1.3 - Edological Footprints

Question 1

Resource

Answer 1

Anything obtained from the environment to meet our needs and wants

Question 2

Direct resources vs non-direct resources

Answer 2

-Directly available: solar energy, fresh air, wind, fresh surface water, fertile soil, wild edible plants
-Not directly available: petroleum, iron, underground water, cultivated crops

Question 3

Conservation

Answer 3

Management of natural resources with the goal of minimizing resource waste and sustaining resource supplies for current and future generations.

Question 4

Perpetual Resource

Answer 4

A resource that is renewed continuously

Question 5

Renewable resource

Answer 5

A resource that can be replenished fairly quickly through natural processes as long as it is not used up faster than it is renewed

Question 6

Examples of renewable resources

Answer 6

Forests, Grasslands, Fisheries, Freshwater, Fresh air, Fertile soil

Question 7

Sustainable yield

Answer 7

The highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply

Question 8

Environmental degradation

Answer 8

exceeding a renewable resource’s natural replacement rate

Question 9

Examples of environmental degradation

Answer 9

Air pollution, Global warming, Declining ocean fisheries, Species extinction, Shrinking forests/loss of wildlife habitat, Aquifer depletion

Question 10

Three types of property/resource rights

Answer 10

Private, common, open access renewable resources

Question 11

Private property

Answer 11

landowners own the rights to land, minerals, or other resources.

Question 12

Common property

Answer 12

the rights to certain resources are held by large groups of individuals.

Question 13

Open access renewable resources

Answer 13

owned by no one and available for use by anyone at little or no charge. Ex: Clean air, underground water supplies, open ocean

Question 14

Solutions to resource degradation

Answer 14

-Use shared resources below their estimated sustainable yields
-Convert open-access resources to private ownership

Question 15

Nonrenewable resources

Answer 15

resources that exist in a fixed quantity in the earth’s crust
-Replenishes in hundreds to thousands of years
-Coal, oil, copper, aluminum, salt, sand
-Substitutes can often be found

Question 16

Reuse

Answer 16

using a resource over and over in the same form

Question 17

Recycling

Answer 17

collecting waste materials and processing them into new materials.
-Oil and coal cannot be recycled
-Recycling metallic resources takes much less energy, water, and creates less pollution.

Question 18

Ecological footprint

Answer 18

the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply the people in a particular country or area with resources and to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution produced by such resource use.

Question 19

Per capita ecological footprint

Answer 19

The average ecological footprint of an individual in a given country or area.
-America has 9.7; very large number and very unsustainable

Question 20

China stats

Answer 20

-Leading consumer of wheat, rice, meat, coal, fertilizers, steel, and cement
-Second largest consumer of oil
-Has 2/3 of the most polluted cities on Earth

Question 21

Agricultural revolution

Answer 21

10,000-12,000 years ago; humans learned how to grow and breed plants and animals for all purposes

Question 22

Industrial Revolution

Answer 22

~275 year ago; large scale production of goods in factories

Question 23

Information-globalization revolution

Answer 23

~50 years ago; new technology, more information and resources
→ All resulted in greater resource use, pollution, and environmental degradation.