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Sarah Sklar
Chapter One Study Guide
Vocabulary:
 Exponential Growth- when a quantity increases at a fixed percentage per unit of time.
 Environment- the sum total of all living and nonliving things that affect any living organism.
 Environmental Science- an interdisciplinary study that integrates information and ideas from the natural
sciences (such as biology, chemistry, and geology) that study the natural world, and the social sciences
(such as economics, politics, and ethics) that study how humans and their institutions interact with the
natural world.
 Ecology- a biological science that studies the relationships between living organisms and their
environment.
 Environmentalism- a social movement dedicated to protecting the earth’s life-support systems for us and
other species.
 Sustainability (Durability)- the ability of earth’s various systems, including human cultural systems and
economies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.
 Natural Capital- the natural resources and natural services that keep us and other species alive and
support our economies.
 Solar Capital- energy from the sun that warms the planet and supports photosynthesis, the process that
plants use to provide food for themselves and for us and other animals.
 Sound Science- the concepts and ideas that are widely accepted by experts in a particular field of the
natural or social sciences.
 Environmentally Sustainable Society- one that meets the current and future needs of its people for basic
resources in a just and equitable manner without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their needs.
 Economic Growth- an increase in the capacity of a country to provide people with goods and services.
 Gross Domestic Product (GDP)- the annual market value of all goods and services produced by all firms
and organizations, foreign and domestic, operating within a country.
 Per Capita GDP- the GDP divided by the total population at midyear.
 Economic Development- the improvement of human living standards by economic growth.
 Developed Countries- the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and most European
countries.
 Developing Countries- Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
 Environmentally Sustainable Economic Development- the goal to encourage environmentally beneficial
and more sustainable forms of economic development and discourage environmentally harmful and
unsustainable forms of economic growth.
 Resource- anything obtained from the environment to meet our needs and wants.
 Perpetual Resource- on a human time scale it is renewed continuously.
 Renewable Resource- can be replenished fairly rapidly through natural processes as long as it is not used
up faster than it is replaced.
 Sustainable Yield- the highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used indefinitely without
reducing its available supply.
 Environmental Degradation- when we exceed a resource’s natural replacement rate and the available
supply begins to shrink.
 Common-Property (Free-Access Resources)- resources not owned by any particular individual and that
are available to the public at little or no charge.
 Tragedy of the Commons- the degradation of renewable, free-access resources.
 Ecological Footprint- the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply an area
with resources and to absorb the wastes and pollution produced by such resource use.
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Per Capita Ecological Footprint- the average ecological footprint of an individual in an area.
Nonrenewable Resources- exist in a fixed quantity or stock in the earth’s crust.
Recycling- involves collecting waste materials, processing them into new materials, and selling these
new products.
Reuse- using a resource over and over in the same form.
Pollution- the presence of chemicals at high enough levels in air, water, soil, or food to threaten the
health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms.
Point Sources- single, identifiable sources of pollutants.
Non-Point Sources- larger, dispersed, and often difficult to identify sources of pollutants.
Pollution Prevention (Input Pollution Control)- reduces or eliminates the production of pollutants.
Pollution Cleanup (Output Pollution Control)- cleaning up or diluting pollutants after they have been
produced.
Poverty- the inability to meet one’s basic economic needs.
Affluenza- the unsustainable addiction to overconsumption and materialism exhibited in the lifestyles of
many affluent consumers in the United States and other developed countries and in the rising middle
class in countries such as China and India.
Frontier Environmental Worldview- the view of the continent as having vast resources and as a
wilderness to be conquered and managed for human use.
Environmental Worldview- a set of assumptions and values about how you think the world works and
what you think your role in the world should be.
Environmental Ethics- concerned with your beliefs about what is right and wrong with how we treat the
environment.
Planetary Management Worldview- a view that holds that we are separate from nature, that nature exists
mainly to meet our needs and increasing wants, and that we can use our ingenuity and technology to
manage the earth’s life-support systems, mostly for our benefit.
Stewardship Worldview- a view that holds that we can manage the earth for our benefit but that we have
an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers, or stewards, of the earth.
Environmental Wisdom Worldview- a view that holds that we are part of and totally dependent on
nature and that nature exists for all species, not just for us.
Social Capital- getting people with different views and values to talk and listen to one another, find
common ground, and work together to build understanding.
Statistics:
 53% of the people in the world try to survive on a daily income of less than $2 (US).
 One of every six of the world’s people, classified as desperately poor, struggle to survive on less than $1
(US) a day.
 Biologists estimate that human activities are causing premature extinction of the earth’s life forms, or
species, at an exponential rate of 0.1-1% per year.
 Between 2963 and 2006, the exponential rate at which the world’s population was growing decreased
from 2.2% to 1.23%.
 About 97% of the projected increase in the world’s population between 2006 and 2050 is expected to
take place in developing countries.
 Currently, the United States, the European Union, China, India, and Japan collectively use about 74% of
the earth’s ecological capacity, leaving only 26% for the rest of the world’s countries and the plants and
animals that support all economies.
