APES
Chapter 1 Unit Guide
Environmental Issues, Their Causes, and Sustainability
Main Ideas:
 Living more sustainably
 Population Growth, Economic Growth, Environmentally Sustainable
Development, and Globalization
 Resources
 Pollution
 Environmental and Resource Problems: Causes and Connections
 Is our present course sustainable?
Vocabulary:
Each of these terms must be defined on your vocabulary worksheet in blue or
black ink.
o Environmental science
o Ecology
o Doubling time
o Environmentally sustainable society
o Solar energy
o Solar capital
o Natural capital/resources
o Developing countries
o Globalization
o Economic resource
o Renewable resource
o Environmental degradation
o Recycling vs. Reuse
o Point source vs. Nonpoint source
o Pollution cleanup
o Environmental wisdom worldview
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Rule of 70
Economic growth
GNP
GDP
GWP
Economic development
Developed countries
Wealth Gap
Ecological resource
Perpetual resource
Sustainable yield
Non-renewable resource
Pollution
Pollution prevention
Planetary management worldview
Win big or win pretty good strategy
Reading pages:
Pages 2-20 of the textbook
Essential Questions:
1. Describe exponential growth and its connection to environmental problems.
2. Give 4 examples of environmental degradation.
3. What is the tragedy of the commons? Give 3 examples of common-property
resources. Try to list 3 ways to deal with the tragedy of the commons.
4. According to environmentalists, what are 5 root causes of the environmental
problems we face?
5. List 6 major changes environmentalists believe should take place over the
next 50 years as part of an environmental or sustainability revolution.