Understanding the Environment

Front

What does the environment consist of?

Back

The environment consists of all the living and nonliving things around us.

Front

Environmental science

Back

the study of how the natural world works, how the environment affects us, and how we affect it

Front

Natural resources

Back

substances and energy sources that we take from the environment

Front

Renewable natural resources

Back

can replenish over short periods of time.

Front

Nonrenewable natural resources

Back

finite supply—they form far more slowly than we use them.

Front

Ecosystem services

Back

• include the purification of water and air, cycling of nutrients, recycling water flow, flood prevention, and reducing erosion.​

• It arises from normal ecosystem function.​

• It can be depleted or​
  degraded.

Front

agricultural revolution

Back

people grew crops, domesticated animals, and settled in villages

Front

industrial revolution

Back

shifted to an urban society powered by fossil fuels.

Front

Fossil fuels

Back

nonrenewable energy sources, like coal, oil, and natural gas.

Front

ecological footprint

Back

expresses this consumption by the area of land and water needed to provide the resources a person consumes or the waste they generate