 If estimates are correct, it will take the resources of 1.39 planet earths to support indefinitely our current
production and consumption of renewable resources.
 According to the World Health Organization, malnutrition, increased susceptibility to normal nonfatal
infections, the lack of access to clean drinking water, and severe respiratory disease and premature death
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from inhaling indoor air pollutants produced by burning wood or coal in open fires cause premature
death for at least 7 million poor people each year.
Poor parents in developing countries would need 60-200 children to reach the same lifetime family
resource consumption level as 2 children in a typical US family.
Human activities are degrading or using unsustainably about 60% of the world’s free natural services
that sustain life on earth.
Research by social scientists suggests that it takes only 5-10% of the population of a community,
country, or of the world to bring about major social change.
Important Figures:
 Figure 1-1 (pg 6)- About 10,000 years ago there were about 5 million humans on the planet. Today
there are 6.6 billion. Unless death rates rise sharply, there may be 8-10 billion of us by 2100.
 Figure 1-2 (pg 7)- Environmental science is an interdisciplinary study of connections between the
earth’s life-support system and the human culturesphere.
 Figure 1-3 (pg 8)- Five subthemes are used throughout this book to illustrate how we can make the
transition to more environmentally sustainable or durable societies and economies, based on sound
science, concepts widely accepted by natural and social scientists in various fields.
 Figure 1-4 (pg 9)- The natural resources and natural services that support and sustain the earth’s life and
economies.
 Figure 1-5 (pg 11)- A comparison of developed and developing countries.
 Figure 1-6 (pg 11)- Generalized distribution of poverty, which is found mostly in the southern
hemisphere, largely because of unfavorable climates and geological bad luck in terms of fertile soils,
minerals, and fossil fuel supplies.
 Figure 1-7 (pg 13)- Total and per capita ecological footprints of selected countries in 2002. By 2002,
humanity’s average ecological footprint was about 39% higher than the earth’s ecological capacity.
 Figure 1-10 (pg 17)- Human and natural capital produce an amazing array of goods and services for
most of the world’s people. However, the exponentially increasing flow of material resources through
the world’s economic systems depletes nonrenewable resources, degrades renewable resources, and adds
heat, pollution, and wastes to the environment.
 Figure 1-11 (pg 17)- The five basic causes of the environmental problems we face.
 Figure 1-12 (pg 18)- Some of the harmful results of poverty.
 Figure 1-14 (pg 20)- A simplified model of how three factors, number of people, affluence, and
technology, affect the environmental impact of the population in developing countries and developed
countries.
 Figure 1-15 (pg 21)- The advantages and disadvantages of the advanced industrial-medical revolution
and by extension the information-globalization revolution.
 Figures 1-16 (pg 24)- The four interconnected principles of sustainability are derived from learning how
nature has sustained a variety of life on the earth for about 3.7 billion years.
 Figure 1-17 (pg 25)- Implications of the four scientific principles of sustainability derived from
observing nature for the long-term sustainability of human societies.
 Figure 1-18 (pg 25)- Some shifts involved in bringing about the environmental or sustainability
revolution.
Laws:
 Some communities have established rules and traditions to regulate and share their access to commonproperty resources such as ocean fisheries, grazing lands, and forests. Governments have also enacted
laws and international treaties to regulate access to commonly owned resources such as forests, national
parks, rangelands, and fisheries in coastal waters.
Practice Questions:
1. Which is an interdisciplinary study that integrates information and ideas from the natural sciences that
study the natural world, and the social sciences that study how humans and their institutions interact
with the natural world?
A. Ecology
B. Environmental Science
C. Biology
D. Earth Science
2. A resource that exists in a fixed quantity or stock in the earth’s crust is a…
A. Renewable Resource
B. Perpetual Resource
C. Nonrenewable Resource D. Natural Capital
3. Which environmental worldview holds that we are separate from nature, that nature exists mainly to
meet our needs and increasing wants, and that we can use our ingenuity and technology to manage the
earth’s life-support systems, mostly for our benefit?
A. Planetary Management
B. Environmental Wisdom
C. Stewardship
D. Frontier Environmental
4. Which environmental worldview holds that we can manage the earth for our benefit but that we have an
ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers, or stewards, of the earth?
A. Planetary Management
B. Environmental Wisdom
C. Stewardship
D. Frontier Environmental
5. Which environmental worldview is that of the continent as having vast resources and as a wilderness to
be conquered and managed for human use?
A. Planetary Management
B. Environmental Wisdom
C. Stewardship
D. Frontier Environmental
6. Which is using a resource over and over in the same form?
A. Reuse
B. Recycling
C. Affluenza
D. Pollution
7. Approximately what fraction of the world’s population survives on only $2 (US) per day?
A. ½
B. ¾
C. ¼
D. 15%
8. How many children would poor parents in a developing country need to reach the same lifetime family
resource consumption level as 2 children in a typical US family?
