AP Environmental Science Unit 1 - Environmental History & Sustainability

science

Attempts to discover order in nature and use that knowledge to make predictions about what is likely to happen in nature.

sustainable yield

Highest rate at which a potentially renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply.

environmental ethics

Human beliefs about what is right or wrong with how we treat the environment.

biodegradable pollutants

Material that can be broken down into simpler substances (elements and compounds) by bacteria or other decomposers. Paper and most organic wastes such as animal manure are biodegradable but can take decades to biodegrade in modern landfills.

non-degradable pollutants

Material that is not broken down by natural processes. Examples include the toxic elements lead and mercury.

natural resources

Materials such as air, water, and soil and energy in nature that are essential or useful to humans.

environmental worldviews

Set of assumptions and beliefs about how people think the world works, what they think their role in the world should be, and what they believe is right and wrong environmental behavior (environmental ethics).

paradigm shift

Shift in thinking that occurs when the majority of scientists in a field or related fields agree that a new explanation or theory is better than the old one.

point sources

Single identifiable source that discharges pollutants into the environment. Examples include the smokestack of a power plant or an industrial plant, drainpipe of a meatpacking plant, chimney of a house, or exhaust pipe of an automobile.

pollution

Undesirable change in the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of air, water, soil, or food that can adversely affect the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms.

deductive reasoning

Use of logic to arrive at a specific conclusion based on a generalization or premise.

reuse

Using a product over and over again in the same form. An example is collecting, washing, and refilling glass beverage bottles.

inductive reasoning

Using specific observations and measurements to arrive at a general conclusion or hypothesis.

biodiversity

Variety of different species (species diversity), genetic variability among individuals within each species (genetic diversity), variety of ecosystems (ecological diversity), and functions such as energy flow and matter cycling needed for the survival of species and biological communities (functional diversity).

Use the ecological footprint concept to explain how we are living unsustainably in the US.

We are living unsustainably by over extracting resources, and not allowing adequate time for the processes of recycling and regeneration.

Describe how we can degrade natural capital and how finding solutions to environmental problems involves making trade-offs. Explain why individuals matter in dealing with the environmental problems we face.

We can degrade natural capital by overharvesting, or unsustainably manage resources. Solutions often involve conflict, that stimulate trade-offs. Individuals matter in dealing with environmental problems because what we do on a daily basis has an overall impact.

deep ecology worldview

Worldview holding that each form of life has inherent value, that the fundamental interdependence and diversity of life forms helps all life to thrive, that humans have no right to reduce this interdependence and diversity except to satisfy vital needs, and that present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive, and the situation is worsening rapidly.

environmental wisdom worldview

Worldview holding that humans are part of and totally dependent on nature and that nature exists for all species, not just for us. Our success depends on learning how the earth sustains itself and integrating such environmental wisdom into the ways we think and act.

planetary management worldview

Worldview holding that humans are separate from nature, that nature exists mainly to meet our needs and increasing wants, and that we can use our ingenuity and technology to manage the earth's life-support systems, mostly for our benefit. It assumes that economic growth is unlimited.

stewardship view

Worldview holding that we can manage the earth for our benefit but that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers, or stewards, of the earth. It calls for encouraging environmentally beneficial forms of economic growth and discouraging environmentally harmful forms.

resource

Anything obtained from the environment to meet human needs and wants. It can also be applied to other species.

model

Approximate representation or simulation of a system being studied.

Define and give an example of a population crash.

A population crash happens when it uses up its resource supplies and temporarily overshoots, or exceeds, the carrying capacity of the environment. The reindeer population crashed when they were introduced onto a small island in the Bering Sea.

scientific theory

A well-tested and widely accepted scientific hypothesis.

sustainability

Ability of earth's various systems, including human cultural systems and economies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.

environment

All external conditions, factors, matter, and energy, living and nonliving, that affect any living organism or other specified system.

environmental resistance

All of the limiting factors that act together to limit the growth of a population.

ecological footprint

Amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply a population with the renewable resources it uses and to absorb or dispose of the wastes from such resource use. It is a measure of the average environmental impact of populations in different countries and areas.

