Environmental Sustainability (Chapter 1)

Question 1

Environment

Answer 1

Everything around us including all living and non-living things with which we interact

Question 2

Environmental Science

Answer 2

Interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with the environment of living and non-living things

Question 3

Ecology

Answer 3

Biological science that studies how organisms interact with their environment and with each other

Question 4

Species

Answer 4

A group of organisms, with distinctive traits, and, for sexually reproducing organisms, can mate and produce fertile offspring

Question 5

Ecosystem

Answer 5

A set of organisms interacting with one another and with their environment of nonliving matter and energy with a defined area or volume

Question 6

Environmentalism

Answer 6

Social movement dedicated to protecting the earth’s life-support systems for us and all other forms of life – practiced more in the political and ethical areans than in the realm of science

Question 7

Sustainability

Answer 7

Ability of the earth’s various natrual systems and human cultural systems and economies to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinately

Question 8

Natural Capital

Answer 8

The natural resources tath keep us and other forms of life alive and support our economies

Question 9

Natural Resources

Answer 9

Materials and energy in nature that are essential or useful to humans

Question 10

Natural Services

Answer 10

Functions of nature, such as purification of air and water, which support life and human economies

Question 11

Nutrient Cycling

Answer 11

A natural service that involves the circulation of chemicals necessary for life from the environment through organisms and back to the environment

Question 12

Solar Capital

Answer 12

Energy from the sun

Question 13

Photosynthesis

Answer 13

Complex chemical process that plants use to provide food for themselves and for humans and most other animals

Question 14

Major Components of Sustainability

Answer 14

Natural capital; Sustainability; Solutions; Trade-offs

Question 15

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Answer 15

Annual market value of all goods and services produced by all firms and organizations, foreign and domestic, operating within a country.

Question 16

Per Capital GDP

Answer 16

GDP divided by the total population at mid-year

Question 17

Per Capita GDP PPP

Answer 17

Per Capita GDP adjusted by the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) which is a mesure of the amount of goods and services that a country’s average citizen could buy

Question 18

Developed Countries

Answer 18

Countries with higher Per Capita GDP PPP and industrialization; includes United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, much of Europe

Question 19

Developing Countries

Answer 19

Not Developed; includes middle-income moderately developed countries like China, India, Brazil, Turkey as well as low-income, least developed countries like Angola, Congo, Belarus, Jordan

Question 20

Resource

Answer 20

Anything obtained from the environment to meet our needs and wants

Question 21

Conservation

Answer 21

Management of natural resources with the goal of minimizing resource waste and sustaining resource supplies for current and future generations

Question 22

Renewable Resource

Answer 22

Resource that can be replenished fairly quickly through natural processes as long as it is not used up faster than it is renewed – fisheries, freshwater, fresh air, fertile soil

Question 23

Sustainable Yield

Answer 23

Highest rate that a renewable resource can be used indefinately without reducing its available supply is called its sustainable yield

Question 24

Environmental Degradation

Answer 24

Process in which the available supply of a resource begins to shrink due to exceeding the replacement rate

Question 25

Tragedy of the Commons

Answer 25

Individuals and groups use common property or open access renwable resources at a rate faster than the sustainable yield.

Question 26

Nonrenewable Resources

Answer 26

Resources that exist in a fixed quantity, or stock, in the earth's crust and cannot be renewed on a human time scale. Examples include coal, oil, copper, aluminum, salt, sand.

Question 27

Reuse

Answer 27

Using a resource over and over again in the same form

Question 28

Recycling

Answer 28

Involves collecting waste materials and processing them into new materials

Question 29

Ecological Footprint

Answer 29

For a particular area, the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply the peoplewith resources and to absorb and recycle wates and pollution produced by resource use

Question 30

Culture

Answer 30

Whole of society's knowledge, beliefs, technology, and practices, and human cultural changes

Question 31

Pollution

Answer 31

Anything the in environment that is harmful to the health, survival, or activities of humans or other organisms

Question 32

Point Sources of Pollutants

Answer 32

Single, identifiable source -- smokestack of a coal-burning plant

Question 33

Biodegradeable Pollutants

Answer 33

Harmful materials that can be broken down by natural processes

Question 34

Nondegradeable Pollutants

Answer 34

Harmful materials that natural processes cannot break down. Examples include lead, mercury, arsenic

Question 35

Side Effects of Pollutants

Answer 35

Disrupt or degrade life support systems for humans and other species; damange wildlife, human health, and property; create nuisances such as noise or smells

Question 36

Poverty

Answer 36

Condition whereby people are unable to meet their basic needs for adequate food, water, shelter, health, and education

Question 37

Environmental Worldview

Answer 37

Set of assumptions and values reflecting how you think the world works and what you think your role in the world should be; includes environmental ethics

Question 38

Planetary Management Worldview

Answer 38

Worldview that holds: we are separate from nature; nature exists mainly to meet our needs and increasing wants; we can use ingenuity and technology to manage the earth's life-support systems

Question 39

Stewardship Worldview

Answer 39

Worldview that holds we should manage the earth for our benefit but that we have a ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers, or stewards

Question 40

Environmental Wisdom Worldview

Answer 40

Worldview that holds we are part of and wholly dependent on nature and that nature exists for all species, not just for humans

Question 41

Scientific Principles of Sustainability

Answer 41

Reliance on Solar Energy; Biodiversity; Population Control; Nutrient Cycling