A. 5-10
B. 30-50
C. 100-200
D. 60-200
9. The United States, the European Union, China, India, and Japan collectively use about what portion of
the earth’s ecological capacity?
A. 50%
B. 62%
C. 74%
D. 83%
10. What percentage of the projected increase in the world’s population between 2006 and 2050 is expected
to take place in developing countries?
A. 97%
B. 77%
C. 57%
D. 37%
11. What are the five basic causes of the environmental problems we face?
12. What are some of the harmful results of poverty?
13. What is the difference between the total and per capita ecological footprint within a nation?
14. Explain the tragedy of the commons and some of the potential solutions.
15. Explain why, unless death rates rise sharply, there may be 8-10 billion humans by 2100.
16. What four contributing factors cause premature death for at least 7 million poor people each year?
17. Compare developed and developing countries.
18. What are some of the natural resources and natural services that support and sustain the earth’s life and
economies?
19. What is the difference between a point source and a non-point source of pollution?
20. Explain the concept of Affluenza.
Answer Key:
1. B- This is the textbook definition of environmental science, the goals of which are to learn how nature
works, how the environment affects us, how we affect the environment, and how we can live more
sustainably without degrading our life-support system.
2. C- This is the textbook definition of a nonrenewable resource, which is a resource that is no longer being
created either at all or quickly enough to keep up with the demand for the resource, and therefore cannot
be used for any indefinite period of time.
3. A- This is the textbook definition of the planetary management worldview, which holds an extremely
unsympathetic view towards nature in the belief that nature exists merely to satisfy the wants and needs
of the human population.
4. C- This is the textbook definition of the stewardship worldview, which compromises between the two
extremes by both believing that the earth exists to benefit the human race, though it is additionally our
responsibility to care for the environment in return.
5. D- This is the textbook definition of the frontier environmental worldview, which is also fairly
unsympathetic in terms of the environment, for it holds the belief that our earth is a vast frontier full of
resources for humans to exploit for their own benefit.
6. A- This is the textbook definition of reusing, which, though similar to recycling, is different. Reuse, for
example, would be when a glass bottle is returned to a bottling plant, where it can be cleaned and
packaged to be sold once again. However, recycling would occur when that same bottle was melted
down to glass and made into a new product.
7. A- Approximately 52% of the world’s population survives on just $2 (US) per day or less, which is
about ½.
8. D- Researches have approximated that poor parents in a developing country would need to have 60-200
children to reach the same or similar consumption levels as a typical US family with only 2 children.
9. C- The United States, the European Union, China, India, and Japan collectively use approximately 74%
of all of the earth’s ecological capacity, leaving a mere 26% of the earth’s resources for the remainder of
the global population.
10. A- 97% of the projected increase in the world’s population between 2006 and 2050 is expected to take
place in developing countries due to the fact that population growth in developed countries has reached
nearly zero with modern advances in technology and medicine, as well as more widely available
education in developed countries.
11. The five basic causes of the environmental problems we face include: population growth, unsustainable
resource use, poverty, not including the environmental costs of economic goods and services in their
market prices, and trying to manage and simplify nature with too little knowledge about how it works.
12. Harmful results of poverty include: inadequate sanitation, not enough fuel for heating and cooking, lack
of access to electricity, lack of clean drinking water, inadequate health care, inadequate housing, and not
enough food for good health.
13. A total ecological footprint is the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply an
area with resources and to absorb the wastes and pollution produced by such resource use, while a per
capita ecological footprint is the average ecological footprint of an individual in an area.
14. The tragedy of the commons is the degradation of renewable, free-access resources. Some potential
solutions to this problem include: using free-access resources at rates well below their estimated
sustainable yields, as well as converting free-access resources to private ownership.
15. Unless death rates rise sharply, there may be 8-10 billion humans by 2100 due to the exponential growth
rate of the human population. Exponential growth occurs when a quantity increases at a fixed percentage
per unit of time.
16. According to the World Health Organization, malnutrition, increased susceptibility to normal nonfatal
infections, the lack of access to clean drinking water, and severe respiratory disease and premature death
from inhaling indoor air pollutants produced by burning wood or coal in open fires cause premature
death for at least 7 million poor people each year.
17. Most developed countries are highly industrialized and have high average per capita GDP, while
developing countries are moderate to low income nations that have little to no industrialization and low
average per capita GDP.
18. Some of the natural resources include: air, water, soil, land, life, nonrenewable minerals, renewable
energy, and nonrenewable energy. Some of the natural services include: air purification, water
purification, water storage, soil renewal, nutrient recycling, food production, conservation of
biodiversity, wildlife habitat, grassland and forest renewal, waste treatment, climate control, population
control, and pest control.
19. Point source of pollutants are single, identifiable sources of pollutants, while non-point sources are
larger, dispersed, and often difficult to identify sources of pollutants.
20. Affluenza is the unsustainable addiction to overconsumption and materialism exhibited in the lifestyles
of many affluent consumers in the United States and other developed countries and in the rising middle
class in countries such as China and India.