Terms : Hide Images
| 10680378467 | value judgement | scientific investigation provides a basis for a value judgment | 0 | |
| 10680390334 | sustainability | management of natural resources and the environment with the goals of allowing the harvest of resources to remain at or above some specified level, and the ecosystem to retain its functions and structure | 1 | |
| 10680402390 | sustainable global econony | the careful management and wise use of the planet and its resources, analogous to the managment of money and goods | 2 | |
| 10680408926 | proactive vs reactive | 3 | ||
| 10680415433 | carrying capacity | the maximum number of individuals of a species that can be sustained by an environment without decreasing the capacity of the environment to sustain that same number in the future | 4 | |
| 10680464881 | gaia hypothesis | over the history of life on earth, life has profoundly changed the global enviroment, in that these changes have tended to improve the chances for the continuation of life | 5 | |
| 10680464882 | megacities | urban areas with at least 10 million inhabitants | 6 | |
| 10680467400 | precautionary principle | idea that even full scientific certainty is available to prove cause and affect, we should still take cost effective precautions to solve environmental problems when it appears to be a threat of potentially serious and irreversable environmental damage | 7 | |
| 10680469783 | accuracy vs precision | 8 | ||
| 10680471399 | utilitarian justification | some aspect of the environment is valuable because it benefits individuals economically or is directly necessary to human survival | 9 | |
| 10680471400 | ecological justification | an ecosystem is necessary for the survival of some species of interest to us, or that the system itself provides some benefit | 10 | |
| 10680474370 | aesthetic justification | appreciation of the beauty of nature | 11 | |
| 10680474371 | moral justification | the belief that various aspects of the environment have a right to exist and that it is our moral obligation to allow them to continue or help them to persist. | 12 | |
| 10680477400 | recreational justification | legal basis and our desire to get out and enjoy it | 13 | |
| 10680477401 | inspirational justification | conservation of nature can be based on its benefits to the human spirit | 14 | |
| 10680479650 | creative justification | nature is an aid to human creativity | 15 | |
| 10680479651 | cultural justification | refers to the fact that different cultures have many of the same values but also some different values with respect to the environment | 16 | |
| 10680484407 | scientific method | consisting in systematic observation, measurement and experiment and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypothesis | 17 | |
| 10680484408 | disprovability | The ability to be disproven, refutability, the possibility that something is wrong. | 18 | |
| 10680486131 | observations | Information obtained through one or more of the five senses or through instruments that extend the senses. | 19 | |
| 10680486132 | inferences | A conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning | 20 | |
| 10680486133 | fact | something that is known based on an actual experience and observation | 21 | |
| 10680489104 | hypothesis | propsed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation | 22 | |
| 10680491959 | dependent variable | the variable that changes in response to the independent variable | 23 | |
| 10680496675 | quantitative data | data expressing a certain quantity, amount or range | 24 | |
| 10680496676 | qualitive data | data distinguished by qualities or attribues that cannot be or are not expressed as quantities | 25 | |
| 10680498990 | controlled experiment | a test where only one variable is changed at a time in order to isolate the results | 26 | |
| 10680498991 | operational definitions | the definition of a variable in terms of the actual procedures used to measure/manipulate it | 27 | |
| 10680507495 | inductive reasoning | drawing a conclusion from a limited set of specific observations | 28 | |
| 10680511601 | deductive reasoning | process of reasoning from one or more statements to reach a logically certain conclusion | 29 | |
| 10680511602 | scientific theory | explanation of an aspect of the natural world that can be repeatedly tested in accordance with scientific method | 30 | |
| 10680514318 | model | deliberately simplified explanation often physical mathmatical pictorial or computer simulated, of complex phenomena or process | 31 | |
| 10680516038 | experimental errors | the difference between a measurement and the true value or between two measured values | 32 | |
| 10680516039 | systematic errors | errors that occur consistently, such as those resulting from incorrectly calibrated instruments | 33 | |
| 10680518052 | pseudoscience | a collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method. | 34 | |
| 10680521704 | frontier science | Preliminary scientific data, hypotheses, and models that have not been widely tested and accepted | 35 | |
| 10680526159 | environmental economics | Economic effects of the environment and how economic processes affect that environment, including its living resources. | 36 | |
| 10680534778 | policy instruments | The means to implement a society's policies. Such instruments include moral suasion (jawboning-persuading people by talk, publicity, and social pressure); direct controls, including regulations; and market processes affecting the price of goods, subsidies, licenses, and deposits. | 37 | |
| 10680534779 | tangible factor | In economics, something you can touch, buy and sell. | 38 | |
| 10680536965 | intangible factor | In economics, an intangible factor is one you can't touch directly, but you value it. | 39 | |
| 10680539819 | public-service functions | functions performed by ecosystems that benefit other forms of life in other ecosystems | 40 | |
