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Oil shale

Underground formation of a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing varying amounts of kerogen, a solid, waxy mixture of hydrocarbon compounds. Heating the rock to high temperatures converts the kerogen to a vapor, which can be condensed to form a slow flowing heavy oil called shale oil. See kerogen, shale oil.

Oilseed crops

Primarily soybeans, sunflower seed, canola, rapeseed, safflower, flaxseed, mustard seed, peanuts and cottonseed, used for the production of cooking oils, protein meals for livestock, and industrial uses. These specific oilseeds are eligible for nonrecourse loans. Other oilseed crops include castor beans and sesame.

Oligopoly

A market structure with just a few firms controlling a high percentage of total sales.

Omega

A term used to describe vertical motion in the atmosphere. The "omega equation" used in numerical weather models is composed of two terms, the "differential vorticity advection" term and the "thickness advection" term. Put more simply, omega is determined by the amount of spin (or large scale rotation) and warm (or cold) advection present in the atmosphere. On a weather forecast chart, high values of omega (or a strong omega field) relate to upward vertical motion in the atmosphere. If this upward vertical motion is strong enough and in a sufficiently moist airmass, precipitation results.

Onshore breeze

A wind that blows from a body of water towards the land. Also known as a seabreeze.

Open Access Resource

An open access resource is one where it is impossible to control the access of individuals who want to use it. Common examples are a fishery, or (in the classic example of the tragedy of the commons) a common pasture.

Opportunity Cost

The highest-valued sacrifice needed to get a good or service.

Optimum Yield

In addition to hydrologic considerations (see Safe Yield and Practical Sustained Yield), optimum yield accounts for social, economic, and legal factors. Optimum yield may allow short-term, intensive extractions (conscious overdevelopment) or, conversely, no development at all. “Optimum yield is in the realm of the planner; a hydrologist can assist, but the decisions regarding what constitutes optimum yield may be largely nonhydrologic.” (U.S. Water Resources Council. 1980. Essentials of Ground-Water Hydrology Pertinent to Water-Resources Planning, Bulletin 16, revised). The ISWS will no longer use this term. Instead, the ISWS elects to use the term Yield and explicity state all conditions and assumptions that stand behind the determination of it.

Option

Anything that anyone wants. In economics, options (alternatives) are also called goods.

Option Value

Potential benefits of the environment not derived from actual use. This expresses the preference or willingness to pay for the preservation of an environment against some probability that the individual will make use of it at some later date. If we lose a species in the wild, such as the Bengal tiger, very few of us will have our welfare directly affected by not being able to see it, photograph it or hear it. That "use value" is very small. But many people will lose the option to do that in the future, should they care to. Economists call that "option value." Further, many people around the world derive some benefit just from knowing that Bengal tigers exist in the wild. That is "existence value."

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