APES Semester 1 Review

Environmentalism

a social movement dedicated to trying to protect the earth's life- support systems for all forms of life.

Renewable Resource

resource that can be replenished by natural processes within hours to centuries, as long as we do not use it up faster than natural processes can renew it.

Non-renewable Resource

resources that exist in a fixed quantity, or stock, in the earth's crust.

Sustainable Yield

the highest rate at which we can use a renewable resources indefinitely without reducing its available supply.

Point Source

When pollutants are produced from a single identifiable source.

Non-Point Source

When pollutants are produces from sources that are dispersed and difficult to identify.

Peer Review

When scientists openly publish details of the methods they used, and the results of their experiments, and the reasoning beings their hypothesis for other scientist working in the same field to evaluate.

Frontier Science

Preliminary scientific results that have not been widely tested and excepted by peer review. They are not yet considered reliable.

Natural Radioactive Decay

This occurs when the nuclei of unstable isotopes spontaneously emit fast moving chunks of matter, high energy radiation, or both at a fixed rate.

Nuclear Fusion

This occurs when two nuclei of lighter atoms, such as hydrogen, are forced together at extremely high temperatures until they fuse to form a heavier nucleus and release a tremendous amount of energy.

Nuclear Fission

This occurs when the nuclei of certain isotopes with larger mass numbers are split apart into lighter nuclei when struck by a neutron and release energy.

Tipping Point

The point at which a fundamental shift in the behavior of a system occurs.

Politics

The process by which individuals and groups try to influence or control the policies and actions of governments at local, state, national, and international levels.

Lobbying

Individuals or groups contact legislators in person, or hire lobbyists (representatives) to do so, in order to persuade legislators to vote or act in their favor.

Statutory Law

Laws developed and passed by legislative bodies such as federal and state governments.

Plaintiff

The party bringing the charge and seeking to collect damages.

Defendant

The party being charged for injuries to health or for economic loss.

Ecology

The scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their physical environment

Ecosystem

A system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment

Full-Cost Pricing

Finding ways to include the harmful environmental and health costs of producing and using goods in their market prices.

Win-Win solutions

work together in dealing with environmental problems by focusing on solutions that will benefit the largest amount of people

Natural Capital

Natural resources and natural services that keep us and other species alive and support our economies.

Inexhaustible resources

an energy source that cannot be used up

Natural services

processes in nature which support life and human economies.

Environmental degradation

The process of living unsustainably by wasting, depleting, and degrading the earth's resources.

Tragedy of the commons

the observation that in the absence of collective control over the use of a resource available to all, it is to the advantage of all users to maximize their separate shares even though their collective pressures may diminish total yield or destroy the resource altogether

Ecological footprint

The amount of biologically productive land and water needed to support a person or population.

70% rule

Used to determine the doubling time of a population

Affluence

wealth, riches, prosperity; great abudance, plenty

Poverty

An insufficiency of material goods, monetary wealth, access to resources.

Planetary management worldview

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.

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

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 itself and integrating such environmental wisdom into the ways we think and act.

Environmentally sustainable society

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.

Scientific theory

a well-tested concept that explains a wide range of observations

Matter

Anything that has mass and takes up space

Element

A pure substance made of only one kind of atom

Compounds

2 or more elements chemically combined

Atoms

Basic unit of matter

Isotopes

Atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons.

Acidity

a measure of the hydrogen ion concentration of a solution

Organic compounds

compounds that contain carbon

Inorganic compounds

Compounds that do not contain carbon

Law of Conservation of Matter

Matter is not created nor destroyed in any chemical or physical change

Energy

Ability to do work

Thermal Energy

Heat energy

Electromagnetic Energy

The energy of light and other forms of radiation.

Renewable energy

A resource that has a theoretically unlimited supply and is not depleted when used by humans.

Is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable (naturally replenished).

Nonrenewable energy

A source of energy that is a finite supply capable of being exhausted.

Fossil Fuels

Coal, oil, natural gas, and other fuels that are ancient remains of plants and animals.

High Quality Energy

easily converted to useful work, organized and concentrated (ex: oil and nuclear)

Low Quality Energy

not easily converted to useful work, disorganized, dispersed (ex: heat).

