ESS: Foundations

Includes 1.1 to 1.4

Perspectives

is how a particular situation is viewed and understood by an individual

Argument

a statement(s) made to support a personally held perspective or to counter a different one.

Values

qualities or principles that people fell have worth and importance in life. They may be individuals or held by a group.

Worldviews

are the lenses shared by groups of people through which they perceive, make sense of, and act within their environment.

Environmental Value System

a.k.a EVS model that shows the inputs affecting our perspectives and the outputs resulting from our perspectives.

System

a set of inter-related parts working together to make a functioning whole.

Stable Equilibrium

the condition of a system in which there is a tendency for it to return to the previous equilibrium following disturbance.

Unstable Equilibrium

the condition of a system in which there is a tendency for it to return to a new equilibrium following disturbance

Steady-State Equilibrium

the condition of an open system in which flows are occurring, but the inputs are constantly balanced with outputs.

Feedback Loop

is when information starts a reaction that may input more information which may start another reaction.

Negative Feedback Loops

occur when the output of a process inhibits or reverses the operation of the same process in such a way as to reduce change. They stabilize the system and counteract the deviation.

Positive Feedback Loops

occur when a disturbance leads to an amplification of that disturbance which destabilizes the system and drives it away from it’s equilibrium towards a tipping point.

Tipping Point

the minimum change in a system that destabilizes it and shifts the regime to a new equilibrium or stable state. There are significant changes to its biodiversity and the services it provides.

Albedo

a measure of how much a surface reflects. The more reflective, the higher the albedo. it is measured from 0 to 1 or as a percentage

Keystone Species

species which have a large influence on an ecosystem relative to their population size.

• Glue of the ecosystem; their loss alters ecosystem greatly

• Without them ecosystem may exist in a very different form or be nonexistent

• Ex: sea stars, elephants, grey wolves

Sustainability

a measure of the extent to which human activities allow for the long-term viability of a system. It is generally used to refer to the responsible maintenance of socio-ecological systems such that there is no diminishment of conditions for future generations.

Natural Income

the yield or harvest from natural resources

Natural Capital

the stock of natural resource on Earth. Includes rocks, soil, water, air, and all living things. It also includes the services that support life such as photosynthesis and the water cycle.

Environmental Sustainability

the use and management of natural resources that allows replacement of the resources, and the recovery and regeneration of ecosystems.

Social Sustainability

focuses on creating the structure and systems that support human well-being, including health, education, equity, community, and culture such as belief systems and language.

Economic Sustainability

focuses on creating the economic structures and systems to support production and consumption of goods and services that will support human needs into the future.

Renewable Natural Capital

can be generated or replace as it is used. This includes life, ecosystems, and non-living systems (i.e. ozone layer or groundwater).

Non-Renewable Natural Capital

irreplaceable or can only be replaced over geological timescales (e.g. fossil fuels, soil, water, in aquifers and minerals.)

Environmental Justice

the right of all people regardless of race, gender, socio-economic status, or national origin to:

• live in a pollution-free environment free from hazardous waste

• have equitable to natural resources

• have fair treatment through laws and regulation.

Ecological Footprint

a.k.a EF. the area of land and water required to sustainably provide all the resources required at the rate of consumption and to assimilate all wastes at the rate of production by a given population.

Carrying Capacity

the maximum number of individuals of a species that the environment can sustainably support.

Biocapacity

the capacity of a biologically productive area to generate a supply of renewable resources and to absorb its waste.

Regenerative Design

idea whereby goods and services support self-renewing or self-replenishing systems. This means that little or no inputs are needed to maintain a process or system; materials and energy that go into it are reintroduced. A close relationship to the location of extraction, production, usage, and disposal of a process or product at the end of its useful life is fundamental.

Distributive Design

about designing our activities so they share the value from the start, instead of redistributing it afterwards. This value could be money, but also land, companies, and the ability to create money. Distributive economics is an economic paradigm which promotes the equitable distribution of wealth through a combination of open design, flexible fabrication, and open business models, towards replicability.

Questionnaire

a series of questions with a limited set of responses designed to obtain information about a particular topic.

Sampling

a statistical techniques that allows you to obtain representative data from a small portion of the whole population.