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SOC 105
Ch, 6
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| 3 facts guiding the discussion of environmental problems | environmental problems are mostly social in origin, the magnitude of environmental problems has become so great that the ultimate survival of human species is in question, environmental problems usually have global consequences |
| Biosphere | surface layer of the planet and the surrounding atmosphere that provides the land, air, water, and energy necessary to sustain life |
| Ecosystems | the mechanisms (plants, animals, and microorganisms) that supply people with the essentials of life |
| 3 social forces disturbing ecosystems | tremendous increase in population increasing demand for food energy, minerals, and other products, growing inequality between the rich and the poor where the rich consume more resources, and economic growth |
| Why is topsoil rapidly depleting? | careless husbandry and urbanization |
| Why is farmland being lost? | overuse, irrigation practices poisoning the land with salt (salinization), wind and water erosion, depletion of aquifers, & the use of chemical fertilizers & pesticides which kill helpful creatures, taints groundwater, and creates dead zones in the ocean |
| 2 major environmental consequences of deforestation | climate change and vanishing of species |
| What are the various forms of pollution in industrial societies? | chemical pollution, solid waste pollution, water pollution, radiation pollution, and air pollution |
| Environmental justice | a movement to improve community environments by eliminating toxic hazards |
| Environmental racism | tendency for minority areas to be targets of a disproportionate share of illegal dumping and the sites where most hazardous waste is dumped |
| Alternatives to dumping trash in landfills | dump trash in ocean, reprocessing of trash to its original use or a new use, incinerate trash |
| 2 major benefits of incinerating trash | reduces volume of garbage by almost 90% and can generate steam and electricity |
| Major sources of water pollution | industries, farmers, cities, and oil spills |
| 5 gases from automobiles that have serious consequences for the environment | carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and ozone smog |
| Increase in fossil fuel and oil dependence resulting in... | extraordinary wealth to the elites in the nations of the Persian Gulf area, where most petroleum reserves are (increases world tensions), oil spills, and emission of carbon dioxide |
| Greenhouse effect | when gases accumulate in Earth's atmosphere and act like the glass roof of a greenhouse, allowing sunlight in, but trapping heat that is generated |
| Culture | the knowledge that members of a social organization share |
| Cultural sources of U.S. environmental degredation | cornucopia view of nature, belief that technology will save the environment even though it contributes to pollution, growth ethic of Americans, planned obsolence, individualism |
| Cornucopia view of nature | says that nature is something to be conquered and used (free and inexhaustible) |
| Planned obsolence | the manufacture of consumer goods designed to wear out or existing products are given superficial changes and marked as new, making previous products outdated |
| Structural sources in U.S. causing abuse of environment | capitalist economy maximizing profits with little care for environment, polity, demographic patterns (concentration of population in cities), and system of stratification where the poor and minority groups are more exposed to dangerous pollution |
| Polity | government uses politics to regulate businesses and their ecological pollution |
| Environmental classism | the poor, because of dangerous jobs and residential segregation, are more exposed than the more well-to-do to environmental dangers |
| Individual/local solutions to environmental problems | engagement in recycling, composting, water-harvesting, reduction of energy use, and limiting dependence on automobiles |
| Societal level solutions to environmental problems | government needs to enact comprehensive laws criminalizing harm to environment and perform inspections of companies, limits on lighting that produces pollution, and an economic system not focused on profit-maximization |
| Global-level solutions to environmental problems | finding new sources of energy, methods to increase amount of arable land, new types of food, better contraceptives, and inexpensive ways to desalt seawater |
Created by:
kkade
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