Environment and Society Chapter 1 Vocab

Environment

consist of all the living and nonliving things around us.

Environmental Science

is the scientific study of how the natural world works, how our environment affects us, and how we affect the environment.

natural resources

the substances and energy sources we take from our environment and that we rely on to survive.

renewable natural resources

natural resources that are replenished over short periods (sunlight, wind, wave energy)

Nonrenewable natural resources

resources they may be depleted if we consume them faster than they replenished.

Ecosystem services

An essential an ecosystem provides that supports life and makes economic activity possible.

Agricultural revolution

Transition from a hunter gatherer style to an agricultural way of life.

Industrial Revolution

a shift from rural life, animal-powered agriculture, and handcrafted goods, toward an urban society provisioned by the mass production of factory made goods powered by fossil fuels.

Fossil Fuels

nonrenewable resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas.

ecological footprint

expresses the cumulative area of biologically productive land and water required to provide the resources a person or population consumes and to dispose of or recycle the waste the person or population produces.

Interdisciplinary

Borrowing techniques from multiple traditional fields of study and bringing together research results from these fields into a broad synthesis.

Natural Sciences

disciplines that examine the natural world

Social Sciences

disciplines that address human interactions and institutions

Environmental studies

An academic environmental science program that emphasizes the social sciences as well as the natural sciences.

Science

a systematic process for learning about the world and testing our understanding of it.

Observational Science (descriptive science)

research in which scientists gather basic information about organizations, materials, systems, or processes that are not well known.

Hypothesis-driven science

research that proceeds in a more targeted and structured manner, using experiments to test hypothesis within a framework traditionally known as the scientific method.

Scientific Method

a technique for testing ideas with observations.

Hypothesis

a statement that attempts to explain a phenomenon or answer a scientific question.

Predictions

specific statements that can be directly and unequivocally tested.

Experiment

an activity designed to test the validity of a prediction or a hypothesis

variables

conditions that can change

Independent Variable

a variable the scientist manipulates

Dependent Variable

variable that depends on independent variable

Controlled experiment

an experiment in which a treatment is compared against a control in order to test the effect of a variable.

control

an unmanipulated point of comparison for the manipulated treatment.

data

information

correlation

statistical association among variables

peer review

the process by which a manuscript submitted for publication in an academic journal is examined by specialists in the field, who provide comments and criticism and judge whether the work merits publication in the journal.

Theory

widely accepted, well-tested explanation of one or more cause-and-effect relationships that has been extensively validated by a great amount of research.

Paradigm

dominant view is abandoned for another

Ethics

branch of philosophy that involves the study of the good and bad, right and wrong.

relativists

believe that ethics do and should vary with social context

universalists

maintain that there are objective notions of right and wrong that hold across cultures and contexts.

Ethical Standards

the criteria that help differentiate right from wrong.

Anthropocentrism

describes a human-centered view of our relations with the environment.

Biocentrism

ascribes inherent value to certain living things or to the biotic realm in general.

Ecocentrism

Judges actions in terms of their effects on whole ecological systems consist of living and nonliving elements and the relationship among them.

John Muir

Associated with preservation ethic, nature deserved protection for its own sake. (Ecocentrism)

Preservation Ethic

holds that we should protect the natural environment in a pristine, unaltered state.

Gifford Pinchot

founded U.S. Forest Services anthropocentric view on how and why we should value nature.

conservation ethic

which holds that people should put natural put natural resources to use but that we have a responsibility to manage them wisely. Employs a utilitarian standard, stating that we should allocate resources so as to provide the greatest good to the greatest number pf people for the longest time.

Aldo Leopold

people should view themselves as the land and that we are obligated to treat the land in an ethical manner.

Environmental Justice

involves the fair and equitable treatment of all people with their respect to environmental policy and practice, regardless of their income, race and ethnicity.

Natural Capital

We can think of our planets vast store of resources and ecosystem services. To keep bank account full, we need to leave a principal intact and spend just the interest, so that we can continue living off the interest far into the future.

sustainability

living within our planets means such that the Earth can sustain us and all life for the future.

sustainable development

the use of resources for economic advancement in a manner that satisfies our current needs but does not compromise the future availability of resources.

Campus sustainability

seek ways to help colleges and universities to reduce their ecological footprint.