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Perpetual Resource
Essentially inexhaustible resource on a human time scale because it is renewed continuously.
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Natural Sesrvice
Processes of nature, such as purification of air and water, and pest control which support life and human economics
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Second Law Of Thermodynamics
In any conversion of heat energy to useful work, some of the initial energy input is always degraded to lower quality more dispersed, less useful energy, usually low-temperature heat that flows into the environment. You cannot break even in terms of energy quality.
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Environmental Science
Interdisciplinary study that uses information and ideas from the physical sciences (biology, chemistry, and geology) with those from social sciences and humanities (economics, politics, and ethics) to learn how nature works, how we interact with the environment, and how we can help to deal with environmental problems
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Ecology
Biological science that studies the relationships between living organisms and their environment study of the structure and functions of nature.
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First Law Of Thermodynamics
In any physical or chemical change, no detectable amount of energy is created or destroyed but energy can be changed from one form to another; you can not get more energy out of something than you put in; in terms of energy quality you canot get something for nothing.
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Organism
Any form of life.
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Species
Group of similar organisms and for sexually reproduching organisms, they are a set of individual that can mat and produce fertile offspring. Every organism is a member of a certain species.
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Ecosystem
One or more communities of defferent species interacting with one another and with the chemical and physical factors making up their nonliving environment.
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Environmentalism
Social movement dediccated to protecting the earth's life support systems for us and other species.
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Sustainability
Ability of earth's various systems, including human cultural systems and economics, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.
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Nutrient Cycling
The circulation of chemicals necessary for life, from the environment (mostly from soil and water) through organisms and back to the environment.
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Environmentally Sustainable Society.
Society that meets the current and future needs of its people for basic resources in a just and equitable manner without compromising the ability of future generations of humans and other species from meeting their basic needs.
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Natural Income
Renewable resources such as plants, animals, and soil provided by natural capital.
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Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) Annual market value of all goods and services produced by all firms and organizations, foreign and domestic, operating within a country.
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Per Capita GDP PPP
(purchasing power parity) Measure of the amount of goods and services that a country's average citizen could buy in the united states.
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Environment
Everything around us. All external conditions, factors, matter, and energy, living, an nonliving that affect organisms or any other specified system.
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Environmentally Sustainable Economic Development
Development that meets the basic needs of the current generation of humans and other species without preventing future generations of humans and other species from meeting their basic needs.
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Developing Country
Country that has low to moderate industrialization and low to moderate GDP. Most are located in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
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Developed Country
Country that is highly industrialized and has a high per capita GDP.
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Economic Development
Improvement of human living standards by economic growth.
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Sustainable Resource Use
Taking no more potentially renewable resources from the natural world than can be replinished naturally and not overloading the capacity of the environment to cleanse and renew itself by natural processes.
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Solar Capital
Solar energy that warms the planet and supports photosynthesis. This direct input of solar energy also produces indirect forms of renewable solar energy such as wind and flowing water.
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Economic Policies That Help Impede Society's Progress Toward Sustainable Resourch Use.
- Decrease the tax on a virgin resource.
- Do not implement full cost pricing.
- Remove tax deductions or rebates.
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Per Capita GDP
Anual gross domestic product (GDP) of a country divided by its total population at mid year. It gives the average slice of the economic pie per person.
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Nonrenewable Resource
- Resources that exist in a fixed amount (stock) in earth's crust and has the potential for renewal by geological, physical, and chemical processes taking place over hundreds of millions to billions of years.
- Copper
- Aluminum
- Coal
- Oil
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Natual Resources
- Material that are essential or useful to humans.
- Air
- Water
- Soil
- Energy
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Renewable Resource
- Resources that can be replinished in a useful time scale (hours to several decades) through natural processes as long as it is not used up faster than it is replaced.
- Trees
- Grassland grass
- Wild animals
- Surface/ground water
- Fresh air
- Fertile soil
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Natural Capital
Natural resources and natural services that keep us and other species alive and support our economics.
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Resource
Anything obtained from the environment to meet human needs and wants. It can also be applied to other species.
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Conservation
Sensible and careful use of natural resources by humans. People with this view are called conservationists.
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Environmental Degration
Depletion or destruction of a potentially renewable resource such as soil, grassland, forest, or wildlife that is used faster than it is naturally replinished. If such use continues, the resource becomes nonrenewable (on a useful time scale) or nonexistent (extinct).
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Reuse
Using a product over and over again in the same form. An example is collecting, washing, and refilling glass beverage bottles.
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Recycling
Collecting and reprocessing a pesource so that it can be made into new products. An example is collecting aluminum cans, melting them down, and using the aluminum to make new cans or other aluminum products.
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Ecological Footprint
Amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply a population with the renewable resources it uses and to absorb or dispose of the wastes from such resource use. It is a measure of the average environmental impact of populations in different countries and areas.
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Per Capita Ecological Footprint
Amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply each person or population with the renewable resources they use and to absorb or dispose of the wastes from such resource use. It measures the average environmental impact of individuals or populations in different countries and areas.
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Culture
Whole of a society's knowledge, beliefs, technology,and practices.
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pollution
Undesirable change in the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of air, water, soil,or food that can adversely affect the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms.
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Point source
- Single idenifiable source that discharges pollutants into the environment.
- Smokestacks
- Drainpipes
- Chimneys
- Exhaust pipes
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Nonpoint sources
- Broad and diffuse areas, rather than points, from which pollutants enter bodies of surface water or air.
- Runoff of chemicals and cropland sediments
- Livestock feedlots
- Logged forests
- Urban streets
- Parking lots
- lawns
- golf courses
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Biodegradable Pollutant
Material that can be broken down into simpler substances (elements and compounds) by bacteria or other decomposers. Paper andmost organic wastes such as amimal manure are biodegradable but can take decades to biodegrade in modern landfills.
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Nondegradable Pollutant
- Material that is not broken down by natural processes.
- Lead
- Mercury
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Pollution Cleanup
- Device or process that removes or reduces the level of a pollutant after it has been produced or has entered the environment.
- Automobile emission control
- Sewage treatment plant
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Pollution Prevention
Device, process, or strategy used to prevent a potential pollutant from forming or entering the environment or to sharply reduce the amount entering the environment.
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Environmental Worldview
Set of assumptions and beliefs about how people think the world works, what hey think their role in the world should be, and what they believe is right and wrong environmental behavior (environmental ethics).
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Environmental Ethics
Human beliefs about what is right or wrong with how we treat the environment.
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Planetary Management Worldview
Worldview holding that humans are separate from nature, that nature exists mainly to meet our needs and increasing wants, and that we can use our ingenuity and technology to namage the earth's life-support systems, mostly for our benefit. It assumes that economic growth is unlimited.
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Stewardship Worldview
Worldview holding that we can manage the earth for our benefit but that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers,or stewards, to the earth. It calls for encouraging environmentally beneficial forms of economic growth and discouraging environmentally harmful forms.
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Environmental Wisdom Worldview
Worldview holding that humans are part of and totally dependent on nature and that nature exists for all species, not just for us. Our success depends on learning how the earth sustains itself and integrating such environmental wisdom into the ways we think and act.
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Social Capital
Result of getting people with different views and values to talk and listen to one another, find common ground based on understanding and trust, and work together to solve environmental and other problems.
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