Introduction to Environmental Science

Question 1

Environment

Answer 1

all living and nonliving things around us, natural and manmade

Question 2

Environmental science

Answer 2

study of how the natural world works, how the environment affects us, and how we affect the environment

Question 3

Natural resources

Answer 3

substances and energy sources from the environment we rely upon to survive

Question 4

Perpetually renewable/inexhaustible resources

Answer 4

always available (ex. solar, wind, geothermal and wave energies)

Question 5

Exhaustible renewable resources

Answer 5

replenished on intermediate timescales if not depleted (ex. freshwater, forest products, biodiversity, soils)

Question 6

Nonrenewable resources

Answer 6

exist in limited amounts that could one day be gone (ex. crude oil, natural gas, coal, minerals); formed much more slowly than used

Question 7

Ecosystem services

Answer 7

purify the air and water, cycle nutrients, regulate climate, pollinate plants, recycle waste; can degrade just like resources

Question 8

What events led to recent and rapid population growth?

Answer 8

agricultural revolution (about 10,000 y.a.) and industrial revolution (mid-1700s)

Question 9

Ecological footprint

Answer 9

developed 1990s; cumulative area of biologically productive land and water required to provide the resources a person consumes and recycle the waste they produce (how much of Earth’s productive surface is used by a person)

Question 10

Semi-recent calculation of how many more resources we use globally than are sustainably available

Answer 10

68% (so use up 68% faster than replenished, would take 1.68 years to regenerate resources used in one year)

Question 11

Overshoot

Answer 11

consuming more resources than restored

Question 12

Biocapacity

Answer 12

Earth’s ability to support us and other life

Question 13

Number of Earths needed to be sustainable if everyone in the world consumed resources at the rate of Americans

Answer 13

5

Question 14

Natural capital

Answer 14

Earth’s store of resources and services

Question 15

Science

Answer 15

both a process and a body of knowledge for the natural world and observable facts about it

Question 16

Manipulative experiment

Answer 16

involves actively choosing and altering independent variable; shows casual relationships but can’t be used for all scientific questions, especially where there’s a large space/time

Question 17

Natural experiment

Answer 17

involves comparing how the dependent variable is expressed in different contexts; independent variable varies naturally; shows correlation (statistical association)

Question 18

Scientific literature

Answer 18

all published scientific research/work

Question 19

Paradigm

Answer 19

a dominant scientific view

Question 20

Environmental ethics

Answer 20

the study of right and wrong as they apply to relationships between people and nonhuman entities

Question 21

Anthropocentrism

Answer 21

human-centered ethics perspective, disregards notion that nonhumans have rights and inherent value, looks at costs and benefits only as they apply to people

Question 22

Biocentrism

Answer 22

ethics perspective that recognizes value in certain living things or all of them

Question 23

Ecocentrism

Answer 23

ethics perspective that judges actions by their effect on an entire ecological system, living and nonliving elements + humans and nonhumans included; acknowledges that protecting components of the system may not protect the whole system

Question 24

John Muir (1838-1914)

Answer 24

preservation advocate who helped form the Sierra Club; saw environmental changes taking place and believed in the preservation ethic; thought that nature deserves protection for its own sake as well as that nature brings human happiness

Question 25

Preservation ethic

Answer 25

belief that the environment ought to be protected in an unaltered and pristine state

Question 26

Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946)

Answer 26

founded the U.S. Forest Service; opposed deforestation and unregulated land development but held a more anthropocentric view; believed in the conservation ethic; thought that preservation was for nature’s sake, for aesthetic, spiritual benefits, and sustainable resource use

Question 27

Conservation ethic

Answer 27

belief that people should put resources to use but have the responsibility to manage them wisely so that they bring the most good to the most people for the longest time

Question 28

Aldo Leopold (1887-1949)

Answer 28

conservationist + forester + wildlife manager; wrote “The Land Ethic” essay calling to embrace land in ethical conversation; believed in balancing ecosystems to keep them “healthy”

Question 29

Environmental justice

Answer 29

refers to fair and equitable treatment of all people in environmental policy and practice regardless of race, income, or ethnicity (minorities and the poor often exposed to more hazards and degradation + have less access to information, political power, and money to avoid risks)

Question 30

What is one event that ignited the environmental justice movement?

Answer 30

1980s Warren County, NC - toxic waste dumped in the county with the highest % Black residents (still occurred but protest inspired more action elsewhere)

Question 31

What led to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990?

Answer 31

employed Navajo workers in uranium mines in the 1950s-1960s without any warning of the risks

Question 32

Appalachian mountaintop coal mining (about)

Answer 32

provides jobs to low-income residents but pollutes water, buries streams, destroys forests and causes floods + the workers have little political power to object

Question 33

San Joaquin Valley fruit and vegetable farmers (about)

Answer 33

face some of the worst pollution in the U.S. although they provide much of the country’s produce (from pesticides, dairy feedlots, windblown dust from erosion)

Question 34

Sustainability

Answer 34

living within the planet’s means so that Earth can sustain life in the future

Question 35

Resource consumption has increased faster than the global population.

Answer 35

true

Question 36

What does increased per capita consumption result in?

Answer 36

increased environmental demands and impacts but better quality of life (though pollution, etc. can decrease quality of life at the same time)

Question 37

World average per capita ecological footprint

Answer 37

2.9 ha

Question 38

1 hectare (ha)

Answer 38

2.47 acres

Question 39

Leaded gasoline (about)

Answer 39

in the 1970s caused major pollution in many cities and cars represented 78% of all lead emissions; ban –> gone from all cars by 1996

Question 40

Environmental literacy

Answer 40

a basic understanding of Earth’s physical and living systems + how we interact with them