Ch 1 & 2
The process of interpreting nature through cultural ideas.
Naturework
A political and economic philosophy characterized by unfettered belief in the goodness of markets to deliver fair and sensible economic outcomes.
Neoliberalism
The contemporary US economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and the creation of goods and services for profit.
Capitalism
The discipline of science that utilizes existing basic scientific knowledge in the development of useful applications and technologies.
Applied Science
The social science discipline that studies the characteristics of human populations, including composition and how populations change over time.
Demography
A theory based on the principle that capitalism possesses the institutional capacity to reverse existing environmental destruction and that it can become environmentally sustainable.
Ecological Modernization Theory
A form of colonialism in which settlers appropriate land and other natural resources from Indigenous populations, seek to replace those groups, and justify the genocide and continued domination.
Settler Colonialism
The inputs necessary to produce goods and services, like land, machinery, tools, and factories.
Means of Production
The period in Western history beginning approximately in the 16th or 17th century, characterized by the rise of capitalism and the move away from medieval institutions.
Modernity
Population growth changes associated with low growth rates achieved through controlled fertility and low death rates achieved through modern healthcare and sanitation.
Demographic Transition
A theory proposed by Allan Schnaiberg based on the idea that industrial capitalism accelerates environmental destruction by increasing extraction of natural resources and raising toxicity of pollution and wastes.
Treadmill of Production Theory
The disproportionate exposure of communities of color and the poor to environmental hazards, and the disproportionate access of white and wealthy communities to environmental amenities, as well as unequal environmental protection provided through laws, regulations, and governmental programs.
Environmental Injustice
People having access to a sufficient amount of safe and nutritious food.
Food Security
In Marxist terms, work performed in excess of that necessary to produce the means of livelihood of a worker (the additional work that then produces a profit for the owner of the means of production).
Labor Surplus
The total population of any given species that can be supported in a geographic unit without permanently damaging the ecological systems that support that species.
Carrying Capacity
Social relations “lifted out” of their local contexts and restructured across time and space.
Disembedding
A theoretical approach that asserts the oppression of women is deeply and critically connected to the domination of nature.
Ecofeminism
A theory that proposes that only the fittest individuals or organizations will prosper in a competitive economic environment.
Economic Darwinism
The practice of science; the social, economic, political, and cultural institutions that support it; the research centers (universities, transnational corporations, and national laboratories) where scientists work; and the scientists themselves.
Establishment of Science
The phenomenon whereby producing energy through alternative means increases the overall supply of energy, causing energy prices to decrease. These cheaper prices then encourage society to use more energy, deepening our dependence on unsustainable energy-intensive lifestyles and having little effect on the goal of decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels.
Energy Boomerange Effect
A design process in which commodity chains mirror ecological processes and aim to reduce waste and pollutants through incorporating reuse and biodegradable components.
Biomimicry
The disruption or destruction of ecosystems in whole or in part, whether intentional or otherwise.
Ecological Violence
A proposed name for the geological epoch in which capitalism has caused environmental change, sometimes dated from 1450.
Capitalocene
An area or element of the environment that social institutions use to absorb human-made waste.
Waste Sinks
A measure of well-being developed by the New Economics Foundation to provide an alternative to the purely economic measure of GDP. ...for nations using self-reported life satisfaction levels and life expectancy and dividing that value by the per capita ecological footprint of the nation.
Happy Planet Index