Download italicGlossary Acid rain Deposition of rain or snowfall with unusually

Glossary
Acid rain Deposition of rain or snowfall with unusually high acidity, resulting from the emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the air, typically from industrial emissions. This form of precipitation is harmful
for plant life and aquatic ecosystems
Affect
Emotions and unconscious responses to the world that influence decision-making
Animal liberation Named after Peter Singer’s groundbreaking 1975 book, a radical social movement that
aims to free all animals from use by humans, whether those uses are for food, medical testing, industry, personal adornment, entertainment or anything else
Animal rights An ethical position and social movement that states that non-human animals, particularly intelligent mammals, should be granted rights as ethical subjects on par or at least similar to human beings
Anthropocentrism An ethical standpoint that views humans as the central factor in considerations of right
and wrong action in and toward nature (compare to ecocentrism)
Apex predators Also known as “top carnivores,” the animals in any ecosystem occupying the top trophic
level; apex predators do not have any natural predators
Background extinction rate Usually given in numbers of plant and animal species per year, the estimated
average rate of extinction over long-term, geologic time, not counting mass extinction events
Biodiversity The total variability and variety of life forms in a region, ecosystem, or around the world; typically used as a measure of the health of an environmental system
Birth rate A measure of natural growth in a population, typically expressed as the number of births per
thousand population per year
Bycatch Non-targeted organisms incidentally caught by commercial fishing operations, including many fish
species, but also a large number of birds, marine mammals, and sea turtles
Cap and trade A market-based system to manage environmental pollutants where a total limit is placed on
all emissions in a jurisdiction (state, country, worldwide, etc.), and individual people or firms possess transferable shares of that total, theoretically leading to the most efficient overall system to maintain and reduce pollution levels overall
Capital accumulation The tendency in capitalism for profits, capital goods, savings, and value to flow towards, pool in, and/or accrue in specific places, leading to the centralization and concentration of both money
and power
Carbon cycle The system through which carbon circulates through the earth’s geosphere, atmosphere, and
biosphere, specifically including exchanges between carbon in the earth (e.g., as petroleum) and the atmosphere (as CO2) through combustion and back again through sequestration
Carbon sequestration The capture and storage of carbon from the atmosphere into the biosphere or the
geosphere through either biological means, as in plant photosynthesis, or engineered means
Carrying capacity The theoretical limit of population (animal, human, or otherwise) that a system can sustain
Climax vegetation The theoretical assemblage of plants arising from succession over time, determined by
climatic and soil conditions
Coase theorem A thesis based in neoclassical economics, holding that externalities (e.g., pollution) can be
most efficiently controlled through contracts and bargaining between parties, assuming the transaction costs of
reaching a bargain are not excessive
Collective action
comes
Cooperation and coordination between individuals to achieve common goals and out-
Columbian Exchange The movement of species across the Atlantic Ocean, from the New World to the Old
World and vice versa, and the resulting ecological transformations
Command-and-control Forms of regulation that depend on government laws and agencies to enforce rules,
including such things as regulated limits on pollution or fuel efficiency standards; contrasts with market-based
or incentive-based approaches
Commodification The transformation of an object or resource from something valued in and for itself, to
something valued generically for exchange. In Marxist thought, the rise of the exchange value of a thing, over
its use value
Commodity An object of economic value that is valued generically, rather than as a specific object (example: pork is a commodity, rather than a particular pig). In political economy (and Marxist) thought, an object
made for exchange
Common property A good or resource (e.g., bandwidth, pasture, oceans) whose characteristics make it
difficult to fully enclose and partition, making it possible for non-owners to enjoy resource benefits and owners
to sustain costs from the actions of others, typically necessitating some form of creative institutional management
Concept
A single idea, usually captured in a word or a phrase
Conditions of production In political economic (and Marxist) thought, the material or environmental conditions required for a specific economy to function, which may include things as varied as water for use in an
industrial process to the health of workers to do the labor
Conservation The management of a resource or system to sustain its productivity over time, typically associated with scientific management of collective goods like fisheries or forests (compare to preservation)
Conservation biology A branch of scientific biology dedicated to exploring and maintaining biodiversity and
plant and animal species
Constructivist Emphasizing the significance of concepts, ideologies, and social practices to our understanding and making of (literally, constructing) the world
Consumer boycott A method of protest that aims to pressure corporations into changing their practices by
urging people to forgo purchasing products associated with the targeted corporations
Co-production The inevitable and ongoing process whereby humans and non-humans produce and change
one another through their interaction and interrelation
Cultural theory A theoretical framework associated with anthropologist Mary Douglas that stresses the way
