1 Flashcards
EVS
A worldview or paradigm that shapes the way an individual, or group of people, perceives and evaluates environmental issues, influenced by cultural, religious, economic, social-political factors.
Ecocentric
Puts nature and ecology at the heart of humanity. It Prioritises biorights and encourages self restraint. Intrinsic value in all of nature
Soft Ecologists
Self sufficiency in resource management, but not as extreme as deep ecologists.
Deep Ecologists
Extreme form of ecocentrism. Values Earth and the environment above all else, favours self-restraint and individual action, deep mistrust of technology.
Anthropocentric
Humans must manage the global ecosystem, through taxes, regulation and legislations.
Technocentric
Technological developments will ‘solve’ environmental problems.
Environmental Manager
Earth is a garden that needs tending. Change within social and political structures.
Cornucopian
Earth’s bounty shows no bounds. Earth resources, with technology, are limitless
Biocentric
Individuals or groups who adhere to a philosophical perspective that intrinsic value on all living beings and ecosystems. Different from ecocentric as it focuses on the biotic aspects of an environment.
Flows
Represented by arrows in a system diagram. Movement of energy or matter.
Transfer
Matter or energy changing location
Trasnformation
Matter or energy changing state, chemical nature (state or energy).
Storages
Represented by boxes in a system diagram. Stores of energy or matter.
Reductionist Approach
The studying of one component of a system or model.
Open System
Both energy and matter are exchanged with its surroundings.
Isolated System
Neither energy nor matter are exchanged with its surroundings.
Closed System
Only Energy is exchanged with its surroundings.
First Law of Thermodynamics
The principle of conservation of energy, energy in an isolated system can be transformed but cannot be created or destroyed - there is limited energy in any system.
Second Law of Thermodynamics
The entropy of a system increases over time. Entropy is a measure of the amount of disorder in a system. An increase in entropy arising from energy transformations reduces the energy available to do work - less energy is available the higher up the food chain/the higher the trophic level.
Steady State
Oscillates around a mean.
Stable State
remains at a mean with some deviations.
Negative Feedback
Stabilising. When the output of a process inhibits or reverses the operation of the same process in such a way as to reduce change, counteracting deviation.
Positive Feedback
Destabilising. Tends to amplify change and can drive the system towards a tipping point where a new equilibrium is adopted.
Tipping Point
The minimum amount of change within a system that will destabilise it, cause it to reach a new equilibrium.
Sustainability
The use an management of resources that allow full natural replacement of the resources exploited and full recovery of the ecosystems affected by their extraction and use.
Natural Capital
The natural resources, goods or services, that an ecosystem can provide sustainably.
Natural Income
The yield of resources, goods or services, obtained from natural resources.
Ecological Footprint
The area of land and water required to sustainably provide all resources at the rate at which they are being consumed by a given population (pollution mitigation, food (crops and animals), water (fishing grounds), timber, built-up land).
Evaluation of EF as a model
Pros:
Good model/Effective
Cons:
Difficult to measure
Inaccuracies are created due to globalisation between resource use and production.
Pollution
The addition of a substance/agent to an environment at a rate greater than which it can be rendered harmless by the environment.
Primary Pollutants
Active on emmission. CO causing headaches, fatigue and can kill.
Secondary Pollutants
Formed when primary pollutants undergo physical or chemical changes. Sulphuric acid forms when sulphur trioxide reacts with water.
Sources of Pollution
FF, Waste - domestic, industrial, agricultural.
Point Source
The release of pollutants from a single, clearly identifiable site. CO2 emissions from a factory.
Non-Point Source
The release of pollutants from multiple, dispersed sites. Agricultural run-off (nitrates and phosphates).
Persistent Organic Pollutants
Organic pollutants, commonly pesticides, which remain active in the environment for an extended period of time. They can bioaccumulate.
Biodegradable Pollutants
Break down quickly.
Acute Pollutants
Large amounts of pollutants are released in a small amount of time.
Chronic Pollutants
Long-term release of pollutants in small amounts. Can be: undetected for a long time, more difficult to clean up, wide spread.
Direct Measures to Detect Pollutants
Record the amount of pollutant present. Acidity of rainwater, amount of gas in the atmosphere, amount of nitrates or phosphates present.
Indirect Measures to Detect Pollutants
Record changes in abiotic or biotic factors, cause by pollutants. Oxygen content in water, population size of an indicator species.
PMM
- Human activity producing pollutant
- Release of pollutant into the environment
- Impact of pollution on ecosystems.
Al Gore
Former VP of the US. Produced 2006 documentary, ‘The inconvenient Truth’, which bought climate change into the public consciousness.
Norman Borlaug
Nobel Peace Prize Winner, 1970. Green Revolution. Developed higher-yielding corn and other grain varieties, wheat, to foster independence and survivorship in the developing world. Worked.
Jane Goodall
Chimpanzee biologist. Helped pioneer modern species conservation techniques, including involvement of local people and knowledge.
Theodore Roosevelt
US President. Expanded American National parks Service and protected lands in the US for the enjoyment of others.
Charles Darwin
Origin of Species. His views challenged the concept of God having created ‘man’ and instead reduced ‘man’ to a part of the environment.
Henry David Thoreau
American writer (and ecocentrist), who first explored the idea of environmental consciousness in the mid 19th century.
David Attenborough
British broadcaster, writer and naturalist. Since the 1950s he has been bringing nature into people’s living rooms.
Greta Thunberg
Teenager, Swedish, climate activist.
Biorights
The right held by species and landscapes to remain un-impacted by consumptive human activity.
Intrinsic value
The value of something independent of and regardless of its potential use to humans.
Resiliance
The tendency of a system to avoid tipping points. Diversity and the size of storages contribute towards resilience and their response time to change.
Holistic Approach
Considering an environmental phenomenon as a whole, recognising the interconnections and relatedness of its individual parts.
Strengths of Models
Easier to work with as simple
Predict the effect of a change of input
Applied to similar situations
Helps us see patterns
Visualise small and large things (atoms and solar systems)
Weakness of Models
Accuracy is lost due to simplification
If assumptions are wrong, model is wrong
Predictions may be inaccurate
Efficiency
The useful energy/work/output divided by the amount of energy consumed/inputed to the process. (x100 for percentage)
Stable Equilibria
The system tends to return to the same equilibrium after a disturbance.
Unstable Equilibria
The system returns to a new equilibrium after a disturbance.
Feedback Loop
When information that starts a reaction in turn may input more information which may start another reaction.
