Term | Definition |
applied science | uses information provided by pure science to solve problems. |
biosphere | the thin layer of life around the Earth. |
consumption crisis | when people use up, waste, or pollute natural resources faster than those resources can be renewed, replaced, or cleaned up. |
developed countries | the highly industrialized countries whose citizens have high average incomes |
developing countries | are less industrialized and their citizens have a much lower average income. |
ecology | one of the most important foundations of environmental science. |
environment | everything that surrounds us |
environmental science | the study of how humans interact with the environment. |
experiment | a hypothesis is tested under controlled conditions. |
hypothesis | a testable explanation for an observation. |
natural resource | any natural substance that living things use such as, sunlight, air, water, soil, minerals, plants, animals, forests, and fossil fuels. |
nonrenewable resources | resources that can not be replaced such as copper |
population crisis | when some regions on Earth the human populations are growing too quickly for the regions to support. |
pure science | seeks to answer questions about how the natural world works. |
renewable resources | resources that are continually being replaced even as they are being used. Ex: solar energy and sunlight |
sustainable world | a world in which human populations can continue to exist indefinitely with high standards of living and health. |