per capita ecological footprint

Amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply each person or population with the renewable resources they use and to absorb or dispose of the wastes from such resource use. It measures the average environmental impact of individuals or populations in different countries and areas.

scientific hypothesis

An educated guess that attempts to explain a scientific law or certain scientific observations.

per capita GDP

Annual gross domestic product (GDP) of a country divided by its total population at midyear. It gives the average slice of the economic pie per person. Used to be called per capita gross national product (GNP).

gross domestic product (GDP)

Annual market value of all goods and services produced by all firms and organizations, foreign and domestic, operating within a country.

nonpoint sources

Broad and diffuse areas, rather than points, from which pollutants enter bodies of surface water or air. Examples include runoff of chemicals and sediments from cropland, livestock feedlots, logged forests, urban streets, parking lots, lawns, and golf courses.

recycling

Collecting and reprocessing a resource so that it can be made into new products. An example is collecting aluminum cans, melting them down, and using the aluminum to make new cans or other aluminum products.

reliable science

Concepts and ideas that are widely accepted by experts in a particular field of the natural or social sciences.

developing countries

Country that has low to moderate industrialization and low to moderate per capita GDP. Most are located in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

less-developed countries

Country that has low to moderate industrialization and low to moderate per capita GDP. Most are located in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

developed countries

Country that is highly industrialized and has a high per capita GDP.

more-developed countries

Country that is highly industrialized and has a high per capita GDP.

environmental degradation

Depletion or destruction of a potentially renewable resource such as soil, grassland, forest, or wildlife that is used faster than it is naturally replenished. If such use continues, the resource becomes nonrenewable (on a human time scale) or nonexistent (extinct).

scientific (natural) law

Description of what scientists find happening in nature repeatedly in the same way, without known exception.

output pollution control

Device or process that removes or reduces the level of a pollutant after it has been produced or has entered the environment. Examples include automobile emission control devices and sewage treatment plants.

pollution cleanup

Device or process that removes or reduces the level of a pollutant after it has been produced or has entered the environment. Examples include automobile emission control devices and sewage treatment plants.

input pollution control

Device, process, or strategy used to prevent a potential pollutant from forming or entering the environment or to sharply reduce the amount entering the environment.

pollution prevention

Device, process, or strategy used to prevent a potential pollutant from forming or entering the environment or to sharply reduce the amount entering the environment.

Distinguish between the environmental resistance and the carrying capacity of an environment, and use these concepts to explain why there are always limits to population growth in nature.

Environmental resistance is the combination of all factors that act to limit the growth of a population. It largely determines a population's carrying capacity: the maximum population of a given species that a particular habitat can sustain indefinitely. The growth rate of a population decreases as its size nears the carrying capacity of its environment because resources such as food, water, and space begin to dwindle.

perpetual resource

Essentially inexhaustible resource on a human time scale because it is renewed continuously. Solar energy is an example.

data

Factual information collected by scientists.

exponential growth

Growth in which some quantity, such as population size or economic output, increases at a constant rate per unit of time. An example is the growth sequence 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and so on, which increases by 100% at each interval. When the increase in quantity over time is plotted, this type of growth yields a curve shaped like the letter J.

Explain why humans are not exempt from nature's population controls. Describe the exploding white-tailed deer population problem in the United States and discuss options for dealing with it.

Humans are not exempt from population crashes when they have used up their resources, as seen with the Irish potato famine. There are 25 to 30 million white-tailed deer in the United States. Laws to protect deer have restricted hunting and natural predators such as wolves and mountain lions have been nearly eliminated. During the last 50 years, large numbers of Americans have moved into the wooded habitat of deer and provided them with flowers, garden crops, and other plants they like to eat. In some forests, they are consuming native ground cover vegetation and allowing nonnative weed species to take over. Deer also spread Lyme disease to humans. Each year there are 1.5 million deer - vehicle collisions which injure at least 14000 people and kill at least 200.

What is the IPAT model for estimating our environmental impact?

Impact (I) = Population (P) * Affluence (A) * Technology (T)

economic development

Improvement of human living standards by economic growth.

Explain how we can use this model (IPAT) to estimate the impacts of the human populations in less-developed countries and more developed countries.

