaties, statutes, regulations, common
and customary laws addressing the effects of human activity on the
natural environment. The core environmental law regimes address
environmental pollution. A related but distinct set of regulatory
regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental legal principles,
focus on the management of specific natural resources, such as forests,
minerals, or fisheries. Other areas, such as environmental impact
assessment, may not fit neatly into either category, but are nonetheless
important components of environmental law
Human rights
Human
rights are moral principles or norms, which describe certain standards
of human behavior, and are regularly protected as legal rights in
municipal and international law
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