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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 |
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renewable resources |
those that are replenished more quickly over time than they are being consumed |
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nonrenewable resources |
those that a limited supply or are consumed more quickly than they are produced |
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sustainability |
Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs |
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Triple Bottom Line |
the merging of success in the benefits to the ecosystem, economy, and community |
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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 |
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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 |
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Mixture |
a physical combination of two or more pure substances present in variable amounts |
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Percent |
means parts per hundred |
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respiration |
the foods we eat are metabolized to produce carbon dioxide and water |
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parts per million (ppm) |
one ppm is a unit of concentration 10,000 times smaller than 1% |
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Carbon Monoxide |
CO no color, taste, or smell interferes with the ability to carry oxygen from cars and charcoal grills |
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Ozone |
O3 sharp odor detected around electric motors or welding equipment mottles leaves of plants and yellows pine needles |
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Sulfur Dioxide |
SO2 sharp, unpleasant odor dissolves in lung tissue to form an acid primarily comes from burning coal |
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NO2 |
characteristic brown color can combine with lung tissue to form an acid |
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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 |
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Risk Assessment |
the process of evaluating scientific data and making predictions in an organized matter about the probabilities of an outcome |
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toxicity |
the intrinsic health hazard of a substance |
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exposure |
the amount of the substance encountered |
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ambient air |
the air surrounding us usually the air outside |
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parts per billion (ppb) |
one part out of one billion 1000 times less concentrated than one part per million |
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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 |
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element |
one of the 100 or so pure substances in our world from which compounds are formed |
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Compound |
a pure substance made up of two or more different elements in a fixed, characteristic chemical combination |
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metals |
elements that are shiny and conduct electricity and heat well |
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nonmetals |
elements that do not conduct heat or electricity well and have no one characteristic appearance |
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metalloids |
elements that lie between metals and nonmetals on the periodic table |
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groups |
the vertical columns that elements fall into They organized elements according to important properties tha they have in common |
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halogen |
one of the reactive nonmetals in Group 7A, such as flourine, chlorine, bromine, or iodine |
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noble gas |
one of the inert elements in Group 8A that undergoes few, if any, chemical reactions |
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nanotechnology |
the creation of materials at the atomic and molecular scale |
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molecule |
two or more atoms held together by chemical bonds in a certain spatial arrangement |
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chemical formula |
a symbolic way to represent the elementary composition of a substance |
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diatomic molecule |
a molecule that consists of two atoms |
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mono- |
one |
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di- or bi- |
two |
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tri- |
three |
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tetra- |
four |
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penta- |
five |
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hexa- |
6 |
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hepta- |
7 |
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octa- |
8 |
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nona- |
9 |
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deca- |
10 |
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hydrocarbons |
compounds made up only of the elements carbon and hydrogen |
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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 |
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chemical reaction |
a process whereby substances described as reactants are transformed into different substances called products |
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Chemical Equation |
a representation of a chemical reaction using chemical formulas |
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Law of conservation of matter and mass |
the mass of the reactants consumed equals the mass of the products formed in a chemical reaction |
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Aerosols |
liquid and solid particles that remain suspended in the air rather than settling out |
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Catalyst |
chemical substance that participates in a chemical reaction and influences its rate without itself undergoing permanent change |
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volatile |
a substance that readily passes into the vapor phase |
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organic compound |
always contains carbon, almost always contains hydrogen and may contain other elements such as oxygen and nitrogen |
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volatile organic compounds |
carbon-containing compounds that pass easily into the vapor phase |
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Secondary pollutant |
produced from chemical reactions involving one or more other pollutants |
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tragedy of the commons |
when a resource is common to all and sued by many, but has no one in particualr responsible for it |
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carcinogenic |
capable of causing cancer |
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coalescents |
chemicals added to soften the latex particles in paint so that these particles spread to form a continuous film of uniform thickness |
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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 |
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ozone layer |
the designated region int he stratosphere of maximum ozone concentration |
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atomic number |
the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom |
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mass number |
the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom |
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resonance forms |
Lewis structures that represent hypothetical extremes of electron arrangements in a molecule |
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wavelength |
the distance between successive peaks |
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frequency |
the number of waves that pass a fixed point in 1 second |
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radiant energy |
the entire collection of different wavelengths, each with its own energy |
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UV |
region that lies adjacent to the violet end of the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum |
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quantized |
an energy distribution that is not really continuous but rather consists of many individual steps |
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photons |
invidual bundles of energy |
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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 |
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free radical |
a highly reactive chemical species with one or more unpaired electrons |
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chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) |
compounds composed of chlorine, flourine, and carbon |
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Halons |
inert, nontoxic compounds that contain chlorine or fluorine |
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polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) |
thin clouds composed of tiny ice crystals formed from the small amount of water vapor present in the stratosphere |
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effective stratospheric chlorine |
a measurement reflecting both chlorine and bromine containing gases in the stratosphere |
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greenhouse effect |
the natural process by which atmospheric gases trap a major portion of the infrared radiation radiated by the earth |
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greenhouse gases |
those gases capable of absorbing and emitting infrared radiation, thereby warming the atmosphere |
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enhanced greenhouse effect |
the process in which atmospheric gases trap and return more than 80% of the heat energy radiated by the earth |
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global warming |
the increase in average global temperatures |
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anthropogenic influences |
stem from human activities such as industry, transportation, mining, and agriculture |
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fossil fuels |
combustible substances, of which coal, petroleum, and natural gas are the most common |
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atomic mass |
the same number of atoms that are found in exactly 12 g of carbon-12 |
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mole |
containing an avogadro's number of objects |
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molar mass |
the mass of avogadro's number, or one mol, of whatever particles are specified |
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global atmospheric lifetime |
the time required for a gas added to the atmosphere to be removed |
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global warming potential (GWP) |
a number that represents the relative contribution of a molecule of the atmospheric gas to global warming |
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anaerobic bacteria |
those that can function without the use of molecular oxygen |
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albedo |
a measure of the reflectivity of a surface |
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carbon footprint |
an estimate of the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions in a given time frame, usually a year |