Environmental Science - Intro. Flashcards
Abiotic
All non-living matter
An _ is the sum of our surroundings
Environment
Environmental Science
Fact
Environmental Studies/Systems
Opinion
Environmental Science is an _ field
Interdisciplinary
Natural Resources
Things that are essential for human survival and growth
Renewable Resources
Resources that can be replenished or are always present (ex: sunlight, timber, water)
Nonrenewable Resources
Resources that either cannot be replenished or take a very long time to renew (ex: oil, coal, minerals)
Tragedy of the Commons
Unregulated use of resources leads to resource depletion
Some civilizations have fallen due to environmental decline:
Easter Island, Greenland Norse, Anasazi of North America, Mayan, Modern Russia(?)
Environmental Disasters
Subjective based upon societal views/opinions
DDT (pesticide)
MSMA (kills grass)
Toxic dumping
Not natural disasters (ex: hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.)
Science is used to…
Sort fact from fiction; it is a systematic process of checks and balances that uses a wide body of knowledge to explain the world around us
Manipulative Experiments
Experiments performed in lab settings
Yields the most results, but aren’t always indicative of what happens in the real world
Natural Experiments
Experiments performed in the field
Great design for what happens in nature, but results are not always very pretty
The great barrier to science is _
The assumption of knowledge
Paradigm shift
When theories change in the predominant view with enough time and data
Major Paradigm Shifts
Agricultural Revolution (began about 10,000 years ago - people stopped hunting and gathering and started moving to an agricultural way of life; crops, domesticated animals, and villages started during this period)
Industrial Revolution
(Began in mid-1700s - people started moving away from the traditional agricultural way of life and moved to urban areas; mass production, fossil fuels, and cities, were born from this era)
Biotic
All living matter
With enough applications, a hypothesis can become a _
Theory
Theory
A widely accepted explanation (can change)
Population vs. Resource Depletion
Humans are the biggest stewards and problem to the environment; we now have a higher rate of resource consumption than we do population growth, and our population growth is out of control; currently, 200,000 people are added to this world daily
Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)
British economist who wrote a paper stating that unless population growth is controlled with laws, people will outgrow food supply until starvation, war, and famine returns it to balance
Paul Ehrlich (1932-)
American biologist whose 1968 book The Population Bomb predicted that the world’s population explosion would lead to disaster by the end of the 20th century
Ecological Footprint
The impact a person or population makes on the environment; takes into consideration the amount of productive land it takes to support your resource addiction; can by country-based as well
