Theme One

Front 1

Sustainability

Back 1

A strategy by which communities seek economic development approaches that also benefit the local environment and quality of life.

Front 2

Carrying capacity

Back 2

The maximum number of individuals an environment can support without degradation.

Front 3

GDP

Back 3

A country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of the total flow of goods and services produced over a specified time period

Front 4

GNP

Back 4

the nominal value of all goods and services produced by the residents of an economy in a given year, regardless of their location.

Front 5

Direct Cost

Back 5

Those costs borne by the producer and passed directly on to the user or purchaser. Example: cost of materials

Hint 5

Example: cost of materials

Front 6

Indirect Cost

Back 6

Manufacturing cost that cannot be easily seen in the product. Example: cost of electricity

Hint 6

Example: cost of electricity

Front 7

Externality

Back 7

A Consequence of an economic activity that is experienced by unrelated third parties. An externality can be either positive or negative. Example: deforestation

Hint 7

Example: deforestation

Front 8

Full cost pricing

Back 8

An attempt to include all types of costs (including externalities) in the pricing of an item

Front 9

Moral Justification

Back 9

The belief where various aspects of the environment have a right to exist and that it is our obligation to allow them to continue or help them persist.

Hint 9

*A way to present an argument about the preservation of the environment

Front 10

Utilitarian Justification

Back 10

Seeing an aspect of the environment as valuable because it benefits inviduals economically or is necessary to human survival.

Hint 10

*A way to present an argument about the preservation of the environment and its resources.

Front 11

Ecological justification

Back 11

Where an ecosystem is necessary for the survival of some species of interest, or that the system provides beneficial needs.

Hint 11

*A way to present an argument about the preservation of the environment's resources.

Front 12

Marginal Cost

Back 12

The cost to reduce one additional unit of a type of degradation in environmental economics. For example, pollution.

Front 13

Scientific theory

Back 13

A grand scheme that relates and explains many observations and is supported by a great deal of evidence, in contrast to a guess, a hyposthesis, a prediction, a notion, or a belief

Front 14

Fact

Back 14

Something that is known based on actual experience and observation

Front 15

Pseudoscience

Back 15

Ideas that are claimed to have scientific validity, but are inherently untestable and/or lack empirical support and/or were arrived at through faulty reassinging of poor scientific methodology

Front 16

Aesthetic justification

Back 16

The argument for the conservation of nature on the grounds that nature is beautiful and that beauty is important and valuable to people

Front 17

Natural Resources

Back 17

resources provided by nature that can be divided into increasingly smaller units
ex) oil

Front 18

environmental resources

Back 18

resources provided by nature that are indivisible
ex) air

Front 19

renewable resource

Back 19

a resource that is naturally recycled or recycled by artificial processes within a time framework useful for people
ex) wood, water, air

Front 20

nonrenewable resource

Back 20

a resource that is cycled so slowly by natural Earth processes that once used, it is essentially not going o be made available within a useful time framework
ex) oil

Front 21

Per Capita

Back 21

The economic demand per person

Front 22

Dependent Variable

Back 22

this variable changes due to the independent variable changing. this is the outcome of the other changing variables.

Front 23

independent variable

Back 23

this is the variable that is changed throughout the experiment. it is usually the only one that is not kept constant throughout the experiment.this variable changes the dependent variable due to itself changing.

Front 24

observations

Back 24

an object or idea that one observes using all five senses.

Front 25

economics

Back 25

study of the allocation of scarce resources

Front 26

environmental economics

Back 26

application of principles of economics to how environmental and natural resources are developed and managed

Front 27

commons

Back 27

land or other resources owned publicly with public access for private uses

Front 28

mitigation cost

Back 28

what it would cost to protect, move, or restore a natural resource

Front 29

discount rate

Back 29

An interest rate used to convert future payments or receipts into present value. The discount rate may or may not be the same as the internal rate of return (IRR) or yield rate depending on how it is extracted from the market and used in the analysis.

Front 30

Equilibrium price

Back 30

the price at which the quantity of a product offered is equal to the quantity of the product in demand.

Front 31

Supply and demand

Back 31

The economic theory of market value where price is determined by the interaction of sellers and buyers to reach an equilibrium price which both are willing to accept.

Front 32

model

Back 32

A model in macroeconomics is a logical, mathematical, and/or computational framework designed to describe the operation of a national or regional economy, and especially the dynamics of aggregate quantities such as the total amount of goods and services produced, total income earned, the level of employment of productive resources, and the level of prices.

Front 33

Developed Nations

Back 33

Nations with developed economies (high income per capita and high Human Development Index, which is an index combining normalized measures of life expectancy, literacy, educational attainment, and GDP per capita). Ex. US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and many nations in Europe

Front 34

Moderately Developed Nations

Back 34

Nations with moderately developed economies and mid-range Human Development Indexes, which are indexes combining normalized measures of life expectancy, literacy, educational attainment, and GDP per capita. Ex. Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey

Front 35

Developing Nations

Back 35

Nations with undeveloped industrial bases and low inconsistent Human Development Indexes, which are indexes combining normalized measures of life expectancy, literacy, educational attainment, and GDP per capita. Countries like Afghanistan, Colombia, and Nigeria are all examples of developing nations.

