Chapter 1-Science and the Environment Flashcards
Goods like food and fuel
Provisioning resources
The natural and managed ecosystems that provide essential goods and services to human enterprise
Ecosystem capital
Processes like flood protection
Regulating services
Nonmaterial benefits like recreation
Cultural services
Those due to human activities
Anthropogenic greenhouse gases
Aimed at curbing pollution from the release of chlorofluorocarbons refrigerants into the atmosphere
Montreal Protocol (1987)
One hundred and sixty six nations met in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997. Treaty was ratified in 2004 to reduce emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases
Kyoto Protocol
Variability among living organisms
Biodiversity
The study of how the world works (most multidisciplinary of all the sciences)
Environmental Science
Doing too much of any one activity
Cumulative impacts
Not paying attention to how the world works
Unintended consequences
Marked by increasing awareness of the environment
Environment Movement
Persons and organizations with a strong focus on environmental concerns
Environmentalist
The widespread development of the environmental movement
Environmentalism
Deal with how we should conceptualize our task of forging a sustainable future
Strategic themes
The basis for our understanding of how the world works and how human systems interact with it (scientific method)
Sound science
The practical goal that our interactions with the natural world that we should be working toward
Sustainability
The actions and programs that manage natural resources and human well-being for the common good
Stewardship
Can be continued indefinitely, without depleting any of the material or energy resources required to keep it running
Sustainable
To harvest resources but stay within the capacity of the population to grow and replace itself
Sustainable yields
Entire natural systems that persist and thrive over time by recycling nutrients and by using the Sun as a source of sustainable energy
Sustainable ecosystems
A society in a balance with the natural world, continuing generation after generation, neither depleting its resource base by exceeding sustainable yield nor producing pollutants in excess of nature’s capacity to absorb them
Sustainable society
Development or progress that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs
Sustainable development
The continued improvement of human well-being
Development
Meeting the needs of the present, but future generations are seen equally deserving
Equity
The concerns of sociologists, economists, and ecologist must interact in order to achieve sustainable solutions in a society
Sustainable solutions
Concerned mainly with growth, efficiency, and the optimum use of resources
Economists
Mainly focus on human needs and on concepts like equity, empowerment, social cohesion, and cultural identity
Sociologists
Show their greatest concern for preserving the integrity of natural systems, for living within the carrying capacity of your environment, and for dealing effectively with pollution
Ecologists
Evaluates the ability of nations to protect the environment, produced by Yale (1999-2005), evaluated a society’s natural resources and its stewardship of those resources and the people they support
Environmental Sustainability Index
The foundation of all science and scientific discovery
Observation
Sets up situations to make systematic observations regarding causes and effects
Experimentation
(Educated guess) is tested through observation or experimentation
Hypothesis
Logically consistent with all observations, can suggest or predict certain events, and represents a valid interpretation of reality; explains the why
Theory
The universe functions according to certain basic principles that remain consistent through time and space; principles by which we can define and predict the behavior of matter and energy
Natural laws (concrete)
Perfectly valid explanations of data gathered from the natural world, and they can be predictive, but they never reach the status of laws (true but not testable)
Concepts
Information that is presented as valid science, but that does not conform to the rigors of the methods and practice of legitimate science
Junk science
Wrote a book “Silent Spring” in 1962 which altered the public about the dangers of pesticides and their role in decimating bird populations
Rachel Carson
Farmer in El Salvador who organized opposition to a damaging mining operation by the Canadian mining company Pacific Rim. Received the 2011 Goldman Environmental Prize
Francisco Pineda
The first Kenyan woman to earn a PhD, founded the Green Belt movement that has planted 30 million trees in that country. She received a Noble Piece Prize in 2004, the first environmental activist to receive that honor
Dr. Wangari Maathai
The placement of east sites and other hazardous industries in towns and neighborhoods in which most of the residents are nonwhite. Wealthier, politically active white communities get more facility improvements
Environmental racism
The accelerating interconnectedness of human economies, ideas, cultures
Globalization
