Mr pettit vocab

environment

everything around us, including the living and nonliving things with which we interact in a complex web of relationships that connect us to one another and to the world we live in

environmental science

an interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with the environment of living and nonliving things. It integrates information and ideas from the natural sciences, such as biology, chemistry, and geology, the social sciences, such as geography, economics, political science, and demography (the study of populations), and the humanities, including philosophy and ethics  \n \n Goals: learn how nature works, how the environment affects us, how we affect the environment, and how to deal with environmental problems and live more sustainably.

ecology

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the biological science that studies how organisms, or living things, interact with their environment and with each other. Every organism is a member of a certain species: a group of organisms with distinctive traits and, for sexually reproducing organisms, can mate and produce fertile offspring.

Ecosystem

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set of organisms within a defined area or volume that interact with one another and with and their environment of non living matter and energy

3 principles of sustainability

1\. solar energy \n 2. biodiversity \n 3. chemical cycling

Sustainability

the capacity of the earth's natural systems and human cultural systems to survive, flourish, and adapt into the very long-term future

chemical cycling (nutrient cycling)

The circulation of chemicals necessary for life, from the environment (mostly from soil and water) through organisms and back to the environment.. Must be cycled indefinitely, no new supplies.

natural capital

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

natural resources

Materials or energy in nature that are essential or useful to humans

resource

anything that we can obtain from the environment to meet our needs and wants  \n \n Some directly available for use: sunlight ; Some not directly available for use: petroleum

perpetual resource

supply is continuous (solar energy)

renewable resource

Several days to several hundred years to renew  \n \n E.g., forests, grasslands, fresh air, fertile soil

Sustainable Yield

Highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply

nonrenewable resources

in fixed quantity or stock in the earth's crust  \n \n 1.Energy resources  \n \n 2.Metallic mineral resources  \n \n 3.Nonmetallic mineral resources

reuse

using a resource over and over in the same form

recycle

involves collecting waste materials and processing them into new materials

Economic growth

increase in output of a nation's goods and services

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

annual market value of all goods and services produced by all businesses, foreign and domestic, operating within a country

Per capita GDP

one measure of economic development, GDP divided by total population at midyear

economic development

using economic growth to raise living standards

more developed countries

high average income - North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, most of Europe

Less-developed countries

low average income - most countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America

Environmental degradation/natural capital degradation

wasting, depleting, and degrading the earth's natural capital. Occurring at an accelerating rate

pollution

any presence within the environment of a chemical or other agent such as noise or heat at a level that is harmful to the health, survival, or activities of humans or other organisms.

Pollutants/polluting substances

can enter the environment naturally (volcanic eruptions), or through human activities (burning of coal or gasoline, or dumping of chemicals into rivers and oceans).

Point sources

single, identifiable sources. (smokestack, drainpipe of a factor, exhaust pipe of an automobile)

Nonpoint sources

dispersed and often difficult to identify (pesticides blown from the land into the air and the runoff of fertilizers, pesticides, and trash)

Unwanted effects of pollution

1\. disrupt or degrade life-support systems for humans and other species.  \n \n 2. They can damage wildlife, human health, and property.  \n \n 3. They can create nuisances such as noise and unpleasant smells, tastes, and sights

Pollution cleanup (output pollution control)

Involves cleaning up or diluting pollutants after we have produced them.  \n \n Problems:  \n \n Only a temp. bandage as long as population and consumption levels grow without corresponding improvements in pollution control technology.  \n \n Often removes a pollutant from one part of the environment only to cause pollution in another.  \n \n Once pollutants become dispersed into the environment at harmful levels, it usually costs too much to reduce them to acceptable levels.

Pollution prevention (input pollution control)

reduces or eliminates the production of pollutants.

Private property

individuals or companies own the rights to land, minerals, or other resources

Common property

the rights to certain resources are held by large groups of individuals

Open access renewable resources

owned by no one and available for use by anyone at little or no charge (air etc)

Tragedy of the commons

degradation of common property and open access renewable resources bcs of overuse  \n \n Coined by biologist Garret Hardin (1915-2003)  \n \n "If I do not use this resource, someone else will. The little bit that I use or pollute is not enough to matter, and anyway, it's a renewable resource."

ecological footprint

the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to provide the people in a region with indefinite supply of renewable resources, and to absorb and recycle wastes and pollution

I = P x A x T

Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology

Ecological tipping point

an often irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system  \n \n •Long-term climate change  \n \n •Over-fishing  \n \n •Species extinction

4 basic causes of environmental problems

1\.Population growth  \n \n 2.Wasteful and unsustainable resource use  \n \n 3.Poverty  \n \n 4.Failure to include the harmful environmental costs of goods and services in market prices

Effects of Aflluence

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•Harmful environmental impact due to  \n \n •High levels of consumption  \n \n •High levels of pollution  \n \n •Unnecessary waste of resources  \n \n •Affluence can provide funding for developing technologies to reduce  \n \n •Pollution  \n \n •Environmental degradation  \n \n •Resource waste

Poverty effects

Population growth affected  \n \n Malnutrition  \n \n Premature death  \n \n Limited access to adequate sanitation facilities and clean water  \n \n \n 38% 2.6 billion no access to adequate sanitation 

environmental ethics

what is right and wrong with how we treat the environment

Planetary management worldview

We are separate from and in charge of nature

environmental wisdom worldview

we are part of nature and must engage in sustainable use

Stewardship worldview

Manage earth for our benefit with ethical responsibility to be stewards

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.

social capital

cooperative relationships that facilitate the resolution of collective problems

Some facts and stats

5-10% of the population can bring about major social change  \n \n We have only 50-100 years to make the change to sustainability before it's too late

Ways to be more sustainable

1\. We could rely more on renewable energy from the sun, including indirect forms of solar energy such as wind and flowing water, to meet most of our heating and electricity needs.  \n \n 2. We can protect biodiversity by preventing the degradation of the earth's species, ecosystems, and natural processes, and by restoring areas we have degraded.  \n \n \n \n 3.We can help to sustain the earth's natural chemical cycles by reducing our production of wastes and pollution, not overloading natural systems with harmful chemicals, and not removing natural chemicals faster than those chemical cycles can replace them.