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| 7251726759 | biodiversity | 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. | 0 | |
| 7251726760 | biodegradable pollutants | Material that can be broken down into simpler substances by bacteria or other decomposers. Paper and most organic wastes such as animal manure are biodegradable but can take decades to biodegrade in modern landfills. | 1 | |
| 7251726761 | developed countries | Country that is highly industrialized and has a high per capita GDP. *aka more-developed country | 2 | |
| 7251726762 | culture | Whole of a society's knowledge, beliefs, technology, and practices. | 3 | |
| 7251726763 | developing countries | Country that has low to moderate industrialization and low to moderate per capita GDP. Most are located in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. *aka less-developed country | 4 | |
| 7251726764 | ecological footprint | 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. | 5 | |
| 7251726765 | ecology | Biological science that studies the relationships between living organisms and their environment; study of the structure and functions of nature. | 6 | |
| 7251726766 | economic growth | Increase in the capacity to provide people with goods and services; an increase in gross domestic product. | 7 | |
| 7251726767 | ecological tipping point | Point at which an environmental problem reaches a threshold level, which causes an often irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system. | 8 | |
| 7251726768 | environment | All external conditions, factors, matter and energy, living and nonliving, that affect any living organism or other specified system or, "...everything that isn't me." | 9 | |
| 7251726769 | economic development | Improvement of human living standards by economic growth. | 10 | |
| 7251726770 | environmental degradation | Depletion or destruction of a potentially renewable resource such as soil, grassland, forest, or wildlife that is used faster than it is naturally replenished. | 11 | |
| 7251726771 | environmental ethics | Human beliefs about what is right or wrong with how we treat the environment. | 12 | |
| 7251726772 | 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 help deal with environmental problems. | 13 | |
| 7251726773 | environmental worldview | 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. | 14 | |
| 7251726774 | environmentalism | Social movement dedicated to protecting the earth's life support systems for us and other species. | 15 | |
| 7251726775 | environmentally sustainable society | Society that meets the current and future needs of its people for basic resources in just and equitable manner without compromising the ability of future generations of humans and other species from meeting their basic needs. | 16 | |
| 7251726776 | exponential growth | Growth in which some quantity, such as population size or economic output, increases at a constant rate per unit of time. | 17 | |
| 7251726777 | gross domestic product (GDP) | Annual market value of all goods and services produced by all firms and organizations, foreign and domestic, operating within a country. | 18 | |
| 7251726778 | input pollution control | 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. *aka pollution prevention | 19 | |
| 7251726779 | less-developed countries | Country that has low to moderate industrialization and low to moderate per capita GDP. Most are located in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. | 20 | |
| 7251726780 | more-developed countries | Country that is highly industrialized and has a high per capita GDP. | 21 | |
| 7251726781 | natural capital | Natural resources and natural services that keep us and other species alive and support our economies. | 22 | |
| 7251726782 | natural income | Renewable resources such as plants, animals, and soil provided by natural capital. | 23 | |
| 7251726783 | natural resources | Materials such as air, water, and soil, and energy in nature that are essential or useful to humans. | 24 | |
| 7251726784 | natural services | Processes of nature, such as purification of air and water and pest control, which support life and human economies. | 25 | |
| 7251726785 | nondegradable pollutants | Material that is not broken down by natural processes. Examples include the toxic elements lead and mercury. | 26 | |
| 7251726786 | nonpoint sources | Broad and diffuse areas, rather than points, from which pollutants enter bodies of surface water or air. | 27 | |
| 7251726787 | nonrenewable resources | 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 million to billions of years. Examples include copper, aluminum, coal, and oil. | 28 | |
| 7251726788 | nutrient cycling | The circulation of chemicals necessary for life, from the environment (mostly soil and water) through organisms and back to the environment. | 29 | |
| 7251726789 | organisms | Any form of life. | 30 | |
| 7251726790 | output pollution control | 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. *aka pollution | 31 | |
| 7251726791 | per capita ecological footprint | 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. | 32 | |
| 7251726792 | per capita GDP | Annual gross domestic product (GDP) of a country divided by its total population at midyear. | 33 | |
| 7251726793 | perpetual resource | Essentially inexhaustible resource on a human time scale because it is renewed continuously. Solar energy is an example. | 34 | |
| 7251726794 | planetary management worldview | Worldview holding that humans are separated 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. | 35 | |
| 7251726795 | point sources | Single identifiable source that discharges pollutants into the environment. | 36 | |
| 7251726796 | pollution | 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. | 37 | |
| 7251726797 | pollution cleanup | Device or process that removes or reduces the level of a pollutant after it has been produced or has entered the environment. | 38 | |
| 7251726798 | pollution prevention | 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. | 39 | |
| 7251726799 | poverty | Inability of people to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter. | 40 | |
| 7251726800 | recycling | To collect and reprocess a resource so that it can be made into new products. | 41 | |
| 7251726801 | renewable resource | 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. | 42 | |
| 7251726802 | resource | Anything obtained from the environment to meet human needs and wants. | 43 | |
| 7251726803 | reuse | To use a product over and over again in the same form. | 44 | |
| 7251726804 | social capital | Result of getting people with different views and values to talk and listen to one another, find common ground based on understanding and trust, and work together to solve environmental and other problems. | 45 | |
| 7251726805 | species | Group of similar organisms, and for sexually reproducing organisms, they are a set of individuals that can mate and produce fertile offspring. | 46 | |
| 7251726806 | stewardship worldview | 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. | 47 | |
| 7251726807 | sustainability | Ability of earth's various systems, including human cultural systems and economies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely. | 48 | |
| 7251726808 | sustainable yield | Highest rate at which a potentially renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply. | 49 | |
| 7251726809 | environmental wisdom worldview | Worldview holding that humans are part of and totally dependent on nature and that nature exists for all species, not just for us. Our success depends on learning how the earth sustains itself and integrating such environmental wisdom into the ways we think and act. | 50 |
