Chapter One Flashcards
What is the environment?
It is the living and nonliving aspects of our surroundings.
What are biotic features?
They are the living parts and resources. For example, humans, plants, and animals.
What are abiotic features?
They are the nonliving parts and resources. This does not include once living factors. These factors were never alive.
What is science?
It is a system for studying the universe. This system is based on experiments.
What do all experiments start with?
An observation of a phenomena and a resulting question.
What is a hypothesis?
It is an educated guess.
What is an experiment?
It is an activity to prove or disprove the hypothesis.
What is the nature of science according to its 4 tenets?
1) It is tenative (not fixed/always changing)
2) It is impacted by politics and economics
3) It is not infallible (it can be wrong)
4) It is based on observations
This theory states that the sun and other planets revolve around the earth. What is the name of this theory, and who is it associated with?
The Geocentrism Theory by Aristotle
This theory states that the earth revolves around the sun. What is the name of this theory, and who is it associated with?
The Heliocentrism Theory by Copernicus
Is environmental science an interdisciplinary field?
Yes, it incorporates many aspects from fields such as geology, chemistry, biology, ecology, etc.
Ecosystem Services
The ecosystem provides services that promote human survival.
These services include Atmospheric cycling–air, Hydrologic cycling–water, Nutrient cycling, Agriculture / Aquaculture, and Biodiversity.
Conservation
Conservation deals with how should resources be used. There are debates on how much and how fast we should take resources from the environment.
Sustainability (Sustainable Development)
Basically asking, “is our current use of energy sufficient? Can this be sustained for future generations”?
What 2 factors caused the human population to grow exponentially?
1) The Industrial Revolution- it improved our food sources and technology.
2) Antibiotics- used to cure illnesses that used to kill.
