Glossary

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Chapter 14
adaptive management Flexible management that views attempts to solve problems as experiments, analyzes failures to see what went wrong, and tries to modify and improve an approach before abandoning it. Because of the inherent unpredictability of complex systems, it often uses the precautionary principle as a management tool. See precautionary principle.
anthropocentric Human-centered. Compare biocentric.
appropriate technology Forms of technology that are small scale, efficient, and labor intensive and that use locally available resources to produce goods that benefit local communities.
biocentric Life centered. Compare anthropocentric.
capitalism See capitalist market economic system. Compare pure command economic system, pure free-market economic system.
capitalist market economic system Economic system built around controlling market prices of goods and services, global free trade, and maximizing profits for the owners or stockholders whose financial capital the company is using to do business. Compare pure command economic system, pure free-market economic system.
centrally planned economy See pure command economic system.
civil suit Lawsuit in which a plaintiff seeks to (1) collect damages for injuries or for economic loss or (2) have the court issue a permanent injunction against further wrongful action. Compare class action suit.
class action suit Civil lawsuit in which a group files a suit on behalf of a larger number of citizens who allege similar damages but who need not be listed and represented individually. Compare civil suit.
common law Body of unwritten rules and principles derived from thousands of past legal decisions. It is based on evaluation of what is reasonable behavior in attempting to balance competing social interests. Compare statutory law.
defendant The individual, group of individuals, corporation, or government agency being charged in a lawsuit. Compare plaintiff.
democracy Government by the people through their elected officials and appointed representatives. In a constitutional democracy, a constitution provides the basis of government authority and puts restraints on government power through free elections and freely expressed public opinion.
discount rate Economic value a resource will have in the future compared with its present value.
earth capital See natural resources.
earth resources See natural resources.
ecological land-use planning Method for deciding how land should be used; development of an integrated model that considers geological, ecological, health, and social variables.
economic decision Deciding (1) what goods and services to produce, (2) how to produce them, (3) how much to produce, and (4) how to distribute them to people.
economic resources Natural resources, capital goods, and labor used in an economy to produce material goods and services. See natural resources.
economy System of production, distribution, and consumption of economic goods.
ecosystem services Natural services or natural capital that support life on the earth and are essential to the quality of human life and the functioning of the world's economies. See natural resources.
environmental ethics Our beliefs about what is right or wrong environmental behavior.
environmental justice Fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
environmental movement Efforts by citizens (mostly at the grassroots level) to demand that political leaders enact laws and develop policies to (1) curtail pollution, (2) clean up polluted environments, and (3) protect pristine areas and species from environmental degradation.
environmental revolution Cultural change involving halting population growth and altering lifestyles, political and economic systems, and the way we treat the environment so we can help sustain the earth for ourselves and other species. This involves working with the rest of nature by learning more about how nature sustains itself. See environmental wisdom worldview. Compare agricultural revolution, hunter-gatherers, industrial revolution, information and globalization revolution.
environmental wisdom worldview Beliefs that (1) nature exists for all the earth's species, not just for us, and we are not in charge of the rest of nature; (2) there is not always more, and it is not all for us; (3) some forms of economic growth are beneficial and some are harmful, and our goals should be to design economic and political systems that encourage earth-sustaining forms of growth and discourage or prohibit earth-degrading forms; and (4) our success depends on learning to cooperate with one another and with the rest of nature instead of trying to dominate and manage earth's life-support systems primarily for our own use. Compare frontier environmental worldview, planetary management worldview, spaceship-earth worldview.
environmental worldview How people think the world works, what they think their role in the world should be, and what they believe is right and wrong environmental behavior (environmental ethics).
environmentally sustainable economic development Development that (1) encourages environmentally sustainable forms of economic growth that meet the basic needs of the current generations of humans and other species without preventing future generations of humans and other species from meeting their basic needs and (2) discourages environmentally harmful and unsustainable forms of economic growth. It is the economic component of an environmentally sustainable society. Compare economic development, economic growth.
EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; responsible for managing federal efforts to control air and water pollution, radiation and pesticide hazards, environmental research, hazardous waste, and solid waste disposal.
external benefit Beneficial social effect of producing and using an economic good that is not included in the market price of the good. Compare external cost, full cost.
external cost Harmful environmental or social effect of producing and using an economic good that is not included in the market price of the good. Compare external benefit, full cost, internal cost.
externalities Social benefits ("goods") and social costs ("bads") not included in the market price of an economic good. See external benefit, external cost. Compare full cost, internal cost.
financial resources Cash, investments, and monetary institutions used to support the use of natural resources and human resources to provide economic goods and services. Compare human resources, manufactured resources, natural resources.
frontier environmental worldview Viewing undeveloped land as a hostile wilderness to be conquered (cleared, planted) and exploited for its resources as quickly as possible. Compare environmental wisdom worldview, planetary management worldview, spaceship-earth worldview.
full cost Cost of a good when its internal costs and its estimated short- and long-term external costs are included in its market price. Compare external cost, internal cost.
Gaia hypothesis Hypothesis that the Earth is alive and can be considered a system that operates and changes by feedback of information between its living and nonliving components.
GDP See gross domestic product.
globalization Broad process of global social, economic, and environmental change that leads to an increasingly similar and integrated world. See information and globalization revolution.
GNI See gross national income.
GNP See gross national product.
gross domestic product (GDP) Total market value in current dollars of all goods and services produced within a country , usually during a year. Compare gross national product, gross world product.
gross national income (GNI) Total market value in current dollars of all goods and services produced within and outside a country during a year plus net income earned abroad by a country's citizens. Formerly called gross national product. Compare .
gross national product (GNP) See gross national income.
gross world product (GWP) Market value in current dollars of all goods and services produced in the world each year. Compare gross domestic product, gross national income.
high-throughput economy Situation in most advanced industrialized countries, in which ever-increasing economic growth is sustained by maximizing the rate at which matter and energy resources are used, with little emphasis on pollution prevention, recycling, reuse, reduction of unnecessary waste, and other forms of resource conservation. Compare low-throughput economy, matter-recycling economy.
human capital See human resources.
human resources Physical and mental talents of people used to produce, distribute, and sell an economic good. Compare financial resources, manufactured resources, natural resources.
identified resources Deposits of a particular mineral-bearing material of which the location, quantity, and quality are known or have been estimated from direct geological evidence and measurements. Compare undiscovered resources.
inherent value See intrinsic value.
instrumental value Value of an organism, species, ecosystem, or the earth's biodiversity based on its usefulness to us. Compare intrinsic value.
intermediate goods See manufactured resources.
internal cost Direct cost paid by the producer and the buyer of an economic good. Compare external benefit, external cost, full cost.
intrinsic value Value of an organism, species, ecosystem, or the earth's biodiversity based on its existence, regardless of whether it has any usefulness to us. Compare instrumental value.
land-use planning Process for deciding the best present and future use of each parcel of land in an area. See ecological land-use planning.
low-throughput economy Economy based on working with nature by (1) recycling and reusing discarded matter, (2) preventing pollution, (3) conserving matter and energy resources by reducing unnecessary waste and use, (4) not degrading renewable resources, (5) building things that are easy to recycle, reuse, and repair, (6) not allowing population size to exceed the carrying capacity of the environment, and (7) preserving biodiversity. See environmental worldview. Compare high-throughput economy, matter-recycling economy.
low-waste society See low-throughput economy.
manufactured capital See manufactured resources.
manufactured resources Manufactured items made from natural resources and used to produce and distribute economic goods and services bought by consumers. These include tools, machinery, equipment, factory buildings, and transportation and distribution facilities. Compare financial resources, human resources, natural resources.
market equilibrium See market price equilibrium point.
market price equilibrium point State in which sellers and buyers of an economic good agree on the quantity to be produced and the price to be paid.
