1. Formal Definition*
2. My Definition/Picture
*None of the formal definitions are mine. They have been taken from http://www.cengagebrain.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&product_isbn_issn=9780538493833&token=FB85E1F34198884AED8F8FA382BF9A751D90AB8CDE891D504E426016FDD169F0FC58F1160AB22339B58A422A86C2AA1F5B875B799BEECFAD
Most have been left unedited, while some have had information removed.
Terms : Hide Images
| 2869687225 | Environment | 1. All external conditions, factors, matter, and energy, living and nonliving, that affect any living organism or other specified system. | 0 | |
| 2869687968 | Environmental Science | Interdisciplinary study that uses information and ideas from the physical sciences with those from the social sciences and humanities to learn how nature works, how we interact with the environment, and how we can to help deal with environmental problems. | 1 | |
| 2869687969 | Ecology | Biological science that studies the relationships between living organisms and their environment; study of the structure and functions of nature. | 2 | |
| 2869688301 | Organisms | Any form of life. | 3 | |
| 2869689185 | Gross Domestic Product (GDP) | 1. Annual market value of all goods and services produced by all firms and organizations, foreign and domestic, operating within a country. | 4 | |
| 2869689783 | Per Capita GDP | Annual gross domestic product (GDP) of a country divided by its total population at midyear. It gives the average slice of the economic pie per person. Used to be called per capita gross national product (GNP). | 5 | |
| 2869693982 | Economical Development | Improvement of human living standards by economic growth. | 6 | |
| 2869694368 | More-Developed Countries | 1. Country that is highly industrialized and has a high per capita GDP. 2. Highly developed countries with high domestic production rates. | 7 | |
| 2869694688 | Less-Developed Countries | 1. Country that has low to moderate industrialization and low to moderate per capita GDP. Most are located in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. 2. Countries that have less industrialization and lower production rates. | 8 | |
| 2869695711 | Environmental Degradation | 1. Depletion or destruction of a potentially renewable resource such as soil, grassland, forest, or wildlife that is used faster than it is naturally replenished. If such use continues, the resource becomes nonrenewable (on a human time scale) or nonexistent (extinct). 2. When a renewable resource is over used to the point at which it is non-renewable or nonexistent. | 9 | |
| 2869697730 | Natural Capital Degradation | 1. Depletion or destruction of a potentially renewable resource such as soil, grassland, forest, or wildlife that is used faster than it is naturally replenished. If such use continues, the resource becomes nonrenewable (on a human time scale) or nonexistent (extinct). (see environmental degradation) 2. When a renewable resource is over used to the point at which it is non-renewable or nonexistent. | 10 | |
| 2869696600 | Pollution | 1. Undesirable change in the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of air, water, soil, or food that can adversely affect the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms. 2. Undesirable changes in environment that effect the health, survival, and/or activities of organisms. | 11 | |
| 2869697014 | Nonrenewable Resources | 1. Resource that exists in a fixed amount (stock) in the earth's crust and has the potential for renewal by geological, physical, and chemical processes taking place over hundreds of millions to billions of years. Examples include copper, aluminum, coal, and oil. We classify these resources as exhaustible because we are extracting and using them at a much faster rate than they are formed. 2. Resources that are used much faster than they can be formed/produced. | 12 | |
| 2869698163 | Reuse | 1. To use a product over and over again in the same form. 2. To use something multiple times while it's in the same form. | 13 | |
| 2869698636 | Recycling | 1. To collect and reprocess a resource so that it can be made into new products; one of the three R's of resource use. An example is collecting aluminum cans, melting them down, and using the aluminum to make new cans or other aluminum products. 2. To reprocess/re-purpose a resource | 14 | |
| 2869698637 | Economic Growth | 1. Increase in the capacity to provide people with goods and services; an increase in gross domestic product (GDP). 2. An increase in the amount of production therefore increasing the capacity to provide goods and services to people. | 15 | |
| 2869699974 | Nutrient Cycling | 1. The circulation of chemicals necessary for life, from the environment (mostly from soil and water) through organisms and back to the environment. 2. The circulation of nutrients and chemicals from the environment through organisms and back to the environment. | 16 | |
| 2869700346 | Hunter-Gatherers | 1. People who get their food by gathering edible wild plants and other materials and by hunting wild animals and catching fish. 2. People who gather (edible) wild plants, hunt animals and catch fish for food. | 17 | |
