Soc 001 Chapter 15

Human Exceptionalism

the attitude that humans are exempt from natural ecological limits (458)

Environmental Sociology

the study of the interaction between society and the natural environment, including the social causes and consequences of environmental problems (452)

Green Party

a U.S. political party established in 1984 to bring political attention to environmentalism, social justice, diversity, and related principles (461)

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 into space (455)

Urban Sprawl

a derogatory term applied to the expansion of urban or suburban boundaries, associated with irresponsible or poorly planned development (442)

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

a government agency organized in 1969 to protect public health and the environment through policies and enforcement (454)

Megapolis/Megacity

a group of densely populated metropolises that grow dependent on each other and eventually combine to form a huge urban complex (441)

Environmental Racism

any environment policy or practice that negatively affects individuals, groups, or communities because of their race or ethnicity (462)

Pollution

any environmental contaminant that harms living beings (453)

Greenhouse Gases

any gases in Earth's atmosphere that allow sunlight to pass through but trap heat, thus affecting temperature (454)

Life Expectancy

average age to which people in a particular population live (435)

Infant Mortality

average number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births in a particular population (435)

Grassroots Evironmentalism

fourth major stage of the environmental movement; distinguished by the diversity of its members and belief in citizen participation in environmental decision making (460)

Rural Rebound

population increase in rural counties that adjoin urban centers or possess rich scenic or amenity values (443)

Urban

relating to cities; typically describes densely populated areas (440)

Rural

relating to sparsely settled ares; in the United States, any county with a population density between 10 and 59.9 people per square mile (440)

Renewable Resources

resources that replenish at a rate comparable to the rate at which they are consumed (452)

Malthusian Trap

Mathus's prediction that a rapidly increasing population will overuse natural resources, leading inevitably to a major public health disaster (438)

Community

a group of people living in the same local area who share a sense of participation, belonging, and fellowship (450)

Fertility Rate

a measure of population growth through reproduction; often expressed as the average number of births per 1,000 people in the total population or the average number of children a woman would be expected to have (435)

Mortality Rate

a measure of the decrease in population due to deaths; often expressed as the number of deaths expected per 1,000 people per year in a particular population (435)

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

a model of food production and distribution in which small farms recruit subscribers to purchase shares of the farm's harvest; subscribers or shareholders pay at the beginning of the year, and then receive regular deliveries of the farm's produce throughout the growing and harvest seasons (446)

Environmental Justice

a movement that aims t remedy environmental inequities such as threats to public health and the unequal treatment of certain communities with regard to ecological concerns (462)

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 (450)

Environmental Movement

a social movement organized around concerns about the relationship between humans and the environment (459)

Metrapolis

an urban area with a large population, usually 500,000 to 1 million people (441)

Social Atomization

a social situation that emphasizes individualism over collective or group identities (446)

Global Cities

a term for megacities that emphasized their global impact as centers of economic, political, and social power (441)

Demographic Transition

a theory suggesting the possible transition over time from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates to low birth and death rates, resulting in a stabilized population (439)

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 (458)

Earth Day

an annual event conceived of by environmental activist and former senator Gaylord Nelson to encourage support for and increase awareness of environmental concerns; first celebrated on March 22, 1970 (460)

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 (462)

Civil Inattention

an unspoken rule governing interactions in public places, whereby individuals briefly notice others before ignoring them (449)

Suburbanization

beginning after WWII, the shift of large segments of population away from the urban core and toward the edges of cities (442)

Modern Environmental Movement

beginning in the 1960s, the second major stage of the environmental movement; focused on the environmental consequences of new technologies, oil exploration, chemical production, and nuclear power plants (459)

Mainstream Environmentalism

beginning in the 1980s, the third major stage of the environmental movement; characterized by enhanced organization, improved promotional campaigns and political tactics, and an increased reliance on economic and scientific expertise (460)

Edge Cities

centers of employment and commerce that began as suburban commuter communities (442)

Natural Increase

change in population size that results from births and deaths; linked to a country's progress toward demographic transition (440)

Urban Density

concentration of people in a city, measured by the total number of people per square mile (441)

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 (439)

Neo-Malthusians

contemporary researchers who worry about the rapid pace of population growth and believe that Malthus's basic prediction could be true (438)

Family Planning

contraception, or any method of controlling family size and the birth of children (440)

Demographic Free Fall

decrease in fertility rates among populations that have industrialized their economies as children become an economic liability rather than an asset (439)

Alienation

decreasing importance of social ties and community and the corresponding increase in impersonal associations and instrumental logic (448)

Conservation Era

earliest stage of the environmental movement, which focused on the preservation of "wilderness" areas (459)

Sustainable Development

economic development that aims to reconcile global economic growth with environmental protection (462)

Urban Renewal

efforts to rejuvenate decaying inner cities, including renovation, selective demolition, commercial development, and tax incentives (443)

Immigration

entering one country from another to take up permanent residence (437)

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 (440)

Nonrenewable Resources

finite resources that can become exhausted; includes those that take so long to replenish as to be effectively (452)

Global Warming

gradual increases in Earth's temperature, driven recently by an increase in greenhouse gases and other human activity (454)

Environment

in sociology, the natural world, the human-made environment, and the interaction between the two (451)

Emigration

leaving one country to live permanently in another (437)

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 (458)

Utopia

literally "no place"; an ideal society in which all social ills have been overcome (445)

Internal Migration

movement of a population within a country (437)

Urbanization

movement of increasing numbers of people from rural areas to cities (441)

Migration

movement of people from one geographic area to another for the purpose of resettling (437)

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 (443)

Net Migration

net effect of immigration and emigration on an area's population in a given time period; expressed as an increase or decrease (437)

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)/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 (441)

Dystopia

opposite of a utopia; a world where social problems are magnified and the quality of life is extremely low (445)

Urbanites

people who live in cities (447)

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 (461)

Demography

study of size, composition, distribution, and changes in human population (435)

Treadmill of Production

term describing the operation of modern economic systems that require constant growth, which causes increased exploitation of resources and environmental degradation (458)

Smart Growth

term for economic and urban planning policies that emphasize responsible development and renewal (442)

Biosphere

the parts of Earth that can support life (451)

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 (454)

Bystander Effect/Diffusion of Responsibility

the social dynamic wherein the more people who are present in a moment of crisis, the less likely any one of them is to take action (448)

Social Ecology

the study of human populations and their impact on the natural world (451)

Malthusian Theorem

the theory that exponential population growth will outpace arithmetic growth in food production and other resources (437)

Life Span/Longevity

the uppermost age to which a person can potentially live (437)

Biodiversity

the variety of species of plants and animals existing at any given time (453)

Gentrification

transformation of the physical, social, economic, and cultural life formerly working-class or poor inner-city neighborhoods into more affluent middle-class communities (443)

Altruism

unselfish concern for the well-being of others and helping behaviors performed without self-interested motivation (448)

Ecoterrorism

use of violence or criminal methods to protect the environment, often in high-profile, publicity-generating ways (461)