Environmental Science Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards related to environmental concepts and readings.

Tragedy of the Commons

A situation where individuals acting independently and rationally will deplete a shared resource, even when it is clear that doing so is not in anyone's long-term interest.

Mutual Coercion Mutually Agreed Upon

Garrett Hardin's concept advocating for necessary restrictions on individual freedoms to protect shared resources.

Green Revolution

A period of agricultural modernization that has prioritized profit rather than food availability and has eroded the traditional agricultural knowledge.

Mixed Cropping (Intercropping/Polyculture)

Growing two or more crops in close proximity usually to produce a greater yield on a piece of land.

White Revolution

Turning milk into a commodity has shifted dairy processing from the household to the factory and deprived rural children of their access to dairy nutrition

Effluent Standards

The Clean Water Act set strict effluent standards and compliance deadlines, forcing entities to follow them or face penalties.

Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL)

The amount of pollutant from all contributing sources that a waterbody can receive and still meet water quality standards.

Anti-Degradation Principle

Water quality criteria intended to protect designated uses while not allowing water quality to be diminished from ambient conditions.

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)

A permitting system requiring dischargers to have a permit in order to pollute, including limitations and requirements.

Puha

Paiutes ascribe sentience to water and imbue it with “puha,” a force or energy that can have positive or negative effects

Water Privatization

The transfer of water services from public to private ownership.

Hydro-hegemony

Control or domination of water resources.

350 ppm

The level that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere must be lowered to 350 ppm in order for Maldives to survive climate change

Regenerative Agriculture

Farming and grazing practices that, among other benefits, reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity.

Technology Forcing Strategy

Set strict effluent standards and compliance deadlines.

Water Quality Criteria

Intended to protect designated uses while not allowing water quality to be diminished from ambient conditions

Water Affordability

Water became unaffordable durign the Cochabamba protest, with price increases up to 400%

Collective Water Rights

Community control vs market-based privatization

Water as a Weapon

Illustrates the wielding of water, through waterboarding, hydroterrolism, hydrohegemony, and water cannons

The End of Nature

Human beings have altered the environment so significantly that no part of it is untouched by human influences.