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36 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Environment
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everything around us
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Environmental science
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study of how humans interact w/ the environment of living/nonliving things
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Ecology (sub-filed of environmental science)
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studies how organisms (living things) interact
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Species
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a group of organisms w/ distinctive traits
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Ecosystem
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a set of organisms interacting w/ each other and their environment w/I a defined area
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Environmentalism
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a social movement dedicated to protecting life
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Sustainability
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The ability of earth’s various natural systems and human cultural systems and economies to survive and adapt to changing environment
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Natural capital
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natural resources
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Natural services
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functions of nature which support life
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Nutrient cycling
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circulation of chemicals necessary for life from the environment
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Solar capital
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energy from the sun
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Environmentally sustainable society
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meets the current/future basic resource needs of its people
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Natural income
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renewable sources
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Economic development
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uses economic growth to improve living standards
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Developed counties
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us, Canada, japan, Australia, New Zealand, and most countries of Europe
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Developing countries
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Africa, Asia, Latin America
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Environmentally sustainable economic development
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using political and economic systems to discourage environmentally harmful and unsustainable forms of economic growth that degrade natural capital
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Resource
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anything obtained from the environment to meet our needs and wants
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Conservation
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the management of natural resources w/ the goal of minimizing resource waste
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Perpetual resource
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(sun) because it is renewed continuously and expected to last at least 6 billion years
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Renewable resource
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can be replaced fairly quickly through natural process as long as it is not used faster than renewed (ie: grasslands, freshwater, air, soil, etc)
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Sustainable yield
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the highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used indefinitely w/o reducing its available supply
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Environmental degradation
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when we exceed the sustainable yield
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Nonrenewable resources
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exist in a fix quantity, or stock, in the earth's crust
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Reuse
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using a resource over and over in some form (glass bottles can be collected and washed)
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Recycling
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collecting waste materials and processing them into new materials (cans can be crushed and melted to make new ones)
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Ecological deficit
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country's footprint is larger than its biological capacity
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Per capita ecological footprint
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is an estimate of how much of the earth's renewable resources a person uses
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Culture
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the whole of a society's knowledge, beliefs, tech, and practices, and human cultural changes has profound effects on the earth
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Pollution
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anything in the environment that is harmful to the health, survival, or activities of humans and other organisms
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Pollution clean up or output pollution control
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cleaning up or diluting pollutants after they have been produced
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Pollution prevention or input pollution control
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reduces or eliminates the production of pollutants
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Planetary management
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we are separate from nature, nature exists mainly to meet our needs and increasing wants; use earth's resources for our advantages
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stewardship
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we can and should manage the earth for our benefit, but that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers; encourage environmentally beneficial forms of economic growth and development and discourage environmentally harmful forms
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Environmental wisdom
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we are part of and totally dependent on nature; nature exists for all species not just for us; our success depends on learning how life on earth sustains itself and integrating such environmental wisdom into the ways we think and act
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Scientific principles of sustainability
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using them can help bring about an environmental or sustainability revelation during your lifetime
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