individual perceptions (of risk, for example) are reinforced by group social dynamics, leading to a few paradigmatic, typical, and discrete ways of seeing and addressing problems
Death rate A measure of mortality in a population, typically expressed as the number of deaths per thousand
population per year
Deep ecology A philosophy of environmental ethics that distances itself from “shallow” or mainstream environmentalism by arguing for a “deeper” and supposedly more truly ecologically-informed view of the world
Demographic transition model A model of population change that predicts a decline in population death
rates associated with modernization, followed by a decline in birth rates resulting from industrialization and
urbanization; this creates a sigmoidal curve where population growth increases rapidly for a period, then levels
off
Desalinization A technology that removes salts and other minerals from water, especially sea water; prohibitively expensive in most contexts, current techniques are highly energy demanding
Discourse At root, written and spoken communication; thicker deployments of the term acknowledge that
statements and texts are not mere representations of a material world, but rather power-embedded constructions that (partially) make the world we live in
Disturbance An event or shock that disrupts an ecological system, thereafter leading either to recovery of
that system (e.g., through succession) or movement of the system into a new state
Dolphin safe tuna
Tuna caught without killing dolphins as bycatch
Dominion thesis Arising from the Book of Genesis, the dominion thesis states that humans are the pinnacle
of creation; as such, humans are granted ethical free rein to use nature in any way deemed beneficial
Ecocentrism An environmental ethical stance that argues that ecological concerns should, over and above
human priorities, be central to decisions about right and wrong action (compare to anthropocentrism)
Eco-feminism Any of a number of theories critical of the role of patriarchal society for degrading both the
natural environment and the social condition of women
Ecological footprint The theoretical spatial extent of the earth’s surface required to sustain an individual,
group, system, organization; an index of environmental impact
Ecology The scientific study of interactions amongst organisms and between organisms and the habitat or
ecosystem in which they live
Ecosystem services Benefits that an organic system creates through its function, including food resources,
clean air or water, pollination, carbon sequestration, energy, and nutrient cycling, among many others
Emissions trading A system for exchanging the right to emit/pollute limited amounts of determinant materials (like greenhouse gases). These rights or credits are exchangeable between emitters, but subject to a total
regulatory limit
Environmental justice A principle, as well as a body of thought and research, stressing the need for equitable distribution of environmental goods (parks, clean air, healthful working conditions) and environmental bads
(pollution, hazards, waste) between people, no matter their race, ethnicity, or gender. Conversely, environmental injustice describes a condition where unhealthful or dangerous conditions are disproportionately proximate to minority communities
Ethics/ethical
in the world
The branch of philosophy dealing with morality, or, questions of right and wrong human action
Exchange value In political economy (and Marxist) thought, the quality of a commodity that determines the
quantity of other goods for which the commodity might be traded at a given moment. Compare to use value
Exclusive economic zones (EEZs) Usually extending 200 nautical miles off the coasts of sovereign states,
EEZs are sea-zones within which states claim ownership over fishery and mineral resources
Exponential growth A condition of growth where the rate is mathematically proportional to the current value, leading to continued, non-linear increase of the quantity; in population, this refers to a state of increasingly
accelerated and compounded growth, with ecological implications for scarcity
Externality The spillover of a cost or benefit, as where industrial activity at a plant leads to pollution off-site
that must be paid for by someone else
Extinction crisis The current era of anthropogenically induced plant and animal extinction, estimated to be
between one thousand and ten thousand times the historical average, or background extinction rate
Factory farms Intensive animal-raising agricultural operations; factory farms attempt to maximize production
by raising as many animals in as little space as possible, often resulting in significant air and water pollution
Fertility rate A measure describing the average number of children birthed by an average statistical woman
during her reproductive lifetime
First contradiction of capitalism In Marxist thought, this describes the tendency for capitalism to eventually
undermine the economic conditions for its own perpetuation, through overproduction of commodities, reduction of wages for would-be consumers, etc., predicted to eventually lead to responses by workers to resist
capitalism leading to a new form of economy. Compare to the second contradiction of capitalism
Fordism Relations of production dominant in many industrialized countries in the first several decades of the
twentieth century; marked by large, vertically integrated corporations, high wages and rates of consumption,
and considerable state power
Forest transition theory A model that predicts a period of deforestation in a region during development,
when the forest is a resource or land is cleared for agriculture, followed by a return of forest when the economy changes and population outmigrates and/or becomes conservationoriented
Game theory A form of applied mathematics used to model and predict people’s behavior in strategic situations where people’s choices are predicated on predicting the behavior of others
Genome
The complete set of genes of an organism, species, etc.
