Unit 1 Sustainability Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from the Introduction to Sustainability lecture.

Sustainability

"enduring into the long-term future"

Environmental Science

Systematic study of our environment (natural & social) and our proper place in it; Focused on understanding and resolving environmental problems caused by humans.

Triple Bottom Line

Environmental, social, and economic well-being; People, Planet, Profit.

Environmental Justice

Social and environmental spheres of sustainability, locally & globally.

Natural Resource Stewardship

Social and environmental spheres of sustainability, locally & globally.

Natural Resource Use

Environmental sphere of sustainability, including environmental management and pollution prevention (air, water, land, waste).

Energy Efficiency

Environmental-Economic sphere of sustainability, also includes subsidies/incentives for use of natural resources.

Standard of Living

Social sphere of sustainability, also includes education and community and equal opportunity.

Business Ethics

Economic-Social sphere of sustainability, also includes fair trade and worker's rights.

Profit

Economic Sphere of Sustainability, Also includes cost savings, economic growth and research & development.

Systems-thinking

A coherently organized set of interconnected elements that constitute a whole; Emergent properties arise from relationships and interactions of the parts; Systems are nested within systems.

Wicked Problems

Difficult to solve because they are complex, interconnected, and continuously changing & evolving

Anthropocene

A time in which human activity has become such a powerful force that it has major, planet-scale impact on climate and on every living system.

Carrying Capacity

The number of individuals an environment can support without degrading a population’s ecosystem.

Neoclassical Economics

Majority; Standard since WWII; Supply & Demand; Economic growth can continue forever; New technology will address any future environmental concerns.

Ecological Economics

New, last 30 years; Economy nested within the biosphere on which it depends; Economies & ecosystems are interconnected, 'full-world economics'; Economic growth CANNOT continue forever; No guarantee that new technology can overcome environmental issues that occur due to overshooting carrying capacity; Works toward optimization & equitable distribution.

Environmental Economics

Subset of neoclassical, but considers environmental values; Recognizes humans depend on ecosystem services & assigns values to these services & to pollution; Anthropocentric economic growth model!

Externalities

A cost that is external to the entity creating the damage; Costs that are NOT considered as a cost to the business (like pollution or greenhouse gas emissions).

Extreme Poverty

<$1.90 per day; 700-800 million people live in extreme poverty globally; Poorest people have to choose short-term survival needs over long-term sustainability, lack of proper sewage treatment, and use of ‘dirty’ fuels.

Thomas Malthus

British scholar of political science & economics who predicted that population growth was inevitable and that it would continue until it outstripped the resources available (carrying capacity), at which point, various natural controls (disease, famine, etc) would cause ecological and social collapse, reducing population numbers again.

Theodore Roosevelt

President from 1901-1909; Conservationist who established our national park, forest, and wildlife refuge system, passed game protection laws, and worked to end abuses of publicly owned land and resources.

Gifford Pinchot

Founding head of Roosevelt’s newly formed ‘Forest Service’ in 1905; Conservationist who argued that forests should be saved to be used for people, and that resources should be used for the good of the people; shared a ‘human-centered’, utilitarian view of the environment.