| 2869702366 | Natural Resources | 1. Materials such as air, water, and soil and energy in nature that are essential or useful to humans. 2. Materials found in nature that are useful to humans. | 18 | |
| 2869702613 | Natural Services | 1. Processes of nature, such as purification of air and water and pest control, which support life and human economies 2. Things that nature does to support life and economies. | 19 | |
| 2869703391 | Per Capita Ecological Footprint | 1. Amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply each person or population with the renewable resources they use and to absorb or dispose of the wastes from such resource use. It measures the average environmental impact of individuals or populations in different countries and areas. 2. The amount of productive land and water needed to supply a population with the renewable resources they use and to absorb/dispose of the wastes from using those resources. | 20 | |
| 2869704205 | Ecological Tipping Point | 1. Point at which an environmental problem reaches a threshold level, which causes an often irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system. 2. The point of no return when a problem builds up in an environment. | 21 | |
| 2869704206 | Culture | 1. Whole of a society's knowledge, beliefs, technology, and practices. 2. All of society's practices, beliefs, knowledge and technology. | 22 | |
| 2869705171 | Exponential Growth | 1. Growth in which some quantity, such as population size or economic output, increases at a constant rate per unit of time. An example is the growth sequence 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and so on, which increases by 100% at each interval. When the increase in quantity over time is plotted, this type of growth yields a curve shaped like the letter J. 2. A growth where a quantity (such as population) increases at a steady rate. | 23 | |
| 2869705540 | Planetary Management Worldview | 1. Worldview holding that humans are separate from nature, that nature exists mainly to meet our needs and increasing wants, and that we can use our ingenuity and technology to manage the earth's life-support systems, mostly for our benefit. It assumes that economic growth is unlimited. 2. A worldview holding humans separate from nature. It's that nature mainly exists to meet our needs and increasing wants. It says that we can use the earth's life sustaining systems for our own benefit. It assumes that economic growth is unlimited. | 24 | |
| 2869706586 | Stewardship Worldview | 1. Worldview holding that we can manage the earth 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 and discouraging environmentally harmful forms. 2. Worldview that stays we can use the Earth's resources to our benefit, but we have to be ethical about it. It encourages environmentally friendly methods. | 25 | |
| 2869707397 | Environmentally Sustainable Society | 1. Society that 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. 2. Society that has enough resources to provide for its current and future needs without compromising the ability of future humans and other species from meeting their basic needs. | 26 | |
| 2869708059 | Natural Income | 1. Renewable resources such as plants, animals, and soil provided by natural capital. 2. Renewable resources provided by nature. | 27 | |
| 2869713420 | Point Sources | 1. Single identifiable source that discharges pollutants into the environment. Examples include the smokestack of a power plant or an industrial plant, drainpipe of a meatpacking plant, chimney of a house, or exhaust pipe of an automobile. 2. An identifiable source of pollution. | 28 | |
| 2869713780 | Non-Point Sources | 1. Broad and diffuse areas, rather than points, from which pollutants enter bodies of surface water or air. Examples include runoff of chemicals and sediments from cropland, livestock feedlots, logged forests, urban streets, parking lots, lawns, and golf courses. 2. A broad area that is a source of pollution. (runoff chemicals from crops) | 29 | |
| 2869717289 | Pollution Cleanup | 1. Device or process that removes or reduces the level of a pollutant after it has been produced or has entered the environment. Examples include automobile emission control devices and sewage treatment plants. 2. Processes and devices that remove/reduce the amount of pollution that has been produced. | 30 | |
| 2869717944 | Output Pollution Control | 1. Device or process that removes or reduces the level of a pollutant after it has been produced or has entered the environment. Examples include automobile emission control devices and sewage treatment plants. 2. Processes and devices that remove/reduce the amount of pollution that has been produced. | 31 | |
| 2869720118 | Pollution Prevention | 1. Device, process, or strategy used to prevent a potential pollutant from forming or entering the environment or to sharply reduce the amount entering the environment. 2. Devices, processes, and/or strategies to prevent pollution from form and entering the atmosphere. | 32 | |
