Sustainability Principles and Practice
Fourth Edition
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
Chemical compounds containing atoms of carbon, chlorine, and fluorine that are harmful to the ozone layer of the atmosphere.
circular economy
A closed-loop economy with a continuous cyclic flow of materials, where output from one process becomes input for another.
climax community
Historic term for a community resulting from a process of ecological succession that remains unchanged in the absence of disturbance.
conservation
Early twentieth century view of nature as a resource to be efficiently managed for human use.
ecological footprint
A measure of the demand a person, population, or activity places on nature in order to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates, usually expressed as acres or hectares of productive land and water.
ecology
The study of the relationships between organisms and their environment.
ecosystem
A system of living organisms interacting with each other and their physical environment.
endangered species
A species considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future.
environmental ethics
The branch of philosophy that studies the moral value of, and humans’ ethical relationship to, the nonhuman world.
environmental history
The study of human relationships to the natural world through time.
environmental justice
The concept that access to a clean, healthy environment is a fundamental human right.
life cycle assessment (LCA)
A method for quantifying the total environmental impacts of a material, product, or building through all phases of its life from cradle to grave; also known as life cycle analysis.
listing
The addition of a species considered to be facing a high risk of extinction to a list of endangered species such as the international IUCN Red List or the lists mandated by the US Endangered Species Act.
Kyoto Protocol
An international treaty adopted in 1997 at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and expiring in 2012 which limited carbon dioxide emissions for those developed countries that signed it.
succession
Progressive change in species composition, structure, and ecosystem characteristics in a community, often in response to a disturbance,
threatened species
A species considered to be likely to become endangered in the near future.
trophic level
The position a group of organisms with similar feeding function occupies in a food web.