Chapter 15 sociology

human exceptionalism

the attitude that humans are exempt from natural ecological limits

white flight

working and middle-class white people move away from racial-minority suburbs or inner-city neighborhoods to white suburbs and exurbs. Especially prevalent in the 1950s-1960s

Demography

The study of the size, composition, distribution, and change in human population

Infant Mortality

The total number of deaths in a year among infants under one year old for every 1,000 live births in a society.

green party

a U.S. political party established in 1984 to bring political attention to environmentalism, social justice, diversity, and related principles.

global dimming

a decline in the amount of light reaching the Earth's surface because of increased air pollution, which reflects more light back into space

megalopolis

a group of densely populated metropolises that grow dependent on each other and eventually combine to form a huge urban complex

Life expectancy

average age to which people in a particular population live

grassroots environmentalism

fourth major stage of the environmental movement; distinguished by the diversity of its members and belief in citizen participation in environmental decision making

Urban

relating to cities: typically describes densely populated areas

Rural

relating to sparsely settled areas; in the U.S., any country with a population density between 10 and 59.9 people per square mile

Earth Day

A holiday conceived of by environmental activist and Senator Gaylord Nelson to encourage support for and increase awareness of environmental concerns; first celebrated on March 22, 1970

Malthusian Trap

A point at which the world is no longer able to meet the food requirements of the population, and starvation becomes the primary check to population growth.

gentrifcation

A process of converting an urban neighborhood from a predominantly low income renter-occupied area to a predominantly middleclass owner-occupied area.

Mortality rate

Annual number of deaths per 1000 people.

mainstream environmentalism

Beginning in the 1980s, the third major stage of the environmental movement; characterized by increasing organization, well-crafted promotional campaigns, sophisticated political tactics, and an increasing reliance on economic and scientific expertise (page 473)

demographic transition

Change in a population from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates.

biosphere

Consists of all life on Earth and all parts of the Earth in which life exists, including land, water, and the atmosphere.

demographic free fall

Decrease in fertility rates among populations that have industrialized their economies as children become an economic liability rather than an asset.

conservation era

Earliest stage of the environmental movement, which focused on the preservation of "wilderness" areas.

anthropocentric

Human-centered, in sustainable development, anthropocentric refers to ideas that focus solely on the needs of people without considering the creatures with whom we share the planet or the ecosystems upon which we depend.

environmental racism

Patterns of development that expose poor people, especially minorities, to environmental hazards.

rural rebound

Population increase in rural counties that adjoin urban centers or possess rich scenic or amenity values.

Family planning

Providing information, clinical services, and contraceptives to help people choose the number and spacing of children they want to have.

treadmill of production

Term describing the operation of modern economic systems that require constant growth, which causes increased exploitation of resources and environmental degradation (page 471)

urban sprawl

The process of urban areas expanding outwards, usually in the form of suburbs, and developing over fertile agricultural land. Usually poorly planned development

civil inattention

The process whereby individuals in the same physical setting demonstrate to one another that they are aware of each other's presence before ignoring them

community

a group of people living in the same local area who share a sense of participation, belonging, and fellowship

Fertility rate

a measure of population growth through reproduction; often expressed as the number of births per 1,000 people in the total population

Community supported agriculture

a model of food production and distribution in which small farms recruit subscribers to purchase shares of the farms harvest; subscribers or shareholders pay at the beginning of the year, and then receive regular deliveries of the farms produce throughout the growing and harvest seasons.

pluralistic ignorance

a process in which members of a group individually conclude that there is no need to take action because of the observation that other group members have not done so

social atomization

a social situation that emphasizes individualism over collective or group identities

global cities

a term for megacities that emphasizes their global impact as centers of economic, political, and social power

new ecological paradigm

a way of understanding human life as just one part of an ecosystem that includes many species' interactions with the environment; suggests that there should be ecological limits on human activity

ecological footprint

an estimation of the land and water area required to produce all the goods an individual consumes and to assimilate all the wastes she generates

metropolis

an urban area with a large population, usually 500,000 to 1 million people

suburbanization

beginning after ww2, the shift of large segments of population away from the urban core and toward he edges of cities

modern environmental movement

beginning in the 1960's, the second major stage of the environmental movement; focused on the environmental consequences of new technology, oil exploration, chemical production, and nuclear power plants

Edge Cities

centers of employment and commerce that began as suburban commuter communities

natural increase

change in population size that results from births and deaths

urban density

concentration of people in a city, measured by the total number of people per square mile

anti-malthusians

contemporary researchers who believe the population boom Malthus witnessed was a temporary, historically specific phenomenon and worry instead that the worldwide population may shrink in the future

Neo-malthusians

contemporary researchers who worry about the rapid pace of population growth and believe that Malthus's basic prediction could be true

alientation

decreasing importance of social ties and community and the corresponding increase in impersonal associations and instrumental logic

urban renewal

efforts to rejuvenate decaying inner cities, including renovation, selective demolition, commercial development, and tax incentives

Immigration

entering one country from another to take up permanent residence

growth rate

expression of changes in population size over time figured by subtracting the number of deaths from the number of births, then adding the net migration

EPA

government agency created in 1969 to protect public health and the environment through policies and enforcement

Emigration

leaving one country to live permanently in another

Internal migration

movement of a population within a country

urbanization

movement of increasing numbers of people from rural areas to cities

net migration

net effect of immigration and emigration on an area's population in a given time period

Agglomeration

one or more adjacent counties with at least one major city of 50,000 or more inhabitants that is surrounded by an adjacent area that is socially and economically integrated with the city

urbanites

people who live in cities

nimby

short for "not in my back yard" originally referred to protests that aimed at shifting undesirable activities onto those with less power; now sometimes used without negative connotations to describe local environmental activists

smart growth

term for economic and urban planning policies that emphasize responsible development and renewal

environment

the natural world, the human made environment, and the interaction between the two

social ecology

the study of human populations and their impact on the natural world

bystander effect

the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present.

Malthusian Theorem

the theory that exponential population growth will outpace arithmetic growth in food production and other resources.

Life Span

the uppermost age to which a person can potentially live

altrusim

unselfish regard for the welfare of others

ecoterrorism

use of violence or criminal methods to protect the environment, often in high-profile, publicity-generating ways