Unit 1 Test
Terms : Hide Images
| 7272282899 | Environmental science | The field of study that look at interactions among human systems and those found in nature. | 0 | |
| 7272419153 | Ecological footprint | A measure of how much an individual consumes, expressed in area of land. | 1 | |
| 7272282900 | Environmentalism | A social movement that seeks to protect the environment through lobbying, activism, and education. | 2 | |
| 7272282901 | Sustainability | Living on Earth in a way that allows humans to use its resources without depriving future generations of those resources. Importance and challenges: Many scientists maintain that achieving sustainability is the single most important goal for the human species. It is also one of the most challenging tasks we face. Living sustainably means acting in a way such that activities that are crucial to human society can continue. | 3 | |
| 7272399418 | Requirements of living sustainably | -Environmental systems must not be damaged beyond their ability to recover. -Renewable resources must not be depleted faster than they can regenerate. -Nonrenewable resources must be used sparingly. | 4 | |
| 7272282902 | Natural capital | The resources of the planet, such as air, water, and minerals. | 5 | |
| 7272507577 | Triple Bottom Line | An approach to sustainability that considers 3 factors: economic, environmental, and social, when making decisions about business, the economy, and the development. | 6 | |
| 7272282903 | Natural resource | anything naturally occurring in the environment that humans use | 7 | |
| 7272282904 | Natural/Ecosystem service | The processes by which life-supporting resources such as clean water, timber, fisheries, and agricultural crops are produced. | 8 | |
| 7272282905 | Gross Domestic Product (GDP) | A measure of the value of all products and services produced in one year in one country. | 9 | |
| 7272282906 | Per Capita GDP | the GDP divided by the total population Per person | 10 | |
| 7272282907 | Resource conservation | Protecting, preserving, and managing Earth's natural resources | 11 | |
| 7272282908 | Renewable resource | A natural resource that can be replaced at the same rate at which the resource is consumed | 12 | |
| 7272282909 | Perpetual resource | renewed continuously and is expected to last long (solar power) a resource that is virtually impossible to have its supply reduced by human consumption | 13 | |
| 7272282910 | Non-renewable resource | a resource that cannot be reused or replaced easily (ex. gems, iron, copper, fossil fuels) | 14 | |
| 7272282911 | Sustainable yield | Replacement of renewable resources at the same rate at which they are consumed | 15 | |
| 7272282912 | Ecological tipping point | An irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system | 16 | |
| 7272282913 | IPAT | An equation used to estimate the impact of the human lifestyle on the environment: impact = population x affluence x technology | 17 | |
| 7272282914 | Environmental degradation | damage to or destruction of the natural environment | 18 | |
| 7272282915 | Environmental worldview | A worldview that encompasses how one thinks the world works; how one views one's role in the world; and what one believes to be proper environmental behavior. | 19 | |
| 7272282916 | Stewardship | The careful and responsible management and care for Earth and its resources. | 20 | |
| 7272282917 | Anthropocentric | A worldview that focuses on human welfare and well-being. | 21 | |
| 7272282918 | Biocentric | A worldview that holds that humans are just one of many species on Earth, all of which have equal intrinsic value. | 22 | |
| 7272282919 | Ecocentric | A worldview that places equal value on all living organisms and the ecosystems in which they live. | 23 | |
| 7272282920 | Scientific method | An objective method to explore the natural world, draw inferences from it, and predict the outcome of certain events, processes, or changes. Steps of scientific method: -observing and questioning -forming hypotheses -collecting data -interpreting results -disseminating findings | 24 | |
| 7272282921 | Discount rate | The interest rate on the loans that the Fed makes to banks | 25 | |
| 7272282922 | Policies | Rules, or ways of acting. guidelines used in making consistent decisions | 26 | |
| 7272282923 | Politics | art and practice of government the competition between individuals or groups over the allocation of valued resources | 27 | |
| 7272282924 | Subsidies | Financial support from the government | 28 | |
| 7272282925 | Greenwashing | marketing term for practices that suggest sustainability when its not inflated claims about a product's environmental benefits | 29 | |
| 7272282926 | Lobbying | attempting to influence policy makers | 30 | |
| 7272282927 | Externalities | A side effect of an action that affects a third party other than the buyer or seller. | 31 | |
| 7272282928 | Cap-and-trade | cap for environmental damage (ex. mil tons of CO2), sell permits to allow this allows businesses to buy and sell the right to pollute | 32 | |
| 7272282929 | Cost-benefit analysis | a study that compares the costs and benefits to society of providing a public good | 33 | |
| 7272282930 | Full-cost pricing | a practice where the price of a product is calculated by a firm on the basis of its direct costs per unit of output plus a markup to cover overhead costs and profits | 34 | |
| 7272282931 | Green taxes | A tax placed on environmentally harmful activities or emissions in an attempt to internalize some of the externalities that may be involved in the life cycle of those activities or products. | 35 | |
| 7272282932 | Valuation | The practice of assigning monetary value to intangible benefits and natural capital. | 36 | |
| 7272282933 | Precautionary Principle | A principle based on the belief that action should be taken against a plausible environmental hazard. | 37 | |
| 7272282934 | United Nations | A global institution dedicated to promoting dialogue among countries with the goal of maintaining world peace. | 38 | |
| 7272282935 | Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) | A measure of economic status that includes personal consumption, income distribution, levels of higher education, resource depletion, pollution, and the health of the population. | 39 | |