matter-recycling economy Economy that emphasizes recycling the maximum amount of all resources that can be recycled. The goal is to allow economic growth to continue without depleting matter resources and without producing excessive pollution and environmental degradation. Compare high-throughput economy, low-throughput economy.
mineral resource Concentration of naturally occurring solid, liquid, or gaseous material in or on the earth's crust in a form and amount such that extracting and converting it into useful materials or items is currently or potentially profitable. Mineral resources are classified as metallic (such as iron and tin ores) or nonmetallic (such as fossil fuels, sand, and salt).
natural resources The earth's natural materials and processes that sustain other species and us. Compare financial resources, human resources, manufactured resources.
other resources Identified and undiscovered resources not classified as reserves. Compare identified resources, reserves, undiscovered resources.
per capita GNI Annual gross national income (GNI) of a country divided by its total population. See gross national income.
per capita GNI in purchasing power parity (per capita GNI PPP) The GNI PPP divided by the total population at midyear. This is a better way to compare people's economic welfare among countries.
per capita GNP See per capita GNI.
plaintiff The individual, group of individuals, corporation, or government agency bringing the charges in a lawsuit. Compare defendant.
planetary management worldview Beliefs that (1) we are the planet's most important species; (2) there are always more resources, and they are all for us; (3) all economic growth is good, more economic growth is better, and the potential for economic growth is limitless; and (4) our success depends on how well we can understand, control, and manage the earth's life-support systems for our own benefit. See spaceship-earth worldview. Compare environmental wisdom worldview.
politics Process through which individuals and groups try to influence or control government policies and actions that affect the local, state, national, and international communities.
pollution prevention Device or process that (1) prevents a potential pollutant from forming or entering the environment or (2) sharply reduces the amount entering the environment. Compare pollution cleanup.
poverty Inability to meet basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter.
precautionary principle When there is scientific uncertainty about potentially serious harm from chemicals or technologies, decision makers should act to prevent harm to humans and the environment. See pollution prevention.
pure capitalism See pure free-market economic system.
pure command economic system System in which all economic decisions are made by the government or some other central authority. Compare capitalist market economic system, pure free-market economic system.
pure free-market economic system System in which all economic decisions are made in the market, where buyers and sellers of economic goods interact freely, with no government or other interference. Compare capitalist market economic system, pure command economic system.
riparian rights System of water law that gives anyone whose land adjoins a flowing stream the right to use water from the stream, as long as some is left for downstream users. Compare prior appropriation.
spaceship-earth worldview View of the earth as a spaceship: a machine we can understand, control, and change at will by using advanced technology. See planetary management worldview. Compare environmental wisdom worldview.
statutory law Law developed and passed by legislative bodies such as federal and state governments. Compare common law.
stewardship View that because of our superior intellect and power or because of our religious beliefs, we have an ethical responsibility to manage and care for domesticated plants and animals and the rest of nature. Compare environmental wisdom worldview, planetary management worldview.
sustainable development See environmentally sustainable economic development.
sustainable living Taking no more potentially renewable resources from the natural world than can be replenished naturally and not overloading the capacity of the environment to cleanse and renew itself by natural processes.
sustainable society A society that manages its economy and population size without doing irreparable environmental harm by overloading the planet's ability to absorb environmental insults, replenish its resources, and sustain human and other forms of life over a specified period, usually hundreds to thousands of years. During this period, it satisfies the needs of its people without depleting natural resources and thereby jeopardizing the prospects of current and future generations of humans and other species.
throwaway society See high-throughput economy.
totally planned economy See pure command economic system.
true cost See full cost.
undiscovered resources Potential supplies of a particular mineral resource, believed to exist because of geologic knowledge and theory, although specific locations, quality, and amounts are unknown. Compare identified resources, reserves.
utilitarian value See instrumental value.
worldview How people think the world works and what they think their role in the world should be. See environmental wisdom worldview, planetary management worldview, spaceship-earth worldview.
zoning Regulating how various parcels of land can be used.