EGN 4070 - General Definitions and Concepts

What are demographers?

Social scientists who study human population dynamics.

What is the Human Development Index?

A composite measure of development that combines 8 indicators of income, education, and health to rank countries on a scale of 0 to 1.

What does the income component of the HDI reflect?

The Gross National Income (GNI) per capita measures the average income of individuals in a country and their ability to afford a decent standard of living.

What are the two indicators used to measure education in the HDI?

Mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling.

What metric is used to measure health in the HDI?

Life expectancy at birth.

What factors influence life expectancy?

Access to healthcare, nutrition, sanitation, and environmental quality.

What is sustainable development?

The desire to improve the worldwide standard of living while considering the effects of economic development on natural resources

What are peri-urban areas?

Areas that lie between urban and rural areas and exhibit characteristics of both.

What is Bruntland's definition of sustainability?

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

What is inter-generational equity?

Future generations should have same access to resources.

Define social justice.

Fair distribution of resources, opportunities, and benefits.

What is the Conference on Environment and Development?

The first world environmental congress of the UN to which heads of state were invited participants held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992.

What are Millennium Development Goals?

Eight goals to reduce poverty and improve well-being. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

Achieve universal primary education.

Promote gender equality and empower women.

Reduce child mortality.

Improve maternal health.

Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

Ensure environmental sustainability.

Global partnership for development.

What is appropriate technology?

Technology suitable for social and environmental context.

What are morals?

Principles of right and wrong.

What is ethics?

Study of moral principles and values.

What is categorical imperative?

The idea, proposed by philosopher Immanuel Kant, that an act is either ethical or unethical if, when it is universalized, it makes for a better world.

What is land ethic?

Humans as members of biotic community.

What is biocentric outlook?

Emphasizes intrinsic value of living organisms.

What is deep ecology?

the ethical framework in which humans have no greater importance than any other component of our world

What is environmental ethic?

"recognizing that we are, at least at the present time, unable to explain rationally our attitude towards the environment and that these attitudes are deeply felt, not unlike the feeling of spirituality." "a sense of obligation to future generations of our species"

What is sustainable design?

Designing for present and future generations.

What is carrying capacity?

Maximum population size an ecosystem can support.

What is exponential growth?

rate of change is proportional to the instantaneous value of the variable that it is changing

What is a measure?

Standard unit to quantify a concept.

What is a metric?

A standardized set of measurements or data related to one or more sustainability indicators.

What is an indicator?

A measurement or metric based on verifiable data that can be used to communicate important information to decision makers and the public about processes related to sustainable design or development.

What is a sustainability index?

Composite measure of economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

What is ecological footprint?

A measure of human impact on environment.

What is capacity factor analysis?

Assessment of renewable energy system efficiency.

What is participatory design?

Design approach involving users and stakeholders.

What is community-based design?

Design approach involving local communities.

What is social and environmental accounting?

Accounting system considering social and environmental impact.

What is ISO?

International organization for developing standards.

What is life cycle assessment?

The evaluation of the changes that occur to materials from cradle to grave, the implifications of extraction, processing, and disposal

What is greenwashing?

Making false claims about environmental benefits.

What is Millennium Development Goal Number 1?

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

What is Millennium Development Goal Number 2?

Achieve universal primary education.

What is Millennium Development Goal Number 3?

Promote gender equality and empower women.

What is Millennium Development Goal Number 4?

Reduce child mortality.

What is Millennium Development Goal Number 5?

Improve maternal health.

What is Millennium Development Goal Number 6?

Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

What is Millennium Development Goal Number 7?

Ensure environmental sustainability.

What is Millennium Development Goal Number 8?

Global partnership for development.

What is derived demand?

Demand for a product resulting from demand for another.

What are energy services?

The specific functions that energy provides for people, such as lighting, heating, cooling, refrigeration, and industrial production.

What is the energy ladder?

A model that describes how both the quality and quantity of energy used in a household increase as household income rises.

What is energy intensity?

Energy use per unit of economic activity.

What are social costs?

The negative effects of a condition experienced by society as a whole.

What is energy security?

The ability of a nation to protect itself from the economic, political, and social disruptions due to an interrupted supply of a critical energy resource, the failure of an important energy infrastructure, or rapid and steep changes in energy services.

What are end use sectors?

Sectors of the economy that use energy, ie, residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation

What are infinitely renewable resources?

Resources that derive from the physical workings of the planet and solar system, and are inexhaustible in their supply, such as solar and wind energy.

