Brandi Alfaro
APES- Ch 1
Background extinction rate: avg. rate at which species go extinct over the long tern
Envi. Studies: field of study includes envi sci, envi policy, economics, literature, and ethics
Anthropogenic: derived from human activities
Uncertainty: estimate of how much measured or calculated value differs from a true value
Null Hypothesis: an idea that can be falsified or proven wrong
Biodiversity: diversity of life forms in an environment
Envi. Indicators: indicators that describe the current state of an environmental system
Sustainable dev.: development that balances current human well-being and economic
advancement with resource mgmt for the benefits of future generations.
Development: improvement in human well-being through economic advancement
Envi. Justice: A social movement/ field of study that focuses on equal enforcement of envi. laws
and eliminating disparities in the exposure of environmental harms to different ethic &
socioeconomic groups within a society
Hypothesis: a testable theory or supposition about how something works
Environmental Science: field of study that looks at interactions among human systems and those
found in nature.
Accuracy: how close a measured value is to the actual value
Species: a group of organisms that is distinct from other groups in its morphology, behavior or
biochemical properties.
Greenhouse Gases: A gas in earth’s atmosphere that traps heat near the surface
Ecological Footprints: measure of how much an individual consumes expressed in area of land
Deductive Reasoning: process of applying a general statement to specific facts or situations
Biophilia: an appreciation for life
Ecosystem: a particular location on Earth distinguished by its mix of interacting biotic and
abiotic components; environmental justice
Precision: how close the repeated measurements of a sample are to one another
Biotic and Abiotic: living and nonliving (respectively) aspects of an ecosystem
Natural experiment: natural events that act as experimental treatment
Speciation: evolution of new species
Environment: sum of all the conditions surrounding us that influence life
Control Group: experiences exactly the same conditions as the experimental group, except for
the single variable under study
Environmental Service: process by which natural environments provide life-supporting resources
Scientific Method: objective method to explore the natural world, draw inferences from it, and
predict the outcome of certain events, processes or changes
Theory: hypothesis that has been repeatly tested and confirmed by multiple groups of researchers
and has reached wide acceptance
Critical Thinking: process of questioning the source of information, considering the methods
used to obtain the information, and drawing conclusions; essential to all scientific endeavor
Sample Size: number of times a measurement replicated in the data collection process
Inductive Reasoning: process of making general statements from specific facts or examples
system: any set of interacting components that influence one another by exchanging energy of
materials
Replication: data collection procedure of taking repeated measurements
Natural Law: theory for which there is no known exception that has withstood rigorous testing
Environmentalist: person who participates in environmentalism; protecting environment by
lobbying, activism and education.
Check Point Answers
- The factors that make up an organism's environment are both biotic (other plants/animals) and
abiotic (weather, temp., water).
- Environmental studies is interdisciplinary in how there are several subject areas like
environmental policies, chemistry, biology, law, etc.
- Envi. Sci. research is important because it could help people understand the consequences of
interactions and how to fix them.
- Human's change the environment b creating new ecosystems and developing a vast technology
crazed civilization.
- The development of technology caused species to adapt or relocate, also climate has been
changed due to human changes.
- Human development has a great impact on natural systems, like the use of land is outpacing the
way these systems can evolve.
- Environmental indicators describe the current state of an environmental system and they tell
humans when they need to look deeper in the issue.
- The "5 global-scale environmental indicators" are biological diversity, food production, average
global surface temperature, and CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, human population, and
resource depletion. They analyze the health of the planet by guiding the population towards
sustainability.
- Human activities contribute to the change in the "5 global-scale environmental indicators" by
causing habitat destruction/degradation in the biodiversity. In food production, the human
population has outpaced food production, the increase of CO2 into the atmosphere is
athropogenic. The rise in human population depletes Earth from its finite resources are unequal
amongst developed and underdeveloped countries.
- The essential needs for mankind's survival are air, water, food, shelter and community.
- To live sustainably means to find a balance with human well-being and the rate natural
resources can replenish themselves.
- An ecological footprint measures how much a group of people consume expressed in an area of
land. It's important because to maintain human sustainability it can't be more than 11 billion
hectares or the world would be on a path of obliteration.
- The scientific method is an objective way to explore the natural world, draw inferences from it,
and predict the outcome of certain events, processes, or changes. It's used by scientists to
conduct science.
- A hypothesis is a testable conjecture about how something works and a null hypothesis is a
statement or idea that can be proven wrong.
- They're different in how a natural experiment occurs when a natural event acts as an experiment
is set by the person.
- Environmental science is different from other sciences because of the number of limitations/
challenges that are a result of the nature of environmental science and the way research is
conducted.
- Lack of baseline data makes it difficult to know to original levels of contaminates or number of
species that existed before humans. There can only be speculation.
Multiple-choice Questions
1. A
2. B
8. E
3. B
9. E
4. B
10. A
5. C
6. E
7.