In less-developed countries, population tends to be a larger issue, while consumption is less of an impact. On the other hand, in more-developed countries, it is consumption that drives up the overall impact, with population being less of an issue. Technologies can either increase or reduce the overall impact in both cases.

poverty

Inability to meet basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter.

economic growth

Increase in the capacity to provide people with goods and services; an increase in gross domestic product (GDP).

environmental science

Interdisciplinary study that uses information and ideas from the physical sciences (such as biology, chemistry, and geology) with those from the social sciences and humanities (such as economics, politics, and ethics) to learn how nature works, how we interact with the environment, and how we can to help deal with environmental problems.

population dynamics

Major abiotic and biotic factors that tend to increase or decrease the population size and affect the age and sex composition of a species.

carrying capacity (k)

Maximum population of a particular species that a given habitat can support over a given period.

biotic potential

Maximum rate at which the population of a given species can increase when there are no limits on its rate of growth.

Define and give three examples of environmental degradation (natural capital degradation).

Natural capital degradation involves using resources at an unsustainable rate. Examples include forests shrinking, topsoil eroding and deserts expanding.

natural capital

Natural resources and natural services that keep us and other species alive and support our economies.

What are the four principles that nature has used to sustain itself for 3.5 billion years, and how can we use these principles to live more sustainably?

Nature has sustained itself for billions of years by using solar energy, biodiversity, population control, and nutrient cycling—lessons from nature that we can apply to our lifestyles and economies. In order to live sustainably, we can prevent pollution, prevent waste, protect habitat, restore environment, stop wasting resources, stabilize population and protect natural capital.

population density

Number of organisms in a particular population found in a specified area or volume.

Explain the different environmental views over the course of history.

Over the course of history, people initially had an indifferent attitude towards the environment. However, during the beginning of the 20th century, people have started to be more cognizant of the dying environment, and have resorted to making books, as well as acts, with purposes of preventing practices that further harm the environment.

logistic growth

Pattern in which exponential population growth occurs when the population is small, and population growth decreases steadily with time as the population approaches the carrying capacity.

age structure

Percentage of the population (or number of people of each sex) at each age level in a population.

ecological tipping point

Point at which an environmental problem reaches a threshold level, which causes an often irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system.

Explain how change in species population is calculated.

Population change = (Births + Immigration) - (Deaths + Emigration)

Identify four basic causes of the environmental problems that we face today.

Population growth, unsustainable resource use, poverty, and exclusion of harmful environmental costs from the market prices of goods and services are the four basic causes of the environmental problems that we face today.

frontier science

Preliminary scientific data, hypotheses, and models that have not been widely tested and accepted.

peer review

Process of scientists reporting details of the methods and models they used, the results of their experiments, and the reasoning behind their hypotheses for other scientists working in the same field (their peers) to examine and criticize.

natural services

Processes of nature, such as purification of air and water and pest control, which support life and human economies.

intrinsic rate of increase (r)

Rate at which a population could grow if it had unlimited resources.

natural income

Renewable resources such as plants, animals, and soil provided by natural capital.

renewable resource

Resource that can be replenished rapidly (hours to several decades) through natural processes as long as it is not used up faster than it is replaced. Examples include trees in forests, grasses in grasslands, wild animals, fresh surface water in lakes and streams, most groundwater, fresh air, and fertile soil. If such a resource is used faster than it is replenished, it can be depleted and converted into a nonrenewable resource.

nonrenewable resources

Resource that exists in a fixed amount (stock) in the earth's crust and has the potential for renewal by geological, physical, and chemical processes taking place over hundreds of millions to billions of years. Examples include copper, aluminum, coal, and oil. We classify these resources as exhaustible because we are extracting and using them at a much faster rate than they are formed.

Explain why scientific theories are not to be taken lightly and why people often use the term "theory" incorrectly.

Scientific theories are not to be taken lightly. They have been tested widely, are supported by extensive evidence, and are accepted by most scientists in a particular field or related fields of study. Nonscientists often use the word theory incorrectly when they actually mean scientific hypothesis, a tentative explanation that needs further evaluation.

environmentally sustainable society

Society that meets the current and future needs of its people for basic resources in a just and equitable manner without compromising the ability of future generations of humans and other species from meeting their basic needs.

k-selected species

Species that produce a few, often fairly large offspring but invest a great deal of time and energy to ensure that most of those offspring reach reproductive age.

r-selected species

Species that reproduce early in their life span and produce large numbers of usually small and short-lived offspring in a short period.

