Chapter 1: Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

Vocabulary flashcards covering core sustainability principles, resource categories, economic metrics, ecological footprints, pollution types, IPAT equation, worldviews, and case studies from Chapter 1.

Environment

Everything around us; everything that isn't me.

Environmental Science

An interdisciplinary science connecting information and ideas from natural sciences (ecology, biology, geology, chemistry), social sciences (geography, politics, economics), and humanities (ethics, philosophy) to learn how to deal with environmental problems.

Reliance on Solar Energy

A principle of sustainability based on the sun providing warmth and fueling photosynthesis.

Biodiversity

The astounding variety and adaptability of natural systems and species.

Chemical Cycling (Nutrient Cycling)

The circulation of chemicals from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment.

Natural Capital

Supported by solar capital, it consists of natural resources and natural services provided by the earth.

Natural Resources

Useful materials and energy in nature, which may be directly available (e.g., sunlight) or not directly available (e.g., petroleum).

Natural Services

Important natural processes provided by the earth, such as the renewal of air, water, and soil.

Resource

Anything we obtain from the environment to meet our needs.

Perpetual Resource

A resource with a continuous supply, such as solar energy.

Renewable Resource

A resource that takes several days to several hundred years to renew naturally, such as forests, grasslands, fresh air, and fertile soil.

Sustainable Yield

The highest rate at which we can use a renewable resource without reducing its available supply.

Nonrenewable Resource

Resources that exist in a fixed quantity in the earth's crust, including energy resources (fossil fuels like oil, coal, natural gas), metallic mineral resources (iron, copper, aluminum), and nonmetallic mineral resources (salt, sand, clay, phosphates).

Reduce

The standard priority for resource efficiency that involves decreasing overall consumption and waste generation.

Reuse

Using items multiple times in their original form to promote resource efficiency.

Recycle

Processing used materials into new products.

Economic Growth

An increase in the 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

A metric that measures economic development per person.

Economic Development

Using economic growth to raise living standards.

More-Developed Countries (MDC)

High-income nations including North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and most of Europe.

Less-Developed Countries (LDC)

Low- and middle-income nations including most countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Ecological Footprint

The amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply a region with renewable resources and to absorb and recycle the resulting waste and pollution.

Per Capita Ecological Footprint

Average ecological footprint per person in a given population.

Environmental Degradation (Natural Capital Degradation)

Wasting, depleting, and degrading the earth’s natural capital at an accelerating rate.

Point Sources

Single, identifiable locations of pollution, such as a smokestack or drainpipe.

Nonpoint Sources

Dispersed and difficult-to-identify sources of pollution, such as pesticides blown into the air or agricultural runoff.

Biodegradable Pollutants

Types of pollutants that break down naturally over time.

Nondegradable Pollutants

Types of pollutants that cannot be broken down by natural processes.

Pollution Cleanup (Output Control)

Cleaning up or diluting pollutants after they have been produced.

Pollution Prevention (Input Control)

Reduces or eliminates the production of pollutants at the source.

Tragedy of the Commons

The degradation of common property and open-access renewable resources because user consumption outpaces natural capacity due to the mindset 'If I don't use it, someone else will.'

IPAT Environmental Impact Model

A mathematical model where environmental impact ($I$) is calculated as population ($P$) times affluence ($A$) times technology ($T$), represented as $I = P \times A \times T$.

Ecological Tipping Point

An often irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system caused by stress.

Environmental Ethics

What is right and wrong with how we treat the environment.

Planetary Management Worldview

The worldview stating that humans are separate from and in charge of nature, and that nature exists primarily to meet human needs and wants.

Stewardship Worldview

The worldview stating that humans should manage the earth for their benefit, but have an ethical responsibility to be caring stewards.

Environmental Wisdom Worldview

The worldview stating that humans are part of and dependent on nature, nature exists for all species, and humans must engage in sustainable use.

Environmentally Sustainable Society

A society that meets the current needs of its people without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their basic needs.

Chattanooga, Tennessee

An environmental success story that was named the most polluted city in the U.S. in $1960$, launched Vision $2000$ in $1984$, and met most of its sustainability goals by $1995$ through building social capital.