Intro to ES
The study of how humans interact with the environment
What is environmental science?
Observing, hypothesizing, predicting, experimenting, and communicating results
What are the steps of the experimental method?
A block of lithosphere that consists of the crust and the rigid, outermost part of the mantle
What is a tectonic plate?
Mainly soil but includes salt, ash from fires, volcanic ash, particulate matter from combustion, skin, hair, bits of clothing, pollen, bacteria, viruses, and tiny liquid droplets
What is atmospheric dust?
The continuous movement of water into the air, onto land, and then back to water sources
What is the water cycle?
People who obtain food by collecting plants and by hunting wild animals or scavenging their remains
Who are hunter-gatherers?
A logical statement about what will happen if a hypothesis is correct
What is a prediction?
The iron-rich layer of the Earth between the crust and the core
What is the mantle?
The process in which gases trap heat near the Earth
What is the greenhouse effect?
The total quantity of dissolved salts in ocean water
What is salinity?
The practice of growing, breeding, and caring for plants and animals that are used for food, clothing, housing, transportation, and other purposes
What is agriculture?
Reliable associations between two or more variables
What are correlations?
A sphere of hot, dense nickel and iron at the center of the Earth
What is the core?
A gaseous element that makes up 78% of the Earth's atmosphere
What is nitrogen?
The two elements that make up 86% of the ocean's dissolved minerals
What are chlorine and sodium?
The shift from energy sources such as animal muscle and running water to fossil fuels, such as coal and oil
What is the Industrial Revolution?
A representation of objects or systems
What is a model?
The removal and transport of surface material, usually by wind or water
What is erosion?
Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere
What are the layers of the atmosphere?
Stream-like movements of water that occur near the surface of the ocean
What are surface currents?
A concept termed by Garrett Hardin in his essay about the conflict between short-term interests of individuals and the long-term welfare of society
What is "The Tragedy of the Commons"?
Gather information, consider values, explore consequences, make a decision
What is a simple decision-making model?
Where much of the geologic activity at the surface of the Earth takes place
What are plate boundaries?
A molecule made up of 3 oxygen atoms
What is ozone?
Only a little more than 2% of all water on Earth
What is fresh water?