What is sustainability and why should we care about it?

Sustainability is the capacity of the earth's natural systems and human cultural systems to survive, flourish, and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely. It is important that we embrace sustainability to ensure that future generations have access to adequate resources.

Distinguish between more-developed countries and less-developed countries and give an example of a high-income, a middle income and a low-income country.

The United Nations classifies countries as economically developed or developing based primarily on their degree of industrialization and their per capita GDP PPP. Most developed countries are highly industrialized and have a high per capita GDP PPP. Some developing countries are middle- income and moderately developed while others are low-income and least developed. The United States is a high-income country, Brazil is a middle-income country, and Haiti is a low-income country.

Describe the past, current, and projected exponential growth of the world's human population.

The exponential rate of global population growth has declined some since 1963. Nevertheless, unless death rates rise sharply, there will probably be 9.3 billion of us by 2050 (up from 6.9 in 2010).

Describe the steps involved in the scientific process?

The first step, is to identify the problem. The second step, is to find out what is known about the problem. The third step, is to ask a question to be investigated. The fourth step, is to perform an experiment to answer the question and collect data. The fifth step, is to analyze data (check for patterns). The sixth step, is to propose a hypothesis and explain data. The seventh step, is to use hypothesis to make testable predictions. The eighth step, is to perform an experiment to test predictions. The ninth step, is to either accept or revise hypothesis. The tenth step, is to make testable predictions. The eleventh step, is to test predictions. The twelfth step, is to get a peer to review your experiment.

Distinguished between the four main worldviews and explain how human impact is approached in each.

The four main environmental worldviews, are: planetary management worldview (humans can manage nature to meet their increasing needs and wants), stewardship worldview (humans have ethical responsibilities in terms of managing nature), and environmental wisdom (nature exists for all species).

Describe four variables that govern changes in population size and write an equation showing how they interact.

The four variables that govern changes in population size, are births, deaths, immigration, and emigration. Population change = (births + immigration) - (deaths + emigration)

List and detail the contributions of the major key players that have impacted environmentalism.

The major key players that have impacted environmentalism, are: John Muir (protected wilderness), Theodore Roosevelt (established wildlife refugees), Rachel Carson (wrote "Silent Springs", global environmental movement), Jane Goodall (primate, chimps, monkeys, apes), Aldo Leopold (wrote "A Sand County Almanac"), Henry David Thoreau (wrote "Walden"), and Charles Darwin (formulated the idea of evolution).

Compare the total and per capita ecological footprint s of the United States and China.

The per capita ecological footprint is the average ecological footprint of an individual in a given country or area. The total ecological footprint for the United States in millions of hectares is 2810 versus 2050 for China. The U.S. per capita ecological footprint was about 6 times larger than China's per capita footprint.

What are the six guidelines for how we, as a society, can live more sustainably?

The six guidelines for how we, as a society, can live more sustainably, are: use the three principles of sustainability to mimic the ways in which nature sustains itself; do not deplete or degrade the earth's natural capital; do not waste matter and energy resources; protect biodiversity; repair ecological damage that we have caused; leave the earth in as good a condition as we found it or better.

What issues have arisen in deciding which species to protect from extinction as a result of human activities?

The three issues that have arisen in deciding which species to protect from extinction as a result of human activities, are: political, economical and moral.

reproductive lag time

The time required for the birth rate to decline and the death rate to increase in response to resource limits. It can cause the population to overshoot the carrying capacity temporarily.

What is the tragedy of the commons?

The tragedy of the commons is environmentally degrading many openly shared renewable resources.

Describe three major cultural changes that have occurred since humans were hunter-gatherers.

Three major cultural changes have occurred during mankind's history. First was the agricultural revolution when humans learned how to grow and breed plants and animals for food, clothing, and other purposes. Second was the industrial- medical revolution when people invented machines for the large- scale production of goods in factories. This involved learning how to get energy from fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, and how to grow large quantities of food in an efficient manner. Finally, in the information- globalization revolution we developed new technologies for gaining rapid access to much more information and resources on a global scale.