Term
| Define the Field of Environmental Science |
|
Definition
| Study of the interactions among human dominated systems and natural systems and how those interactions affect environments. |
|
|
Term
| Why is Environmental Science Important? |
|
Definition
| It helps us identify, understand and respond to changes caused by human interaction to the environment. |
|
|
Term
| Identify Ways In Which Humans Have Altered the Environment in the past? |
|
Definition
| Early humans hunted large animals to extinction. |
|
|
Term
| Identify Ways In Which Humans Continue To Alter Our Environment |
|
Definition
| Technology and population growth have dramatically increased the rate and the scale of human induced change. |
|
|
Term
| What are the key environmental indicators that help us evaluate the health of the planet? |
|
Definition
Biological Diversity
Food Production
Average Global Surface Temperature
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations
Human Population
Resource Depletion |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Use of Earth's resources to meet our current needs without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. |
|
|
Term
| Define Ecological Footprint |
|
Definition
| Land area required to support a person or country's lifestyle. |
|
|
Term
| How can Sustainability can be measured using the ecological footprint? |
|
Definition
| You can use the information provided to say something about how sustainable that lifestyle would be if adopted globally. |
|
|
Term
| What is the scientific method? |
|
Definition
| Process of observation, hypothesis generation, data collection, analysis of results and dissemination of findings. |
|
|
Term
| Why is the repetition of measurements or experiments critical to the scientific method? |
|
Definition
| It helps to determine their validity. |
|
|
Term
| Before being accepted, what normally happens to a hypothesis? |
|
Definition
| It is often modified, before being accepted. |
|
|
Term
| What are the challenges of Environmental Science? |
|
Definition
Lack of a control to compare to the Earth
There is no single measure of environmental quality.
Environmental systems are complex and poorly understood |
|
|
Term
| What may have just as much of an effect on the environment as natural laws? |
|
Definition
| Human Preferences and Policies |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Adj. derived from human activities |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Sum of all conditions surrounding us that influence life. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Any set of interacting components that influence one another by exchanging energy or materials. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Particular location on Earth whose interacting components include living components and non living components. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A person who participates in environmentalism. |
|
|
Term
| Define Environmental Studies |
|
Definition
| A broad field that includes the study of environmental science, policy, economics, literature and ethics. |
|
|
Term
| Define Ecosystem Services |
|
Definition
| The processes by which life supporting resources are produced. |
|
|
Term
| List examples of life supporting resources |
|
Definition
Clean Water
Timber
Fisheries
Agricultural Crops |
|
|
Term
| Define Environmental Indicators |
|
Definition
| Describe the current state of an environmental system. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Diversity of life forms in an environment. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Defined as a group of organisms that is distinct from other groups in its morphology, behavior, or biochemical properties. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The evolution of a new species. |
|
|
Term
| Define Background Extinction Rate |
|
Definition
| Average rate at which species go extinct over the long term. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Heat trapping gases in Earth's atmosphere. |
|
|
Term
| What is an example of a Greenhouse Gas? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Improvement in human well being through economic advancement. |
|
|
Term
| Define Sustainable Development |
|
Definition
| Development that balances current human well-being and economic advancement with resource management for the benefit of future generations. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Testable conjecture about how something works. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Statement or idea that can be falsified or proven wrong. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Scientists taking several sets of measurements. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The number of times a measurement is replicated. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| How close a measured value is to the actual true value. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| How close to one another the repeated measurements of the same sample are. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Estimate of how much a measured or calculated value differs from a true value. |
|
|
Term
| Define Inductive Reasoning |
|
Definition
| The process of making of making general statements from specific facts or examples. |
|
|
Term
| Define Deductive Reasoning |
|
Definition
| The process of applying a general statement to specific facts or situations. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Question the source of information, consider the methods or processes that were used to obtain the information, and draw your own conclusions. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Hypothesis that has been repeatedly tested and confirmed by multiple researchers and has reached wide acceptance. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Theory to which there are no known exceptions and which has withstood rigorous testing. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Group that experiences exactly the same conditions as the experimental group, except for the single variable under study. |
|
|
Term
| Define Natural Experiment |
|
Definition
| Occurs when a natural event acts as an experimental treatment in an ecosystem. |
|
|
Term
| Define Environmental Justice |
|
Definition
| Social movement and field of study that works toward equal enforcement of environmental laws and the elimination of disparities, whether intended or unintended, in how pollutants and other environmental harms are distributed among the various ethnic and socioeconomic groups within a society. |
|
|