Globalization An ongoing process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of exchange
Green certification Programs to certify commodities for the purposes of assuring their ecological credentials, such as organically grown vegetables or sustainably harvested wood products
Green consumption Purchasing of products that are purportedly environmentally friendlier or less harmful
than their alternatives; a model of environmental protection that relies on consumer choices to change the
behavior of firms or industries rather than regulation
Green Revolution A suite of technological innovations, developed in universities and international research
centers, which were applied to agriculture between the 1950s and 1980s and increased agricultural yields
dramatically, but with a concomitant rise in chemical inputs (fertilizers and pesticides) as well as increased
demands for water and machinery
Greenhouse effect The characteristic of the earth’s atmosphere, based on the presence of important gases
including water vapor and carbon dioxide, to trap and retain heat, leading to temperatures that can sustain life
Greenwashing
friendly
The exaggerated or false marketing of a product, good, or service as environmentally
Hazard An object, condition, or process that threatens individuals and society in terms of production or reproduction
Holism Any theory that holds that a whole system (e.g., an “ecosystem” or the earth) is more than the sum
of its parts
Ideologies
Normative, value-laden, world views that spell out how the world is and how it ought to be
Induced intensification
A thesis predicting that where agricultural populations grow, demands for food lead
to technological innovations resulting in increased food production on the same amount of available land
Institutions Rules and norms governing collective action, especially referring to rules governing common-property environmental resources, like rivers, oceans, or the atmosphere
Intrinsic value
a means
The value of a natural object (e.g., an owl or a stream) in and for itself, as an end rather than
IPAT A theoretical formula holding that human Impact is a function of the total Population, its overall Affluence, and its Technology; this provides an alternative formulation to a simple assumption that population
alone is proportional to impact
Jevons’ Paradox The somewhat counterintuitive observation, rooted in modern economic theory, that a
technology that increases the efficiency of resource use actually increases, rather than decreases, the rate of
consumption of that resource
Kuznets curve (environmental) Based in the theory that income inequality will increase during economic
development and decrease after reaching a state of overall affluence, this theory predicts that environmental
impacts rise during development, only to fall after an economy matures
Life cycle analysis The rigorous analysis of the environmental impacts of a product, service, or object from
its point of manufacture all the way to its deposition as waste; also know as cradle-to-grave assessment
Longliners An industrial fishing method deploying lines baited with hundreds or thousands of hooks; longlines are usually several miles long and often result in significant bycatch
Market failure A situation or condition where the production or exchange of a good or service is NOT efficient; this refers to a range of perverse economic outcomes stemming from market problems like monopoly or
uncontrolled externalities
Market response model A model that predicts economic responses to scarcity of a resource will lead to
increases in prices that will result either in decreased demand for that resource or increased supply, or both
Masculinity The socially agreed upon characteristics of behavior associated with men in any society; these
may vary significantly between cultures, locations, and periods of history
Maximum sustainable yield The largest seasonal or annual amount of any particular natural resource (e.g.,
timber, fish) that can be harvested indefinitely
Means of production In political economic (and Marxist) thought, the infrastructure, equipment, machinery,
etc. required to make things, goods, and commodities
Monocrop
A single crop cultivated to the exclusion of any other potential harvest
Monopoly A market condition where there is one seller for many buyers, leading to perverted and artificially
inflated pricing of goods or services
Monopsony A market condition where there is one buyer for many sellers, leading to perverted and artificially deflated pricing of goods or services
Moral extensionism An ethical principle stating that humans should extend their sphere of moral concern
beyond the human realm; most commonly, it is argued that intelligent or sentient animals are worthy ethical
subjects
Narrative A story with a beginning and end; environmental narratives such as “biological evolution” and “the
tragedy of the commons” aid our comprehension and construction of the world
Natural resource management
Both the academic discipline and professional field dedicated to the man-
agement of environmental conditions, goods, or services for social goals, which may range between instrumental human utility to ecological sustainability
Naturalistic fallacy A philosophically invalid derivation of an ethical “ought” from a natural “is”
“Nature” The natural world, everything that exists that is not a product of human activity; often put in quotes
to designate that it is difficult if not impossible to divvy up the entire world into discrete natural and human
components
Neo-Malthusians Present-day adherents to a position – established by Malthus in the nineteenth century –
that population growth outstrips limited natural resources and presents the single greatest driver of environmental degradation and crisis
