• Shuffle
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Alphabetize
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Front First
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Both Sides
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Read
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
Reading...
Front

Card Range To Study

through

image

Play button

image

Play button

image

Progress

1/89

Click to flip

Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;

Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;

H to show hint;

A reads text to speech;

89 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back

Shifting baselines

The idea that what people expect as "normal" on our planet has changed over time, especially in regard to ecosystems

renewable resources

those that are replenished more quickly over time than they are being consumed

nonrenewable resources

those that a limited supply or are consumed more quickly than they are produced

sustainability

Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

Triple Bottom Line

the merging of success in the benefits to the ecosystem, economy, and community

cradle-to-grave

an approach to analyzing the life cycle of an item, starting with the raw materials from which it came and ending with its ultimate disposal someplace, presumably on earth

cradle-to-cradle

Emerged during the 70s and refers to a regenerative approach to the use of things in which the end of the life cycle of one item dovetails with the beginning of another life cycle, so that everything is reused rather than disposed of as waste

Mixture

a physical combination of two or more pure substances present in variable amounts

Percent

means parts per hundred

respiration

the foods we eat are metabolized to produce carbon dioxide and water

parts per million (ppm)

one ppm is a unit of concentration 10,000 times smaller than 1%

Carbon Monoxide

CO


no color, taste, or smell


interferes with the ability to carry oxygen


from cars and charcoal grills

Ozone

O3


sharp odor


detected around electric motors or welding equipment


mottles leaves of plants and yellows pine needles

Sulfur Dioxide

SO2


sharp, unpleasant odor


dissolves in lung tissue to form an acid


primarily comes from burning coal

NO2

characteristic brown color


can combine with lung tissue to form an acid



Particulate Matter

complex mixture of tiny solid particles


classified by size rather than composition


Tinnier deadlier particles are called fine particles


Can be visible as soot or smoke

Risk Assessment

the process of evaluating scientific data and making predictions in an organized matter about the probabilities of an outcome

toxicity

the intrinsic health hazard of a substance

exposure

the amount of the substance encountered

ambient air

the air surrounding us


usually the air outside

parts per billion (ppb)

one part out of one billion


1000 times less concentrated than one part per million

Green Chemistry

a set of key ideas to guide all in the chemical community, including teachers and students




It calls for designing chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances

element

one of the 100 or so pure substances in our world from which compounds are formed

Compound

a pure substance made up of two or more different elements in a fixed, characteristic chemical combination

metals

elements that are shiny and conduct electricity and heat well

nonmetals

elements that do not conduct heat or electricity well and have no one characteristic appearance

metalloids

elements that lie between metals and nonmetals on the periodic table

groups

the vertical columns that elements fall into


They organized elements according to important properties tha they have in common

halogen

one of the reactive nonmetals in Group 7A, such as flourine, chlorine, bromine, or iodine

noble gas

one of the inert elements in Group 8A that undergoes few, if any, chemical reactions

nanotechnology

the creation of materials at the atomic and molecular scale

molecule

two or more atoms held together by chemical bonds in a certain spatial arrangement

chemical formula

a symbolic way to represent the elementary composition of a substance

diatomic molecule

a molecule that consists of two atoms

mono-

one

di- or bi-

two

tri-

three

tetra-

four

penta-

five

hexa-

6

hepta-

7

octa-

8

nona-

9

deca-

10

hydrocarbons

compounds made up only of the elements carbon and hydrogen

combustion

the chemical process of burning, that is, the rapid reaction of fuel with oxygen to release energy in the form of heat and light

chemical reaction

a process whereby substances described as reactants are transformed into different substances called products

Chemical Equation

a representation of a chemical reaction using chemical formulas

Law of conservation of matter and mass

the mass of the reactants consumed equals the mass of the products formed in a chemical reaction

Aerosols

liquid and solid particles that remain suspended in the air rather than settling out

Catalyst

chemical substance that participates in a chemical reaction and influences its rate without itself undergoing permanent change

volatile

a substance that readily passes into the vapor phase

organic compound

always contains carbon, almost always contains hydrogen and may contain other elements such as oxygen and nitrogen

volatile organic compounds

carbon-containing compounds that pass easily into the vapor phase

Secondary pollutant

produced from chemical reactions involving one or more other pollutants

tragedy of the commons

when a resource is common to all and sued by many, but has no one in particualr responsible for it

carcinogenic

capable of causing cancer

coalescents

chemicals added to soften the latex particles in paint so that these particles spread to form a continuous film of uniform thickness

precautionary principle

stresses the wisdom of acting, even in the absence of complete scientific data, before the adverse effects on human health or the environment become significant

ozone layer

the designated region int he stratosphere of maximum ozone concentration

atomic number

the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom

mass number

the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom

resonance forms

Lewis structures that represent hypothetical extremes of electron arrangements in a molecule

wavelength

the distance between successive peaks

frequency

the number of waves that pass a fixed point in 1 second

radiant energy

the entire collection of different wavelengths, each with its own energy

UV

region that lies adjacent to the violet end of the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum

quantized

an energy distribution that is not really continuous but rather consists of many individual steps

photons

invidual bundles of energy

steady state

a condition in which a dynamic system is in balance so that there is no net change in the concentration of the major species involved

free radical

a highly reactive chemical species with one or more unpaired electrons

chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

compounds composed of chlorine, flourine, and carbon

Halons

inert, nontoxic compounds that contain chlorine or fluorine

polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs)

thin clouds composed of tiny ice crystals formed from the small amount of water vapor present in the stratosphere

effective stratospheric chlorine

a measurement reflecting both chlorine and bromine containing gases in the stratosphere

greenhouse effect

the natural process by which atmospheric gases trap a major portion of the infrared radiation radiated by the earth

greenhouse gases

those gases capable of absorbing and emitting infrared radiation, thereby warming the atmosphere

enhanced greenhouse effect

the process in which atmospheric gases trap and return more than 80% of the heat energy radiated by the earth

global warming

the increase in average global temperatures

anthropogenic influences

stem from human activities such as industry, transportation, mining, and agriculture

fossil fuels

combustible substances, of which coal, petroleum, and natural gas are the most common

atomic mass

the same number of atoms that are found in exactly 12 g of carbon-12

mole

containing an avogadro's number of objects

molar mass

the mass of avogadro's number, or one mol, of whatever particles are specified

global atmospheric lifetime

the time required for a gas added to the atmosphere to be removed

global warming potential (GWP)

a number that represents the relative contribution of a molecule of the atmospheric gas to global warming

anaerobic bacteria

those that can function without the use of molecular oxygen

albedo

a measure of the reflectivity of a surface

carbon footprint

an estimate of the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions in a given time frame, usually a year