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EVST Midterm
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| ANWR | Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the largest national wildlife refuge, |
| Anthropocene: | geological epoch where human activity is impacting planetary systems |
| Holocene: | current geological epoch, a relatively stable period where human civilizations has been able to thrive |
| IPCC | Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, UN, Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. |
| Kissidougou | a city in southern Guinea, thatched-roof houses= concern= prevent fires: fire breaks: short grass, pre-burning, island-shaped village. Colonizers came in and called them forest destroyers, in reality, the residents were protecting the forests |
| Montreal Protocol: | international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances (CFCs) that are responsible for ozone depletion. |
| Planetary boundary | a framework to describe limits to the impacts of human activities on the Earth system. Beyond these limits, the environment may not be able to self-regulate anymore. |
| Red List | The International Union for Conservation of Nature, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological species. |
| carrying capacity | the maximum # of a species that the environment can carry and sustain (The species’ population size is limited by environmental factors like adequate food, shelter, water, and mates. If these needs are not met, the population will decrease) |
| circle of toxins | he export of domestically banned pesticides for use on foods elsewhere, some of which returns by way of import. |
| climate refugees | Climate-related mobility that refers to movement driven by the impact of sudden or gradual climate-exacerbated disasters |
| commons | older version of ‘public land’, the debate over existence/ regulation, |
| cultural ecology | is the study of the relationship between humans and their natural, social, and built environments. |
| culture | the total learned way of life shared by a people (including knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, customs) |
| debt for nature swap | a transaction in which a foreign exchange debt owed by a developing country is transferred to another organization on the condition that the country funds environmental conservation/ protection. |
| Eco-grief | the sense of loss that arises from experiencing or learning about environmental destruction or climate change |
| ecological niche: | the activities and interactions a species has with other species and the environment |
| ecosystem | a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. |
| food chain | a hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food. |
| gene banks | a type of biorepository that preserves genetic material… ensures that these genetic materials are safely conserved and available for people to use. |
| greenhouse gases | Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, and contribute to the greenhouse effect that causes global warming |
| groundwater deficit | long-term water-level declines caused by sustained groundwater pumping |
| habitat | he array of resources present in an area to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species |
| industrial societies | 1. Exchanges of reciprocity: general, balanced, negative (use values). 2. Exchanges of redistribution: tithe, tribute, tax. 3. Exchange markets: labor for a wage, appropriation, exploitation (exchange values) |
| Infowhelm | the feeling of being overwhelmed by the massive amounts of information online that is readily available…and constantly growing |
| land grabbing | large-scale acquisition of land (buying or leasing of large pieces of land) by domestic and transnational companies, governments, and individuals |
| Mutualism | ecological interaction between two or more species where each species has a net benefit |
| natural capital: | the world's stock of natural resources (geology, soils, air, water, and all living organisms) All of these underpin our economy and society, and thus make human life possible. |
| natural extinction rate | he standard rate of extinction in Earth's geological and biological history before humans became a primary contributor to extinctions. |
| oil shocks | a sudden rise in the price of oil that is often accompanied by decreased supply (e.g.: 1973 oil crisis, Saudi Arabia set an oil embargo on nations that had supported Israel during the war) |
| organism | any biological living system that functions as an individual life form. |
| Parasitism: | the relationship between two species… one benefits at the expense of the other (the other is harmed) |
| peak oil | the point in time when the maximum rate of global oil production is reached, after which production will begin an irreversible decline |
| population | the number of inhabitants in a single area |
| pre-traumatic stress syndrome: | the trauma and stress that we experience when confronted with imminent and irreversible loss. |
| Ecological resilience | the ability of an ecosystem to maintain its normal patterns and respond to a disturbance by resisting damage and recovering quickly. |
| runaway climate change | climate change trajectories that can no longer be affected by changes in human behavior |
| social structure: | the internal institutionalized relationships built up by persons living within a group (such as a family or community), especially concerning the hierarchical organization of status and the rules and principles regulating behavior |
| soil | Composed of minerals from erosion and organic matter from wastes and remains and organisms that break them down |
| Solastalgia | feelings of longing for places that no longer exist |
| species | the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals can produce fertile offspring |
| symbiosis | interaction between two different organisms, one advantaged the other is unaffected |
| treadmil of production | search for economic growth leads to advanced economies being stuck on a “treadmill,” where their well-being is not improved by economic growth, yet the impacts of this pursuit of growth cause massive, unsustainable environmental damages. |
| virtual water | “Indirect water,” is the water “hidden” in the products, and services people buy and use every day from other places |
| biome | a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. |
| sinks | A natural reservoir that can receive energy or materials without changing (e.g.: carbon sinks are soil, plants, and the ocean) |
