Environmental hazard

There are two widely used meanings for environmental hazards; one is that they are hazards to the natural environment (biomes or ecosystems), and the other is hazards of an environment that are normally present in the specific environment and are dangerous to people present in that environment.

Well known examples of hazards to the environment include potential oil spills, water pollution, slash and burn deforestation, air pollution, ground fissures, and build-up of atmospheric carbon dioxide. They may apply to a particular part of the environment (slash and burn deforestation) or to the environment as a whole (carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere)..

Similarly, a hazard of an environment may be inherent in the whole of that environment, like a drowning hazard is inherent to the general underwater environment, or localised, like potential shark attack is a hazard of those parts of the ocean where sharks that are likely to attack people are likely to exist.

An active volcano may be a hazard to the environment, whether natural or artificial, and at the same time a hazard in and of the environment.