Front 36

hypothesis

Back 36

a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation

Front 37

controlled experiment

Back 37

designed to test the effects of independent variables on a dependent variable by changing only one independent variable at a time. For each variable tested, there are two setups : an experimental and a control that are identical except for the independent variable being tested. Therefore, the differences in the outcome is attributed to the independent variable

Front 38

Inductive reasoning

Back 38

Drawing a general conclusion from a limited set of specific observations.

Front 39

Scientific Method

Back 39

A set of systematic methods by which scientists investigate natural phenomena, including gathering data, formulating and testing hypotheses, and developing scientific theories and laws.

Front 40

Experimental Error

Back 40

There are two kinds of experimental errors: random and systematic. Random errors are those due to chance events. However, a systematic error is something like a miscalibration of an instrument. Human errors can be either random or systematic.

Front 41

Observation

Back 41

An act or instance of viewing or noting a fact or occurrence for some scientific or other special purpose

Front 42

Precision

Back 42

Mechanical or scientific exactness, OR, the degree to which the correctness of a quantity is expressed.

Front 43

Accuracy

Back 43

The extent to which a given measurement agrees with the standard value for that measurement.

Front 44

Control Group

Back 44

In a test or trial, a group that does not receive the new treatment being studied and which is compared to the group that does receive the new treatment

Front 45

Capitalist economy

Back 45

economic system where production is controlled by private person and pricing is controlled by free market

Front 46

Cultural Justification

Back 46

justification for preserving a certain species or ecosystem based on cultural beliefs

Front 47

Tragedy of the Commons

Back 47

an article written by Garrett Hardin, describes the destruction of the environment through the combined actions of multiple independent individuals

Front 48

Garrett Hardin

Back 48

the author of the Tragedy of the Commons

Front 49

Easter Island

Back 49

An island in the South Pacific with one of the most extreme cases of forest destruction in the world. The native islanders, who relied very heavily on the trees, cut down the trees faster than they could reproduce. Without wood to make canoes for the islanders to hunt porpoises (one of their main food sources) and fish, many islanders died. Their population went from 15,000 to 2,000 in an estimated 100-200 years.

Front 50

Scientific Model

Back 50

Scientific modelling is the process of generating abstract, conceptual, graphical and or mathematical models to assist in the comprehension and illustration of a scientific theory, law, or idea.

Front 51

Experimental group

Back 51

The part of the experiment that is being acted upon by an indepentent variable.

Front 52

Control

Back 52

The part of the experiment that is not acted upon by an independant variable is known as the control. It is used to compare with the experimental group, so conclusions can be drawn and the actual effects of the independant variable determined.

Front 53

Cultural justification

Back 53

A justification that follows the local culture and how something is done in that one place.

Front 54

Natural capital

Back 54

The money earned from manufactured goods that concern natural and environmental goods.

Front 55

Pure free-market economy

Back 55

An economic system that has a direct relation between buyers and sellers, without any influence by the government or a third party.

Front 56

Precautionary principle

Back 56

The principle to act before, to prevent, a harm to the environment, even without scientific proof of a known harm.

Front 57

qualitative data

Back 57

Data that describes the quality of something. Data that basically describes things with words instead of numbers.

Front 58

Ecological Justification

Back 58

that an ecosystem is necessary for the survival of some species of interest to us, or that the system itself provides some benefit

Front 59

Aesthetic Justification

Back 59

a type of justification that is based on the idea that nature is beautiful--therefore, we want to keep nature healthy to continue looking that way

Front 60

Natural Resource

Back 60

something that is taken from nature, but can be divided into continually smaller and smaller units

Front 61

Supply and Demand Model

Back 61

a model that demonstrates the ways in which supply and demand determine the price of products

Front 62

indirect cost

Back 62

an effect not normally accounted for in the cost-revenue analysis of producers and often not recognized by them as part of their costs and benefits

Front 63

moral justification

Back 63

the belief that various aspects of the environment have a right to exist and that it is our obligation to allow them to continue or help them persist

Front 64

carrying capacity

Back 64

the maximum number of individuals of a species that can be sustained by an environment without decreasing the capacity of the environment to sustain that same amount in the future.

Front 65

utilitarian justification

Back 65

some aspect of the environment is valuable because it benefits individuals economically or is directly necessary to human survival

Front 66

Natural resources

Back 66

Natural resources are naturally occurring substances that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified (natural) form.

Front 67

Precision

Back 67

the state or quality of being precise.

Front 68

Renewable resources

Back 68

A natural resource qualifies as a renewable resource if it is replenished by natural processes at a rate comparable or faster than its rate of consumption by humans or other users.

Front 69

Pseudoscience

Back 69

any of various methods, theories, or systems, as astrology, psychokinesis, or clairvoyance, considered as having no scientific basis.