| carbon cycle | the process in which carbon atoms continually travel from the atmosphere to the Earth and then back into the atmosphere. |
| nitrogren cycle | the series of processes by which nitrogen and its compounds are interconverted in the environment and living organisms, including nitrogen fixation and decomposition. |
| cognized environment | human definitions and interpretations of the biospherical environment, Roy Rapport |
| biophysical environment | physical surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that influence their survival, development, and evolution. |
| economic synthesis | the desire for economic expansion will prevail over ecological concerns |
| the managed scarcity synthesis | governments will attempt to control only the most dire of environmental problems to prevent health and economic disasters. Third, the ecological synthesis generates |
| the ecological synthesis | a hypothetical case where environmental degradation is so severe that political forces would respond with sustainable policies. |
| climate forcing | measures the imbalance in the Earth's energy budget caused by a perturbation of the climate system (e.g.: changes in atmospheric composition driven by human activities) |
| feedback loop | outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. |
| tipping point | describe the point of no return in different environmental and ecological conditions. |
| degradation thesis | Humans degrade nature (leads to government overreach. Culture is not a source of the local environment but a threat to it) (Tragedy of the Commons: critique of the public domain; critique of capitalist “metabolizing” the environment) |
| enrichment thesis | Humans, through sustainable practices, can enrich and protect the environment. (Increase biodiversity, Limit environmental profiteering, Sustainable farming that promotes, ecosystem services) |
| Aldo Leopold | US Forest Service, promoted environmental ethics, and shaped notions of conservation of wild lands/ species. ‘Land ethic’: we have privileges to land, but not obligations. |
| community | a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. |
| externality | a side effect/ consequence of an industrial activity that affects other parties without this being reflected in the cost of the goods or services involved |
| EP Odum | created theCompartment model: explains the relationship between ecosystems/ enviorments !!!living Earth!!! |
| Gary Snyder | American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. the commons |
| Garrett Hardin: | American ecologist. focused on human overpopulation. exposition of the tragedy of the commons… Hardin's First Law of Human Ecology: Any intrusion into nature has numerous effects, many of which are unpredictable." |
| Thomas Malthus: | world's problems stemmed from the pressure of population on natural resources (human populations outgrow their agricultural production capabilities and pressing on natural resources results in famines and other disasters.) |
| Karl Marx: | 1. labor “is a natural necessity”. 2. critized capitalism: breaksdown the nature-humanity relationship. |
| What are the 5 basic components of an ecosystem? | energy, nutrients, oxygen, water and living organisms. |
| Biotic vs Abiotic | Biotic= living components (plants, animals) Abiotic= nonliving components (air, water, land) |
| St Matthews Island | in 1944, 29 reindeer were introduced to the island by US Coast Guard as an emergency food source. after they abandoned the island, the reindeer population rose to about 6,000 by 1963 and then died off in the next two years to 42 animals |
| components of social structure | culture, social class, social status, roles, groups, and social institutions. |
| a person requires how many liters of fresh water per day? In the industrialized North, how many liters do we use? | People need ~20 liters per day per person. In the North, we use ~100 liters/day/person |
| What are the two types of water scarcity? | Physical: not enough in the local environment Economic: not enough money to buildthe infrastructure needed to takeadvantage of local water sources |
| What are the three levels of scarcity? | Water stressed: <1,700 cm per person. Water scarce: <1,000 cm per person. Absolute scarcity: < 500 cm per person |
| solutions of land degradation that result from modern agriculture? | Terracing: fight erosion. Polyculture: increase fertility. Low tillage (leave harvest leftovers onthe field). Organic fertilizer: increase nutrientrecycling Redesign agriculture: break –up industrial farms. More regulation regarding landuse |
| benefits of forests | 1. stabilize landscapes. 2. Protect soils from erosion. 3. Help them retain moisture 4. Buffer against pests. 5. Regulate water flow and moderate floods 6. filter water from silt 7. modersate climate 8. Help contain global warming |
| Why is 350ppm an important number? | scientists, climate experts, and governments officials agree that 350 ppm is the “safe” level of carbon dioxide. ppm: parts per million |
| In dealing with climate change, what is the difference between adaptation and mitigation? | adaptation: adjusting to the current and future effects of climate change. Mitigation: making the impacts of climate change less severe by preventing or reducing the emission of greenhouse gases |
| What is the Anthropocene extinction? | An ongoing current event in which a large number of living species are threatened with extinction or are going extinct because of environmentally destructive human activities. |
| OIl pros and cos | pros: cheap, high net useful energy cons: high CO2 emissions, environmental degradation,distribution issues |
| coal pros and cons | pros: cheat, plentiful, high net useful energy cons: high cos emmissions, enviornmental degradation |
| natural gas pros and cons | pros: cleaner burning, high net useful energy cons: high methane emissions, dangerous to extract |
| nuclear energy pros and cons | pros: No CO2 emission, lots of high temp energy cons: national security, meltdowns, waste (radioative), expensive |
| tragedy of the commons | situation in which individuals with access to a public resource (also called a common) act in their own interest and, in doing so, ultimately deplete the resource. |
| land ethic | extends current boundaries of the community to include soils, water, plants and animals; in other words, the land |
| common land arrangements in the US, England, and Japan (in Snyder) | Government took control of local commons for private interests |
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olivialecker
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