NEPA The National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 commits the US government to protecting and improving the natural environment; after NEPA, the federal government is required to write environmental impact
statements (EIS) for government actions that have significant environmental impact
Niche In ecology, the location of an organism or species within a larger ecosystem, typically fulfilling an
ecological function
Overaccumulation In political economy (and Marxism), a condition in the economy where capital becomes
concentrated in very few hands (e.g., wealthy individuals) or firms (e.g., banks), causing economic slowdown
and potential socioeconomic crisis
Overproduction In political economy (and Marxism), a condition in the economy where the capacity of industry to produce goods and services outpaces the needs and capacity to consume, causing economic slowdown and potential socioeconomic crisis
Photosynthesis The process through which plants use the sun’s energy to convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars that are used to build tissues
Political ecology An approach to environmental issues that unites issues of ecology with a broadly defined
political economy perspective
Post-Fordism Arising in the last decades of the twentieth century, the current relations of production in most
industrialized countries; marked by decentralized, specialized, and often subcontracted production, the prominence of transnational corporations, and diminished state power
Power/knowledge A theoretical formulation associated with the philosopher Michel Foucault, which holds
that what is known and held as true in a society is never separate from power, such that knowledge reinforces
relationships of power but also that systems of power are associated with their own specific regimes of
knowledge
Pragmatism A branch of philosophy that arose in late-nineteenth-century North America, pragmatism considers real-world consequences and effects to be constituent components of truth and reality
Preservation The management of a resource or environment for protection and preservation, typically for its
own sake, as in wilderness preservation (compare to conservation)
Primitive accumulation In Marxist thought, the direct appropriation by capitalists of natural resources or
goods from communities that historically tend to hold them collectively, as, for example, where the common
lands of Britain were enclosed by wealthy elites and the state in the 1700s
Prisoner’s Dilemma An allegorical description of a game-theoretical situation in which multiple individuals
making decisions in pursuit of their own interests tend to create collective outcomes that are non-optimal for
everyone
Production of nature In political economic thought, the idea that the environment, if it ever did exist separate from people, is now a product of human industry or activity
Purse-seine fishing An effective fishing method for species that school near the surface; a large net is encircled around the targeted catch, after which the bottom of the net is drawn tight like the strings of a purse,
thus confining the catch in the net
Race A set of imaginary categories distinguishing types of people, typically based on skin color or body
morphology, which varies significantly between cultures, locations, and periods of history
Reconciliation ecology A science of imagining, creating, and sustaining habitats, productive environments,
and biodiversity in places used, traveled, and inhabited by human beings
Relations of production In political economic (and Marxist) thought, the social relationships associated
with, and necessary for, a specific economy, as serfs/knights are to feudalism and workers/owners are to
modern capitalism
Relativism Questioning the veracity of universal truth statements, relativism holds that all beliefs, truths, and
facts are at root products of the particular set of social relations from which they arise
Rewilding The restoration of natural ecological functioning and evolutionary processes to ecosystems; rewilding often requires the reintroduction or restoration of large predators to ecosystems
Risk
The known (or estimated) probability that a hazard-related decision will have a negative consequence
Risk assessment The rigorous application of logic and information to determine the risk – possibility of an
undesirable outcome – associated with particular decisions; used to so reach more optimal and rational outcomes
Risk communication A field of study dedicated to understanding the optimal way to present and convey
risk-related information to aid people in reaching optimal and rational outcomes
Risk perception A phenomenon, and related field of study, describing the tendency of people to evaluate
the hazardousness of a situation or decision in not-always-rational terms, depending on individual biases, culture, or human tendencies
Scientism Usually deployed as a term of derision; refers to an uncritical reliance on the natural sciences as
the basis for social decision-making and ethical judgments
Second contradiction of capitalism In Marxist thought, this describes the tendency for capitalism to eventually undermine the environmental conditions for its own perpetuation, through degradation of natural resources or damage to the health of workers, etc., predicted to eventually lead to environmentalist and workers’
movements to resist capitalism, leading to a new form of economy. Compare to the first contradiction of capitalism
Secondary succession The regrowth of vegetation and return of species to an area cleared or reduced by
disturbance, as where a forest recovers its “climax vegetation” cover after a fire
Shifting cultivation A form of agriculture that clears and burns forest areas to release nutrients for cropping.
