Study Guide for Chapters 1-3

Study Guide for Chapters 1-3

Chapter 1

Ecology-Study of interactions of living organisms with one another and with their nonliving environment of matter and energy; the study of structure.

Environmental Science-An interdisciplinary study that uses information from the physical sciences and social sciences tolerant how the earth works.

Sustainable Society- A society that manages the economy and population size without doing irreparable environmental harm by overloading the planets ability to absorb envoi mental insults, replenish resources, and sustain human and other forms of life over a specified period.

Globalization- broad process of global social, economic, and environmental change that leads to an increasingly integrated world.

Point source ( pollution)- Single identifiable source that discharges pollutants into the environment. Examples smokestacks of power plants, a chimney of a house, or exhaust of an automobile.

Non-point source (pollution)- Large land areas such as crop fields, streets, and lawns that discharge pollutants into the environment over a large area.

Resources

Perpetual- an essentially inexhaustible resource on a human scale. EX: solar energy

Renewable- resource that can be replenished rapidly(hours to several decades) through the natural process. Examples trees in a forest, grasses in grasslands, fresh surface water in lakes and streams, most ground water, fresh air, and fertile soil. If such a resource is used faster than it is replenished, it can be depleted and converted into a non renewable resource.

Non- Renewable- resource that exist in a fixed amount (stock) in various places in the earths crust and has the potential for renewal by geological, physical, and chemical process taking place over hundreds of millions of years. Examples are copper, aluminum, coal, and oil. These resources are classified as exhaustible because we are extracting and using them at a much faster rate than they were formed.

Sustainable Yeild- highest rate at which a potentially renewable resource can be used without reducing its available supply throughout