Chapter 1 Flashcards
Environmental science
Interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with living/non living parts of their environment
Ecology
Biological study that studies how organisms interact with one another
Organisms
Living things
Species
Group of organism that have a unique set of characteristics distinguishing them from others. Can sexually reproduce fertile offspring.
Ecosystem
Set of organisms in a define area that interact with one another
Chemical cycling or nutrient cycling
The circulation of chemicals from the environment through organism and back to the environment is necessary for life
Natural capital
Natural resources/services that keep us and other forms of life alive and support our human economies
Natural resources
Materials and energy in nature that are essential or useful to humans
Natural services
Process in nature that support life and human economies
Resource
Anything we can obtain from the environment to meet our needs and wants
Perpetual resources
A continuous supply. Example: solar energy
Renewable resource
A resource that takes anywhere from several days/years to replenish
Sustainable yield
Highest rate at which we can use a renewable resource indefinitely without reducing its available supply
Economic growth
Increase in a nations output of goods and services
GDP
annual market value of all goods and services produced by all business’s. Foreign and domestic operating within a country.
GDP PER CAPITA
GDP divided by population at mid-year
Economic development
An effort to use economic growth to improve living standards
Environmental degradation or natural capital degradation
Degradation of normally renewable resources and services
Environment
Everything around us. Includes the living and non living things
Point sources
Identifiable sources of pollution
Non-point sources
Dispersed and often difficult to identify
Pollution cleanup or output pollution control
Cleaning up or diluting pollutants after we have produced them
Pollution prevention or input pollution control
Reduces or eliminates the production of pollutants
Affluence
Wealth, consuming large amounts of resources far beyond their basic needs
Ecological footprints
The amount of biological productive land and water needed to provide the people in a particular country or area with an indefinite supply of renewable reassures and to absorb and recycle the wastes
Ecological tipping point
Causes an often irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system
Sustainability revolution
Learning how to live more sustainably
Environmental worldview
Your set of assumptions and values reflecting how you think the world works and what you think your role in the world should be
Environmental ethics
Beliefs about what is right and wrong with how we treat the environment
Planetary management worldview
We are separate from and in charge of nature, nature exists mainly to meet our needs and increasing wants
Stewardship worldview
Holds that we can and should manage the earth for our benefit, and that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers
Environmental wisdom worldview
Holds that we are part of, and dependent on, nature and that nature exists for all species, not jus us.
Natural income
The renewable resources provided to us
Social capital
Getting people with different views and values to talk to one another and solve environmental problems