First Law of Thermodynamics

Energy can be transferred and transformed, but it cannot be created or destroyed.

Second Law of Thermodynamics

when energy is changed from one form to another, some useful energy is always degraded into lower quality energy (usually heat)

System

A group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements or parts that function together as a whole to accomplish a goal.

Input

Something put into a system, such as resources, in order to achieve a result.

Output

The results of the operation of any system.

Positive Feedback Loop

Causes a system to change further in the same direction.

Negative Feedback Loop

A feedback loop that causes a system to change in the opposite direction from which it is moving

Time Delay

actions that produce a benefit today set into motion events that cause problems later on

Synergy

the combined force of two distinct elements that is more powerful then each alone.

Policies

guidelines used in making consistent decisions

Civil Suits

Most environmental lawsuits are civil suits brought to settle disputes or damages between one party and another.

Injunction

A judicial order forcing a person or group to refrain from doing something.

Class Action Suit

A case brought by someone to help him or her and all others who are similarly situated

Negligence

Failure to take reasonable action to prevent harm to someone

Grassroots

group of ordinary people who come together at a local level for a cause

Global public policy networks

Groups that focus on a particular environmental problem by bringing together governments, private sector, international organizations, and NGOs are referred to as

Environmental Security

A concept placing protection of the environment on equal ground with national security

a concept recognizing that environmental threats to global life systems are as dangerous as the threat of armed conflict

altitude

height above sea level

atmosphere

The envelope of gases that surrounds Earth.

atmospheric pressure

the pressure caused by the weight of the atmosphere

biome

A group of ecosystems that share similar climates and typical organisms

deciduous plant

A plant that loses its leaves for winter

density

Mass / Volume

climate

The average annual temperature and amount of precipitation over a long period of time in a given area

cold front

forms when cold air moves under warm air which is less dense and pushes air up (produces thunderstorms heavy rain or snow

coniferous plant

Keep their leaves year round

desert

A dry region that on average receives less than 25 centimeters of precipitation per year.

front

A boundary between two air masses

grasslands

climate regions with too little rainfall to support a forest. grasslands have grasses as the main vegetation

greenhouse gases

gases in the atmosphere that trap energy

greenhouse effect

Natural situation in which heat is retained in Earth's atmosphere by carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and other gases

high pressure air mass

An air mass with greater atmospheric pressure due to air falling back towards the surface of earth resulting in clear skies

low pressure air mass

An air mass with less atmospheric pressure due to air rising in the atmosphere forming clouds and precipitation

heat island

An area in which the air temperature is generally higher than the temperature of surrounding rural areas.

tropical desert

Area just south or north of the equator, hot year-round, few plants, often w/ sand dunes (ex: Sahara, Namib, Atacama

temperate desert

They are often very dry and hot during the day, but during the night, the temperatures drop making it cool. They have slightly higher precipitation rates than tropical deserts do. (Ex. Mojave)

cold deseret

A desert that has snow in the winter instead of just dropping a few degrees.They have minimal plant life, with a few grasses and mosses.

savana

grassy plain in tropical& sub tropical region w/ few trees

arctic tundra

This biome supports a low number of plant species, receives little rain, and plants have shallow root zones due to permafrost and wet soil.

prairie

A temperate grassland characterized by a great variety of grasses

tropical rain forest

Biome near the equator with warm temperatures, wet weather, and lush plant growth

temperate deciduous forest

forest biome that grows in temperate regions where winter and summer climates have variation than those in temperate rain forests; winter temperates are often below freezing, and snow is common; summers are hot and humid; soil is rich in nutrients and supports a large amount of diverse plant growth

northern coniferous forest

A terrestrial biome characterized by long, cold winters and dominated by cone-bearing trees.

troposphere

0-17 km above Earth's surface, site of weather, organisms, contains most atmospheric water vapor. (temperature decreases with increasing altitude, pressure decreases)

stratosphere

2nd layer of atmosphere; extends from 10 to 30 miles up; location of ozone layer; absorbs 95% of Ultraviolet radiation; temperature increases with altitude increase.

trade winds

Prevailing winds that blow Southwest from 30 degrees north latitude to the equator and that blow Northwest from 30 degrees south latitude to the equator

permafrost

Soil that is frozen all year

latitude

Distance north or south of the equator