| 2869720527 | Input Pollution Control | 1. Device, process, or strategy used to prevent a potential pollutant from forming or entering the environment or to sharply reduce the amount entering the environment. 2. Devices, processes, and/or strategies to prevent pollution from form and entering the atmosphere. | 33 | |
| 2869721332 | Affluence | 1. Wealth that results in high levels of consumption and unnecessary waste of resources, based mostly on the assumption that buying more and more material goods will bring fulfillment and happiness. 2.Weath that causes high levels of consumption and the wasting of resources, mostly based on the assumption that buying more and more material goods will bring joy and fulfillment. | 34 | |
| 2869722890 | Ecological Footprint | 1. Amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply a population with the renewable resources it uses and to absorb or dispose of the wastes from such resource use. It is a measure of the average environmental impact of populations in different countries and areas. 2. The amount of productive land and water needed to supply a population with the renewable resources they use and to absorb/dispose of the wastes from using those resources. | 35 | |
| 2869729458 | Resource | 1. Anything obtained from the environment to meet human needs and wants. It can also be applied to other species. 2. Anything that comes from the environment to meet needs and wants. | 36 | |
| 2869729459 | Perpetual Resource | 1. Essentially inexhaustible resource on a human time scale because it is renewed continuously. 2. An inexhaustible resource because it is constantly being renewed. | 37 | |
| 2869730586 | Renewable Resource | 1. Resource that can be replenished rapidly (hours to several decades) through natural processes as long as it is not used up faster than it is replaced. Examples include trees in forests, grasses in grasslands, wild animals, fresh surface water in lakes and streams, most groundwater, fresh air, and fertile soil. If such a resource is used faster than it is replenished, it can be depleted and converted into a nonrenewable resource. 2. Resources that replenish quickly through natural processes as long as it isn't used up faster than it can be replaced. If renewable resources are depleted faster than they can be produced they can become nonrenewable resources. | 38 | |
| 2869731172 | Sustainable Yield | 1. Highest rate at which a potentially renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply. 2. The highest rate a renewable resource can be used at without reducing its available supply. | 39 | |
| 2869735504 | Species | 1. Group of similar organisms, and for sexually reproducing organisms, they are a set of individuals that can mate and produce fertile offspring. Every organism is a member of a certain species. 2. Similar organisms, sexually reproducing organisms can produce a fertile offspring if they are off the same species. | 40 | |
| 2869735505 | Ecosystem | 1. One or more communities of different species interacting with one another and with the chemical and physical factors making up their nonliving environment. 2. Different species interacting with each other within their own communities and others. | 41 | |
| 2869736078 | Solar Energy | 1. Direct radiant energy from the sun and a number of indirect forms of energy produced by the direct input of such radiant energy. Principal indirect forms of solar energy include wind, falling and flowing water (hydropower), and biomass (solar energy converted into chemical energy stored in the chemical bonds of organic compounds in trees and other plants-)—none of which would exist without direct solar energy. 2. Energy let off by the sun | 42 | |
| 2869736079 | Biodiversity | 1. Variety of different species, genetic variability among individuals within each species, variety of ecosystems, and functions such as energy flow and matter cycling needed for the survival of species and biological communities. 2. A variety of species, genetics, ecosystems, and functions needed for the survival of species and biological communities. | 43 | |
| 2869736941 | Sustainability Revolution | 1. Ability of earth's various systems, including human cultural systems and economies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely. 2. The ability of earth's many systems to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely. | 44 | |
| 2869737494 | Poverty | 1. Inability of people to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter. 2. The inability for people to meet their basic needs. | 45 | |
| 2869738198 | Environmental Worldview | 1. Set of assumptions and beliefs about how people think the world works, what they think their role in the world should be, and what they believe is right and wrong environmental behavior. 2. How people think the world works, what they think their role in the world should be, and what they think is right and wrong environmental behavior | 46 | |
| 2869739993 | Environmental Ethics | 1. Human beliefs about what is right or wrong with how we treat the environment. 2. Human beliefs about the right and wrong ways to treat the environment | 47 |
