Chapter 1 Flashcards
Environment
The sum of our surroundings. It includes Earth’s biotic and abiotic components, as well as the built environment (ex// urban centers)
Environmental science
The study of how the natural world works, how our environment affects us, and how we affect our environment.
Science
A systematic process for learning about the world and testing our understanding of it. It also refers to the accumulated body of knowledge that arises from observation, testing, and discovery.
Why is scientific knowledge important?
Science helps us develop solutions to the problems we face today (environmental, social…)
Environmentalism
A social movement dedicated to protecting the natural world, and humans, from undesirable changes brought about by human actions and choices.
According to Jared Diamond, what are the 5 factors that determine the survival of civilizations?
o Climate change o Hostile neighbours o Trade partners o Environmental problems o The society’s response to the environmental problems (the only wholly controllable one and is the crucial determinant of survival)
Natural Resources
The substances and energy sources provided by the environment that are of economic value and that we need for survival and the functioning of society.
Renewable Natural Resources + examples
They are replenish-able over short periods and are inexhaustible (sun, wind, wave energy).
Non-renewable Natural Resources
They are finite and depletable because they are formed much more slowly than we use them (fossil fuels, mineral deposits).
What resources may be depleted if we use them at a rate that exceeds the rate at which they are renewed?
Stock and flow resources. Examples include: crops, fresh water, soils, forest products.
Resource Management
Strategic decision-making and planning to balance the use of a resource with its protection and preservation. Its basic premise is to balance the rate of use with the rate of renewal or regeneration.
Stock
Harvestable portion of a resource.
Goods
Tangible material things that can be extracted from the environment (food, water, material for shelter, energy resources).
Services
Natural functions and processes that are useful or vital to support living organisms (nutrient cycling, climate regulation by the ocean and atmosphere).
Carrying capacity
The measure of the ability of a system to support life.
How is carrying capacity quantified
Environmental scientists quantify carrying capacity in terms of the number of individuals of a particular species that can be sustained by the biological productivity of a given area of land without incurring permanent damage.
What are the 4 periods of societal change that triggered increases in population size?
1- Paleolithic Period: old stone age (people began using stone and fire as tools)
2- Neolithic/Agricultural Period: 10,000-12,000 years ago (transition from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a settled, agricultural way of life)
3- Industrial Revolution: mid 1700s (shift from rural life to an urban society powered by fossil fuels. It marked the beginning of industrial scale production, but many other environmental and social problems)
4- Medical-Technological Revolution: now (advances in medicine, sanitation, modern agricultural practices, but new environmental issues as well)
What is the formula used to quantify the impacts of tech and population on the environment?
I= PxAxT
- P : population
- A: affluence
- T: technology
Ecological Footprint
Helps us quantify our impacts and resource consumption relative to the planet’s carrying capacity. It expresses the environmental impact of an individual or population in terms of the area of land and water required to provide the raw materials that person or population consumes, and to absorb or recycle their wastes.
Sustainability
Sustainability means leaving the next generations a world as rich and full as the world we live in now. It means not depleting earth’s natural capital so when we’re gone, our descendants will be able to use the resources we have.
- The United Nations has defined sustainable development as development that “meets the needs of the present without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”
Biodiversity
The cumulative number and diversity of living things.
What are the 9 systems that are important to earth systems as a whole?
- Stratospheric ozone layer
- Biodiversity
- Toxic chemicals dispersion
- Climate change
- Ocean acidification
- Freshwater consumption and the global hydrological cycle
- Land system change
- Nitrogen and phosphorous inputs to the biosphere and oceans
- Atmospheric aerosol loading
What 3 boundaries have been crossed?
Climate change, nitrogen cycle, biodiversity loss.
