Enviormental science chapter 1

Environment consists of..
All living things and nonliving things around us. It also encompasses out built enviorment, and in its broadest sense it also includes our social relationships and institutions that shape our daily lives.
Natural resources
The various substances and energy sources we take from our environment that we need to survive.
renewable natural resources
Resources that are renewed by the environment in a short period of time
inexhaustible resources are..
sunlight, wind, and wave energy.
Renewable resources renewed over time are..
water, soil, timber,
nonrenewable natural resources
resources that are in limited supply and are formed much slower then we use them. (oil)
ecosystems services
an essential service that am ecosystem provides that supports life and makes economic activity possible. (pollen nation, purify air and water, recycling systems for waster)
environmental science
a study of how the natural world works,how the environment affects us and how we affect the environment. (random facts: ES is an interdisciplinary field -on the borrows techniques from multiple disciplines-. ES encompasses both natural sciences- examining the natural world, and social sciences- examining human interactions with the world.)
agricultural revolution
the shift around 10,00 years ago from a hunter-gather lifestyle to an agricultural way of life in which people began to grow their own crops and raise domestic animals.
Industrial revolution
the shift in the mid 1700s from rural life, animal powered agriculture and manufacturing by craftsman to an urban society powered by fossil fuels such as coal and crude oil.
fossil fuel
a nonrenewable natural resource such as crude oil, natural gas, or coal, produced by the decomposition and compression of organic matter from ancient life.
ecological footprint
the cumulative amount of land and water required to provide the raw materials a person or population consumes and to dispose of or recycle the waster that is produced. (the concept developed in the 1900s by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees. who calculate that our ecological foot print now surpasses the earth’s productivity by 30%
the amount by which the earth has surpassed the Earth’s long-term carrying capacity for our species.
Differences between environmental science and environmentalism
Enviormentalism: A soical movement dedicated to protecting the natural world and people from undesirable changes brought on by human actions.

Environmental science: The pursuit of knowledge about the workings of the environment and our interactions with it.

scientific method
a formalized method for testing ideas with observations that involve several assumptions and more or less consistent series of interrelated steps.
independent variable
the variable that the scientist manipulates in an manipulative experiment.
dependent variable
the variable that is affected by manipulation of the independent variable
controlled experiment
an experiment in which the effects of all variables are held constant except the one whose effect is being tested by comparison of treatment and control conditions.
Control(in an experiment)
the portion of an experiment in which a variable has been left un-manipulated, to serve as a point of comparison.
Treatment (in an experiment)
The portion of an experiment in which a variable has been manipulated in order to test its effect.
manipulative experiment
an experiment in which the researcher actively chooses and manipulates the independent variable.
Natural experiment
an experiment in which the researcher cannot directly manipulate the variables and therefore must observe nature, comparing conditions in which variables differ, and interpret the results.
peer review
the process by which a manuscript submitted for publication in an academic journal is examined by other specialist in the field, who provide comments, criticism and judge whether the work merits publication in the journal.
a dominant philosophical and theoretical framework within a scientific discipline.
a guiding principle of environmental science that requires us to live in such a way as to maintain earth’s systems and its natural resources for the foreseeable future.
natural capital
Earth’s accumulated wealth of resources.
The variety of life across all levels of biological organization, including diversity of species, their genes, their populations, and their communities.
Millennium Ecosystem assessment
The most comprehensive scientific assessment of the present condition of the worlds ecological systems and their ability to continue supporting our civilization. Prepared by over 2000 of the worlds leading environmental scientists from nearly 100 nations and completed in 2005.
A worldveiw that we will find ways to makes earth’s natural resources meet all our needs indefinitely and that human ingenuity will see us through any difficultly ( in Greek mythology, cornucopia is the name of a magical goat’s horn that overflowed with grain, fruit, and flowers.)
a worldveiw that predicts doom and disaster as a result of our environmental impacts. (in Greek mythology Cassandra was the princess of Troy with the gift of prophecy, whose dire predictions were not believed.)
sustainable development
Development that satisfies our current needs without compromising the future availability of natural resources or our future quality of life.
triple bottom line
an approach to sustainability that attempts to meet environmental, economic, and social goals simultaneously.