| 7272282936 | Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | The US organization that oversees all governmental efforts related to the environment, including science, research, assessment, and education. | 40 | |
| 7272282937 | Micro lending | small loans given to impoverished people in order to break the poverty cycle | 41 | |
| 7272282938 | Human Development Index (HDI) | A measurement index that combines three basic measure of human status: life expectancy, knowledge and education. | 42 | |
| 7272282939 | Command and control approach | A strategy for pollution control that involves regulations and enforcement mechanisms. | 43 | |
| 7272282940 | Market failure | When the economic system does not account for all costs. | 44 | |
| 7272282941 | United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) | A program of the United Nations responsible for gathering environmental information, conducting research, and assessing environmental problems. | 45 | |
| 7272282942 | Incentive based approach | A strategy for pollution control that constructs financial and other incentives for lowering emissions based on profits and benefits. | 46 | |
| 7272282943 | World Bank | A global institution that provides technical and financial assistance to developing countries with the objectives of reducing poverty and promoting growth, especially in the poorest countries. | 47 | |
| 7272282944 | World Health Organization (WHO) | A global institution dedicated to the improvement of human health by monitoring and assessing health trends and providing medical advice to countries. | 48 | |
| 7272282945 | System | changing, organized group of related parts that interact to form a whole | 49 | |
| 7272282946 | Ecosystem | A particular location on Earth with interacting biotic and abiotic components. | 50 | |
| 7272282947 | Biotic | living | 51 | |
| 7272282948 | Abiotic | non-living | 52 | |
| 7272282949 | Environmental indicators | An indicator that describes the current state of an environmental system. 5 indicators: -biological diversity -food production -average global surface temp. and carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere -human population -resource depletion | 53 | |
| 7272282951 | Biodiversity | The diversity of life forms in an environment. 3 scales of biodiversity: -ecosystem -species -genetic | 54 | |
| 7272349128 | Biodiversity: ecosystem diversity | A measure of the diversity of ecosystems or habitats that exist in a given region. | 55 | |
| 7272338692 | Biodiversity: species diversity | The number of species in a region or in a particular type of habitat. | 56 | |
| 7272331821 | Biodiversity: genetic diversity | A measure of the genetic variation among individuals in a population. | 57 | |
| 7272282952 | Species | A group of organisms that is distinct from other groups in its morphology (body form and structure), behavior, or biochemical properties. | 58 | |
| 7272282953 | Speciation | The evolution of new species. | 59 | |
| 7272282954 | Background extinction rate | The average rate at which species become extinct over the long term. | 60 | |
| 7272362523 | Importance of steady climate | The temp. of Earth allows the presence of liquid water, which is necessary for life. | 61 | |
| 7272282955 | Greenhouse gases | Gases in Earth's atmosphere that trap heat near the surface. most important one: carbon dioxide importance: keep Earth's surface within the range of temp. at which life can flourish | 62 | |
| 7272282956 | Anthropogenic | Derived from human activities. ex. anthropogenic co2 - two major sources of this are the combustion of fossil fuels and the net loss of forests and other habitats that would otherwise take up and store co2 from the atmosphere | 63 | |
| 7272282957 | Sustainable development | Development that balances current human well-being and economic advancement with resource management for the benefit of future generations. | 64 | |
| 7272282959 | Hypothesis | A testable conjecture about how something works. | 65 | |
| 7272282960 | Replication | The data collection procedure of taking repeated measurements. | 66 | |
| 7272282961 | Sample Size | The number of times of measurement is replicated in data collection. | 67 | |
| 7272282962 | Accuracy | How close a measured value is to the actual or true value. | 68 | |
| 7272282963 | Precision | How close the repeated measurements of a sample are to one another. | 69 | |
| 7272282964 | Uncertainty | An estimate of how much a measured or calculated value differs from a true value. | 70 | |
| 7272282965 | Inductive reasoning | The process of making general statements from specific facts or examples. | 71 | |
| 7272282966 | Deductive reasoning | The process of applying a general statement to specific facts or situations. | 72 | |
| 7272282967 | Theory | A hypothesis that has been repeatedly tested and confirmed by multiple groups of researchers and has reached wide acceptance. | 73 | |
| 7272282968 | Control group | In a scientific investigation, a group that experiences exactly the same conditions as the experimental group, except for the single variable under study. | 74 | |
| 7272282969 | Natural experiment | A natural event that acts as an experimental treatment in an ecosystem. | 75 | |
| 7272282970 | Environmental justice | The fair and equitable treatment of all people regarding environmental issues achieving equity and a fair sharing of environmental burdens and benefits The concept that access to a clean, healthy environment is a basic human right. | 76 | |
| 7272342900 | Contributing factors to species loss | Habitat destruction and habitat degradation are the major causes of species extinction today, although climate change, overharvesting, and pressure from introduced species also contribute to species loss. | 77 | |
| 7272379702 | Resource depletion | Natural resources provide the energy and materials that support human civilization but, as the human population grows, the resources necessary for our survival become increasingly depleted. In addition, extracting these natural resources can affect the health of our environment in many ways. | 78 | |
| 7272413739 | Resource depletion solutions | Developing substitutes and recycling materials are two ways to address the problem of resource depletion and to increase sustainability. | 79 | |
| 7272387278 | Development | Improvement in human well-being through economic advancement. | 80 |
