MEH SCI Flashcards
This is pretty meh (50 cards)
What approach is needed to study the impacts we have left on the Earth
A interdisciplinary approach
Environmental science
the study of the impacts
of human activities on environmental systems
environment
the sum total of all the conditions
and living and nonliving factors that surround an
organism
scientific
method
observations, hypothesis testing,
field and laboratory research, and other practices,
system
a set of living and/or nonliving components
connected in such a way that changes in one part of
the system affect other parts
environmental indicator
a measure that reflects
the environmental health of a system
Is there a single measure that is an indicator for the planet
there is no single indicator that effectively assesses
the whole planet
environmental indicators focused on in section 1
Biological diversity, Human population growth, Food Production, Resource consumption, Global temperature and atmospheric
greenhouse gas levels, Pollution levels
biological diversity
diversity of genes, species, habitats, and ecosystems on Earth
species
group of organisms that is distinct from other groups in morphology (body type), physiology, or biochemical properties.
How many known species are there
approximately 1.8 million “known”—that is, identified and catalogued—species on Earth today.
Actul number of species
highly debated, it is thought to be 10 times the number of the known species
How many species that
have ever lived on Earth are now extinct.
About 99.9%
What do estimates have been made using “quiet” periods in the geologic record (that is, time periods with no massive environmental or biological upheaval) say the extinction rates are usally
2 mammal extinction per 10,000 every hundred years
What is the current extinction rate
Attempts to estimate species loss by relating it to the area of land that has been altered by human activity suggest that as many as 40,000 species per year may be going extinct.
What is the current extinction like
It is like a mass extinction event
keystone species
Species that if go extinction can cause a chain of extinction
When did the global human population human reach eight billion people (according to the UN)
November 2022
How many infants are born every day
Roughly 378,000 are born every day
How many people die every day
Roughly 148,000 die every die
When did the world population stop undergoing exponential growth
in the 1960s
For how much longer will the Human population increase
for another 50 to 100 years
What is the projection for the population cap
It is somewhere between 8 and 12 billion people in the year 2150
What provides half of the calories for humans
Food grains such as wheat, corn and rice
