Environment
Includes all the living and non living things around us with which we interact.
Environmental Science
Is the study of how the natural world works, how our environment affects us, and how we affect our environment.
Natural Resources
The various substances and energy sources we need to survive.
Renewable Natural Resources
Resources that are replenished over short periods of time.
Nonrenewable Natural Resources
Resources that are formed much more slowly than we use them, and once used are gone forever.
Agricultural Revolution
The transition from a hunter-gather lifestyle to an agricultural way of life, attributed to a growth in the Earth's population.
Industrial Revolution
It entailed a shift from rural life, animal-powered agriculture, and manufacturing by craftsmen, to an urban society powered by fossil fuels.
Fossil Fuels
Nonrenewable energy sources, such as oil, coal, and natural gas.
Thomas Malthus
Malthus claimed that unless population growth were controlled by laws or other social strictures, the number of people would outgrow the available food supply until starvation, war, or disease arose and reduced the population.
Ecological Footprint
Expresses the environmental footprint of an individual or population in terms of the cumulative amount of biologically productive land and water required to provided the raw materials the person or population consumes and to dispose of or recycle the wast
Overshoot
Overusing the Earths resources at a rate faster than it can renew them.
Interdisciplinary
A field that borrows techniques from numerous disciplines and brings research results from these disciplines together into a broad synthesis.
Natural Science
Disciplines that study the natural world.
Social Sciences
Disciplines that study human interactions and institutions.
Environmental Studies
An academic environmental science program that heavily incorporates the social sciences as well as the natural sciences.
Environmentalism
A social movement dedicated to protecting the natural world and, by extension, people- from undesirable changes brought about by human actions.
Science
A systematic process for learning about the world and testing our understanding of it.
Scientific Method
A technique for testing ideas with observations, it involves several assumptions and a series of interrelated steps. The steps are Observations - Questions - Hypothesis - Predictions - Test -Results.
Hypothesis
Is a statement that attempts to explain a phenomenon or answer a scientific question.
Predictions
Which are specific statements that can be directly and unequivocally tested.
Experiment
Is an activity designed to test the validity of a prediction or a hypothesis.
Variables
Conditions that can change.
Independent Variable
A variable the scientist manipulates, whereas the quantity of algae results is the dependent variable.
Dependent Variable
One that depends on the fertilizer input.
Controlled Experiment
The scientist controls for the effects of all variables except the one whose effect he or she is testing.
Control
The portion of an experiment in which a variable has been left unmanipulated, to serve as a point of comparison with the treatment.
Treatment
The portion of an experiment in which a variable has been manipulated in order to test its effect.
Correlation
Or Statistical relationships among variables.
Data
Or information.
Manipulative Experiment
An experiment in which the researcher actively chooses and manipulates the independent variable.
Natural Experiments
An experiment in which the researcher cannot directly manipulate the variables and therefore must observe nature, comparing conditions in which variables differ, and interpret the results.
Ecology
Deals with the distribution and abundance of organisms (living things), the interactions among them, and the interactions between organisms and their nonliving environments.
Peer Review
The process by which a manuscript submitted for publication in an academic journal is examined by other specialists in the field, who provide comments and criticism (generally anonymously), and judge whether the work merits publication in the journal.
Paradigm
Or dominant view.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
The most comprehensive scientific assessment of the present condition of the world's ecological systems and their ability to continue supporting our civilization. Prepared by over 2,000 of the world's leading environmental scientists from nearly 100 natio
biodiversity
The cumulative number and diversity of living things.
Sustainability
A guiding practice of modern environmental science. It means leaving our children and grandchildren a world as rich and full as the world we live in now.
Sustainable Development
Is the use of renewable and nonrenewable resources in a manner that satisfies our current needs but does not compromise the future availability of resources.
Triple Bottom Line
An approach to sustainability that attempts to meet environmental, economic, and social goals simultaneously.