Ecological Footprint

natural resource

a material that humans take from the environment to survive, to satisfy their needs, or to trade with others

human footprint

an single person's lifetime use of natural resources

green

environmentally safe and sustainable

environmental degradation

exceeding a renewable resources's natural replacement rate

nonrenewable resource

exist in a fixed quantity within the Earth's crust and takes millions of years to renew

recycling

involves the collecting of waste materials and processing them into new materials

per capita ecological footprint

is the average ecological footprint of an individual in a given country or area

conservation

is the management of natural resources with the goal of minimizing resource waste and sustaining supplies for current and future generations

culture

is the whole of society's knowledge, beliefs, technology, and practices

reuse

is using a resource over and over in the same form.

perpetual resource

renewed immediately and continuously

renewable resource

replenished rather quickly within minutes to decades through natural processes as long as it is not used up faster than renewed

ecological footprint

the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply the people in a particular country or area with renewable resources and to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution produced by resource use

carbon footprint

the measurable total impact on one or more people on the environment

recycle

to clean or process in order to make suitable for reuse

water footprint

total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community

energy consumption

use of power, usually produced by humans in plants run on electricity, fossil fuels, or nuclear fission