| 10680539820 | natural capital | ecological systems that provide public service benefits | 41 | |
| 10680542056 | commons | land that belongs to the public, not to individuals. Historically a part of old English and New England towns where all the farmers could graze their cattle. | 42 | |
| 10680542057 | resource sustainability | Utilizing natural resources so that they are available for the long term. | 43 | |
| 10680545511 | maximum profit | defined as the most profit a company can create even if it means acting unethically | 44 | |
| 10680547316 | externality/indirect cost | costs or benefits that don't show up in the price tag | 45 | |
| 10680549423 | risk-benefit analysis | In environmental economics, weighing the riskiness of the future against the value we place on things in the present. | 46 | |
| 10680549424 | system | a set of components that are linked and interact to produce a whole | 47 | |
| 10680551286 | open system | A type of system in which exchanges of mass or energy occur with other systems. | 48 | |
| 10680551287 | closed system | a system in which there are definite boundaries to mass and energy and thus exchange of these factors with other systems does not occur | 49 | |
| 10680551288 | materially closed system | Characterized by a system in which no matter moves in and out of the system, although energy and information may move across the system's boundaries. For example, Earth is a materially closed system for all practical purposes. | 50 | |
| 10680553230 | inputs | with respect to basic concepts of systems, refers to material or energy that enters a system | 51 | |
| 10680553231 | outputs | with respect to basic operation of system, refers to material or energy that leaves a particular storage compartment | 52 | |
| 10680554991 | static system | A fixed condition that tends to remain in that exact position. | 53 | |
| 10680557434 | dynamic system | Characterized by a system that changes often and continually over time. | 54 | |
| 10680557435 | classical stability | A system characterized by constant conditions that, if disturbed from those conditions, will return to it once the factor that disturbed the system has been removed. | 55 | |
| 10680559561 | equilibrium | a point of rest. at equilibrium a system remains in a single, fixed condition and is said to be in equilibrium. | 56 | |
| 10680559562 | steady-state system | The inputs (of anything of interest) are equal to the outputs, so the amount stored within the system is constant. | 57 | |
| 10680562872 | dynamic equilibrium | a steady state of system that with negative feedback will return to a quasi-equilibrium state following disturbance | 58 | |
| 10680564615 | ecosystems | an ecological community and its local, nonbiological community. an ecosystem is the minimum system that includes and sustains life. it must include at least an autrotroph, a decomposer, a liquid medium, a source and sink of energy, and all the chemical elements required by the autotroph and the decomposer | 59 | |
| 10680564616 | average residence time | (3) A measure of the time it takes for a given part of the reservoir of a particular material in a system to be cycled through the system | 60 | |
| 10680570567 | feedback | a kind of system response that occurs when output of the system also serves as an input leading to changes in the system | 61 | |
| 10680570568 | negative feedback | a type of feedback that occurs when the system's response is in the opposite direction of the output, thus negative feedback is self-regulating | 62 | |
| 10680572232 | positive feedback | a type of feedback that occurs when an increase in output leads to a further increase in output. this is sometimes known as a vicious cycle, since the more you have the more you get | 63 | |
| 10680575416 | flow | The amount of material transferred | 64 | |
| 10680575417 | flux | The rate of transfer of material within a system per unit of time. | 65 | |
| 10680575418 | linear process | With respect to systems, refers to the addition or subtraction of anything to a compartment in a system where the amount will always be the same, no matter how much you have added before and what else has changed about the system and the environment. For example, if you collect stones from a particular site and place them in a basket and place one stone per hour, you will have placed 6 stones in 6 hours and 24 in 24 hours, and the change is linear with time. | 66 | |
| 10680578054 | nonlinear process | Characterized by system operation in which the effect of adding a specific amount of something changes, depending upon how much has been added before. | 67 | |
| 10680578055 | lag time | the delay in time between the cause and appearance of an effect in a system | 68 | |
| 10680580402 | biosphere | part of planning where life exists/is the planetary system that includes and sustains life, and therefore is made up of the atmosphere, oceans, soils, upper bedrock and all life | 69 | |
| 10680580403 | logistic curve | S-shaped curve | 70 | |
| 10680583073 | exponential growth | Growth in which the rate of increase is a constant percentage of the current size; that is, the growth occurs at a constant rate per time period. | 71 | |
| 10680583074 | doubling time | The time necessary for a quantity of whatever is being measured to double. | 72 | |
| 10680585642 | overshoot and collapse | Occurs when growth in one part of a system overtime exceeds carrying capacity, resulting sudden decline in one or both parts of the system. | 73 | |
| 10680587881 | environmental unity | A principle of environmental studies that states that everything is connected to everything else | 74 | |
| 10680600726 | uniformitarianism | principle stating that Earth processes occurring today are similar to those that occurred in the past | 75 |