Also known as “swidden,” this method is highly extensive, typically rotating through areas of forest land for
short periods of use, allowing previously used forest land to recover
Signifying practices Modes and methods of representation; the techniques used to tell stories, introduce
and define concepts, and communicate ideologies
Social construction Any category, condition, or thing that exists or is understood to have certain characteristics because people socially agree that it does
Social context The ensemble of social relations in a particular place at a particular time; includes belief
systems, economic relations of production, and institutions of governance
Social Darwinism The use of Darwinian evolutionary theory to explain social phenomena; as individuals are
viewed as naturally and inherently competitive and selfish beings, social Darwinism typically rationalizes war,
poverty, and hierarchically stratified social systems
Social ecology A school of thought and set of social movements, associated with the thinker Murray Bookchin, asserting that environmental problems and crises are rooted in typical social structures and relationships,
since these tend to be hierarchical, state-controlled, and predicated on domination of both people and nature
Social reproduction That part of the economy, especially including household work, that depends on unremunerated labor, but without which the more formal cash economy would suffer and collapse
Spatial fix The tendency of capitalism to temporarily solve its inevitable periodic crises by establishing new
markets, new resources, and new sites of production in other places
Stakeholders
Individuals or groups with a vested interest in the outcome of disputed actions
Stewardship Taking responsibility for the property or fate of others; stewardship of land and natural resources is often used in a religious context, such as “caring for creation”
Succession Ecologically, the idealized tendency for disturbed forest areas to recover through stages of species invasion and growth, progressing from grassland, to shrubs, and eventually back to tree cover
Superfund The environmental program established to address abandoned hazardous waste sites in the
United States
Surplus value In political economic (and Marxist) thought, the value produced by underpaying labor or
over-extracting from the environment, which is accumulated by owners and investors
Sustainable/sustainability The conservation of land and resources so as to secure their availability to future generations
Transaction costs In economics, the cost associated with making an exchange, including, for example,
drawing a contract, traveling to market, or negotiating a price; while most economic models assume low
transaction costs, in reality these costs can be quite high, especially for systems with high externalities
Transnational corporations (TNC) Corporations operating facilities in more than one country; also commonly called multinational corporations (MNCs)
Trophic levels Parallel levels of energy assimilation and transfer within ecological food webs; in terrestrial
ecosystems, photosynthetic plants form the base trophic level, followed “up” the web by herbivores and successive levels of carnivores
Uncertainty The degree to which the outcomes of a decision or situation are unknown
Uneven development The geographic tendency within capitalism to produce highly disparate economic
conditions (wealth/poverty) and economic activity (production/consumption) in different places
Use value In political economy (and Marxist) thought, the quality of a commodity derived from its actual
usefulness and importance for individuals, since it fills a need or purpose. Compare to “exchange value”
Utilitarian An ethical theory that posits that the value of a good should be judged solely (or at least primarily)
by its usefulness to society; following the eighteenth–nineteenth-century philosopher Jeremy Bentham, usefulness is equated with maximizing pleasure or happiness and minimizing pain and suffering
Utopia/utopian Imaginary, idealized social conditions arising from socio-political systems that facilitate cooperation over competition
Wilderness A wild parcel of land, more or less unaffected by human forces; increasingly, wilderness is
viewed as a social construction
Zero population growth A condition in a population where the number of births matches the number of
deaths and therefore there is no net increase; an idealized condition for those concerned about overpopulation