Chapter 1 Vocabulary Flashcards
Developed countries
The term developed country is used to describe countries that have a high level of development according to some criteria
Developing countries
Developing country is a term generally used to describe a nation with a low level of material well-being (not to be confused with third world country)
Ecological footprint
The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth’s ecosystems. It compares human demand with planet Earth’s ability to produce
Ecology
Noun
The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.
The study of the interaction of people with their environment.
Economic development
Economic development is the increase in the standard of living in a nation’s population with sustained growth
Environment
Noun
The surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates.
The setting or conditions in which a particular activity is carried on.
Environmental degradation
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil.
Environmental ethics
Environmental ethics is the part of environmental philosophy which considers extending the traditional boundaries of ethics from solely including humans to including the non-human world.
Environmental science
Interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with the living and nonliving parts of their environment
Environmentalism
Social movement dedicated to protecting the earth life-support systems for us and other species
Environmentally sustainable economic development
Development that meets the basic needs of the current generations of humans and other species without preventing future generations of humans and other species from meeting their basic needs
Environmentally sustainable society
Society than meets the current and future needs of its people for basic resources in a just and equitable manner without compromising the ability of future generations of humans and other species from meeting their basic needs
Exponential growth
Growth in which some quantity, such as population size or economic output, increases at a constant rate per unit of time
Gross domestic product GDP
Annual market value of all goods and services produced by all firms and organizations, foreign and domestic, operating within a country
Input pollution control
Device, process, or strategy used to prevent potential pollutant from forming or entering the environment or to sharply reduce the amount entering the environment
Natural capital
Natural resources a natural services to keep us and other species alive and support our economies
Nonpoint sources
Broad and diffuse areas, rather than points, from which pollutants enter bodies of surface water or air
Nonrenewable resources
Resources that exist in a fixed amount in the Earth’s crust and have the potential for renewal by geological, physical, and chemical processes taking place over hundreds of millions to billions of years
Output pollution control
Device a process that removes the reduces the level of a pollutant after has been produced or has entered the environment
Per capita geological footprint
Amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply each person and population with the renewable resources they use and to absorb or dispose of the waste from such resource use
Per capita GDP
Annual gross domestic product of a country divided by total population at midyear. It gives the average slice of the economic pie per person
Perpetual resource
Essentially inexhaustible resource on human timescale because it is renewed continuously. Solar energy is an example
Planetary management worldview
Worldview holding that humans are separate from nature, the nature exists mainly to meet our needs and increasing wants, and that we can use our ingenuity and technology to manage the earth life-support systems, mostly for our own benefit. It assumes that economic growth is unlimited
Point sources
Single identifiable sources the discharge pollutants into the environment. Examples include the smoke stack of a power plant or an industrial plant
Pollution
Undesirable change in the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of a air, water, soil, or food that can adversely affect the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms
Poverty
Inability of people to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter
Recycling
To collect and reprocess a resource so that it can be made into new products; one of the three R’s of resource use.
Renewable resource
Resource that can be replenished rapidly through natural processes as long as it is not used up faster than it is replaced
Resource
Anything obtained from the environment to meet human needs and wants. It can also be applied to other species.
Reuse
To use a product over and over again in the same form.
Social capital
Result of getting people with different views and values to talk and listen to one another, find common ground based on understanding and trust, and work together to solve environmental and other problems
Solar capital
Solar energy that warms the planet and supports photosynthesis, the process that plants use to provide food for themselves and for us and other animals. This direct input of solar energy also produces indirect forms of renewable solar energy such as wind and flowing water
Stewardship worldview
Worldview holding that we can minister for our benefit but that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers, or stewards, of the earth. It calls for encouraging environmentally beneficial forms of economic growth discouraging environmentally harmful forms
Sustainability
Ability of Earth various systems, including human cultural systems and economies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely
Sustainable yield
Highest rate at which a potentially renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply
Environmental wisdom worldview
Worldview holding that humans are part of an totally dependent on nature and the nature exist for all species, not just for us. Our success depends on learning how the earth sustains itself and integrating such environmental wisdom into the ways we think and act
Environmental worldview
Set of assumptions and beliefs about how people think the world works, but they think the role in the world should be, and what they believe is right and wrong environmental behavior
