Chapter 1 Flashcards
Environmentally Sustainable Society
Society that satisfies the basic needs of its people without depleting or degrading its neutral resources and thereby preventing current and future generations of humans and other species from meeting their basic needs.
Environmental Science
An interdisciplinary study that uses information from the physical sciences and social sciences tolerant of how the earth works, how we interact with the earth, and how to deal with these environmental problems.
Planetary Management Worldview
beliefs that (1) we are the plant’s most important species; (2) we will not run out of resources because of our ingenuity in developing and finding new ones; (3) the potential for economic growth is essentially limitless; and (4) our success depends on how well we can understand, control, and manage the earth’s life support system mostly for our own benefit.
Stewardship Worldview
(1) we are the planet’s most important species but we have an ethical responsibility to care for the rest of nature; (2) we will probably not run out of resources but they should not be wasted; (3) we should encourage environmentally beneficial forms of economic growth and discourage environmentally harmful forms of economic growth; and (4) our success depends on how well we can understand, control, and manage and care for the earth’s life-support systems for our benefit and for the rest of nature.
Environmental Worldview
How people think the world, works, what they think their role in the world should be, and what they believe is right and wrong environmental behavior (environmental ethics)
Affluenza
Unsustainable addiction to overconsumption and materialism exhibited in the lifestyles of affluent consumers in the Unties States and other developed countries.
Non-point Sources
Large or dispersed land areas such as crop fields, streets, and lawns that discharge pollutants into the environment over a large area.
Point Sources
Single identifiable source that discharges pollutants into the environment. Ex: the smokestack of a power plant or an industrial plant, drainpipe of a meatpacking plant, chimney of a house, or exhaust pipe of an automobile.
Pollution
An undesirable change in the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of air, water, soil, or food that can adversely affect the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms.
Resource
Anything obtained from the living and nonliving environment to meet human needs and wants. It can also be applied to other species.
Globalization
Broad process of global social, economic, and environmental change that leads to an increasingly integrated world.
Perpetual Resource
An essentially inexhaustible resource on a human time scale Ex: solar energy
Environmental degradation
Depletion or destruction of potentially renewable resource such as soil, grassland, forest, or wildlife that is used faster than it is naturally replenished. If such use continues, the resource becomes nonrenewable (on a human time scale) or nonexistent (extinct)
Sustainable yield
Highest rate at which a potentially renewable resource can be used without reducing its available supply throughout the world or in a particular area.
Renewable Resource
resource that can be replenished rapidly (hours to several decades) through natural processes. Ex: trees in forests, grasses in grasslands, wild animals, fresh surface water in lakes and streams, most groundwater, fresh air, and fertile soil. If such a resource is used faster that it is replenished, it can be depleted and converted into a nonrenewable resource.
Ecology
Study of the interactions of living organisms with one another and with their nonliving environment of matter and energy; study of the structure and functions of nature.
Environmentalism
Person who is concerned about the impact of people on environmental quality and believe that some human actions are degrading parts of the earth’s life-support systems for humans and many other forms of life.
Economic Growth
Increase in the capacity to provide people with goods and services produced by an economy; an increase in gross domestic product (GDP)
Per capita GDP
Annual gross domestic product (GDP) of a country divided by its total population at midyear. It gives the average slice of the economic pie per person. Used to be called per capita GNP.
