Understanding Our Environment
The difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources.
Can be replaced to some extent (renewable); cannot be replaced in anyway way (nonrenewable)
An important tool used to understand the natural world.
Science
The final step in making environmental decisions.
Making an actual decision
The easiest way to learn about a project at the local park.
Consult a park ranger or other person of authority
A term that refers to nearly everything around us.
What environmental science is generally about.
The study of the interactions among the physical, chemical, and biological components of the environment
The easiest way to observe patterns and trends in data.
Usage of graphs and charts
This value increases our knowledge, in general.
Educational Values
Atlantic Salmon are this type of resource.
Renewable, to an extent
Engineering falls into this category of science.
Applied Sciences
This is a common, yet serious consequence of habitat destruction.
Extinction
The final step in the Scientific Method.
Communication of results
A factor in decision-making that specifically benefits the well-being of the community.
Health Values
The American Midwest is less likely (than other areas) to suffer from this type of crisis.
The Population Crisis
A decision-making value that maintains human communities, and respects their values and traditions.
Social and Cultural Values
This is a major focus of Environmental Science as a whole.
Solving environmental problems
A key way data can prove a hypothesis. (Think about it!)
Hypothesis cannot be proven, only supported
The construction of a very expensive—yet profitable—oil rig deals with this specific decision-making value.
Economic Values
When evaluating lab data, this must be compared with your actual results.
Your expected/predicted results
The difference between qualitative and quantitative resources.
The physical qualities of something (qualitative); the numbers, values, and data associated with something (quantitative)
This is the consumption crisis.
The issue where resources are mass-produced and consumed far faster than they can be renewed; plagues developed nations
The difference between Pure and Applied Sciences.
Scientific understanding (pure); problem solving (applied)
A factor in decision-making that is particularly difficult for detail-oriented people to agree upon.
Aesthetic Values
Something that the long-term consequences of dumping sewage into a water reservoir might include.
Disease, illness, water shortages, etc.
Science is self-correcting because of these aspects.