Chapter 15

Human Exceptionalism

the attitude that humans are exempt from natural ecological limits.

Life Expectancy

the average age to which a person can expect to live

Fertility rates

the average number of births per 1,000 people in the population

Infant Mortality Rates

the average number of deaths per 1,000 live births

Mortality rates

the average number of deaths per 1,000 people in the population

Environmental Sociology

the study of the interaction between society and the natural environment, including the social causes and consequences of environmental problems.

Environmental Sociology

4 areas: political economy, societal attitudes, environmental movements, and sustainable development.

Green Party

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

Sustainable Development

a broad concept based on the premise that the development aspirations of all countries cannot be met by following the path already taken by industrialized nations because the world's ecosystems cannot sustain such growth.

Global (or solar) Dimming

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

Urban Sprawl

a derogatory term applied to the expansion of urban or suburban boundaries, associated with irresponsible or poorly planned development .

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

a government agency organized in 1969 to protect public health and the environment through policies and enforcement.

Megalopolis or megacity

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

Pollution

any environmental containment that harms living beings.

Environmental Racism

any environmental policy or practice that negatively affects individual groups, or communities because of their race or ethnicity.

Greenhouse gases

any gases in the Earth's atmosphere that allow sunlight to pass through, but trap heat, thus affecting temperature. + from air pollution = greater retention of heat with the earth's atmosphere.

Modern Environmentalists Movement

arose mid-twentieth century in response to ecological disasters that threaten public health and safety.

Urban Legend

modern folklore and a story that is believed (incorrectly) to be true and is widely spread because it expresses concerns, fears, and anxieties about the social world.

Rural Rebound

population increase in rural countries that adjoin urban centers or possess rich scenic or amenity values.

Urban

relating to cities; typically describes densely populated areas.

Rural

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

Grassroots Environmentalism

(most recent) emerged in response to perceived blind spots in the larger mainstream groups. focus on local action and community involvement.

Malthusian Trap

Malthus's prediction that a rapidly increasing population will overuse natural resources, leading inevitably to a major public health disaster.

Conservation era

Nineteenth century. Focused on conservation of wilderness areas.

Community

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

Environmental Justice

a movement that aims to remedy environmental inequalities such as threats to public health and the unequal treatment of certain communities with regard to ecological concerns.

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.

Environmental Movements

a social movement organized around concerns about the relationship between humans and the environment. First in nineteenth century (conservation era)

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.

Demographic Transition

a theory suggesting the possible transition over time from high birth and death rates TO low birth and death rates, resulting in a stabilized population

New Ecological Paradigm

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

Earth Day

an annual event conceived of by an environmental activist and former senator Gaylord Nelson to encourage support for and increase awareness of environmental concerns; first celebrated on March 22, 1970.

Ecological Footprint

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

Global Warming

an increase in the world's average temperature.

Civil Inattention

an unspoken rule governing interactions in public places, whereby individuals briefly notice others before ignoring them.

Metropolis

an urban area with a large population (500,000 to 1,000,000 people)

Anti-Malthusians

believe that family planning and other changes will eventually cause population shrinkage

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; linked to a country's progress toward demographic transition.

Urban Density

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

Neo-Malthusians

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

Family Planning

contraception or any other method of controlling family size and birth of children

Demographic Free Fall

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

Alienation

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

Smart Growth

economic and urban planning policies that emphasize the redevelopment of inner cities or older suburbs

Urban Renewal

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

Gentrification

entails the transformation or poor inner-city neighborhoods into more affluent middle-class communities.

Immigration

entering one country from another to take up permanent residence.

Malthusian theorem

exponential population growth would outpace arithmetic growth in food production and other resources

Growth rate

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

Mainstream Environmentalism

grew in the 1980s as the movement consolidated and lobbied government about environmental concerns.

Political Economy

how economic factors influence the way organizations and corporations use the environment

Environment

in sociology, the natural world, the human-made environment, and the interaction between the two.

Emigraiton

leaving one country to live permanently in another.

Anthropocentric

literally "human centered"; the idea that needs and desires of human beings should take priority over concerns about other species or the natural environment.

Utopia

literally "no place"; an ideal society in which all social ills have been overcome.

Internal Migration

movement of a population within a country.

White Flight

movement of upper- and middle-class whites who could afford to leave the cities for the suburbs, especially in the 1950s and 60s

Net Migration

net effect of immigration and emigration on an area's population in a given time period; expressed as an increase or decrease.

Nonrenewable Resources

oil, coal, iron. Natural resources that cannot be replaced.

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) agglomeration

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

Dystopia

opposite of a utopia; a world where social problems are magnified and the quality of life is extremely low.

Renewable Resources

oxygen, water, animals. Natural resources that can be regenerated .

Urbanites

people who live in cities.

NIMBY

short for "Not In My Backyard"; 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.

Treadmill of Production

term describing the operation of modern economic systems that require constant growth, which causes increased exploitation of resources and environmental degradation.

Urbanization

the movement of increasing numbers of people from rural areas to urban areas. Development of cities possible due to: significant social, economic, and political changes with the Industrial Revolution. 83% urban America (was 6% in 1800s)

Migration

the movement of people from one geographic area to another for the purpose of resettling.

Societal Attitudes

the new ecological paradigm recognizes that human activity can have both intended and unintended consequences that shape social life and life on the planet.

Biosphere

the parts of Earth that can support life.

Greenhouse Effect

the process in which increased production of greenhouse gases, especially those arising from human activity (e.g., carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane) cause changes to Earth's atmosphere.

Suburbanization

the shift of large segments of population away from the urban core and toward the edges of cities.

Bystander Effect or Diffusion of Responsibilty

the social dynamic wherein the more people that are present in a moment of crisis, the less likely any one of them is to take action.

Social Ecology

the study of human populations and their impact on the natural world. (environmental degradation increasingly social problem)

Demography

the study of the size, composition, distribution and changes in human population. +3 rates

Life Span or Longevity

the uppermost age to which a person can potentially live.

Biodiversity

the variety of species of plants and animals existing at any given time.

Altruism

unselfish concern for the well-being of others and helping behaviors performed without self-interested motivation.

Ecoterrorism

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