MES 1: Introduction to Environmental Science Flashcards
Name three consequences of large ecological footprints.
- Excess waste and pollution of air, water, and soil
- Depletion of natural resources
- Habitat loss and ecosystem degradation
Name three causes of large ecological footprints.
- Rising per-capita affluence
- Cultural influences that encourage consumption
- Strong demand for material goods
Name four solutions to large ecological footprints.
- Improved efficiency of manufacturing processes
- Adoption of cultural changes to reduce desire for consumption
- Sustainable harvest of resources
- Enhanced technologies to reduce impacts of goods and activities
Water purification, nutrient cycling, and plant pollination are all examples of what?
Earth’s ecosystem services
What is the study of how the natural world works, how our environment affects us, and how we affect our environment?
Environmental science
Wave energy is an example of what?
A renewable resource
Name three non renewable resources.
- Coal
- Thermogenic natural gas
- Crude oil
What renewable resource can be depleted if it is overused?
Water
Name three renewable resources.
- Wave energy
- Sunlight
- Wind
What expresses environmental impact in terms of the cumulative area of land and water required to provide the resources a person consumes?
An ecological footprint
Fossil fuels are an example of what?
Non renewable resources
How should we describe the environment?
All the living things and nonliving things around us
What is a testable statement that attempts to answer a scientific question?
A hypothesis
What is performed to test the validity of a hypothesis?
An experiment
What is a condition in an experiment that is susceptible to change?
A variable
What do we call the variable that a scientist manipulates in an experiment?
The independent variable
What do we call the variable that a scientist measures in an experiment?
The dependent variable
What is an unmanipulated point of comparison for treatments in an experiment?
A control
What is information obtained from scientific studies?
Data
Scientific inquiry requires what type of approach to resolve a question?
Stepwise
What is something that is widely accepted, and has been extensively validated by a great amount of research?
A theory
In scientific research, the strongest form of research comes from what?
Experimentation
What does it mean when an experiment fails to disprove a hypothesis?
The experiment lends support to the hypothesis but does not prove it is correct.
If a scientist travels to the rain forest to observe and catalog new species, he or she would be conducting what type of science?
Descriptive science