What is a reserve?

A known deposit of a natural resource.

What is a proven reserve?

The portion of a resource deposit that can be extracted with certainty.

What is methane hydrate?

A potential source of natural gas trapped in ice-like structures.

What is the Hubbert Curve?

A concept used to analyze the rates of growth in demand for a fossil fuel and the rate at which new reserves become available

What is peak oil?

The point when the rate of increase in oil production is zero and can no longer keep up with social demand for oil.

What is direct energy?

Energy used directly in providing an energy service like heating or lighting.

What is embodied energy?

Energy used to produce, transport and use a product.

What is energy return on investment?

Ratio of usable energy from a source to the energy required to extract and process the resource.

What is energy efficiency?

Ratio of useful energy output to energy input.

What is energy curtailment?

Intentional reduction or shifting of energy use.

What is the Carnot Limit?

Theoretical maximum efficiency of a heat engine.

What is energy recovery?

Capturing and using waste heat or other forms of energy (and using it in energy production).

What is waste-to-energy?

Generating energy from waste materials.

What is combined heat and power generation?

The exploitation of usable waste heat to heat and cool buildings or to generate electricity.

What is a topping cycle plant?

A CHP facility that uses waste steam and heat from electric power production to create steam or hot water that is then used for heating and cooling a building.

What is a ground source heat pump?

System using earth temperature to heat and cool buildings.

What is geothermal power?

Electricity generation from heat produced within the earth.

What is bagasse?

Fibrous waste from sugarcane used for energy.

What is the Pickens Plan?

A fuel switching proposal created by T. Pickens that suggested the US invest heavily in wind farms for electric power production, so that natural gas may be shifted to the transportation sector.

What is command and control regulation?

A regulatory approach in which the gov't specifies the exact ways that companies must comply with environmental protection laws.

What is sustainable development?

Improving living standards while considering natural resources.

What are intergenerational ethics?

Moral obligations towards future generations.

What are natural resources?

Substances found in nature with economic value.

What are raw materials?

Basic materials transformed into finished products.

What is abiotic?

Non-living components of the environment.

What is biotic?

Living components of the environment.

What are renewable resources?

Resources that can be replenished through a natural process, roughly in a human lifetime.

What are nonrenewable resources?

Resources that are replenished extremely slowly or not at all.

What is population collapse?

A sudden decline in population.

What is recoverability?

The ability of a resource to be extracted or reused.

What is recyclable?

A material or product that can be processed and reused.

What is fossil water?

Groundwater that has been isolated in an aquifer for thousands or millions of years.

What is natural resource management?

The process of planning, organizing, and implementing strategies to use and conserve natural resources in a sustainable and equitable way, while considering social, economic, and environmental factors.

What are ecosystems?

A dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities and their nonliving environment interacting as a functional unit.

What are ecosystem services?

The benefits that people obtain from ecosystems, such as food, water, air purification, pollination, soil formation, and cultural and recreational values.

What are feedstocks?

The raw materials or inputs used in industrial processes to produce energy, materials, or products, such as biomass, coal, oil, and natural gas.

What is natural capital?

The stock of natural resources, ecosystems, and ecosystem services that provide benefits to human societies and contribute to economic and social development.

What is waste management?

The activities and processes involved in the collection, transportation, treatment, and disposal of waste materials, to minimize their environmental and health impacts and maximize their recoverability and value.

What is waste hierarchy?

A prioritization framework that ranks waste management strategies according to their environmental and economic performance, from the most preferred (source reduction, reuse, recycling) to the least preferred (disposal).

What is source reduction?

The prevention or reduction of waste generation at the source, by changing production processes, product design, or consumer behavior.

What is dematerialization?

The reduction of the material and energy intensity of production and consumption, by using less materials and resources to achieve the same or higher levels of human well-being and economic activity.

What are rare earths?

A group of 17 elements that have unique magnetic, electrical, and catalytic properties, and are used in high-tech applications such as electronics, electric vehicles, and renewable energy systems.

What is remanufacturing?

Restoring used products to original/better condition

What is waste hierarchy 1? (1=most preferred, 5 = least preferred)

Waste reduction or prevention

What is waste hierarchy 2? (1=most preferred, 5 = least preferred)

Reuse

What is waste hierarchy 3? (1=most preferred, 5 = least preferred)

Recycle

What is waste hierarchy 4? (1=most preferred, 5 = least preferred)

Recovery

What is waste hierarchy 5? (1=most preferred, 5 = least preferred)

Disposal