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Definition
| Gradual shift from small, mobile hunting and gathering bands to settled agricultural communities in which people survived by learning how to breed and raise wild animals and to cultivate wild plants near where they lived. It began 10,000&endash;12,000 years ago. Compare environmental revolution, hunter&endash;gatherers, industrial&endash;medical revolution, information and globalization revolution. |
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Definition
| Sensible and careful use of natural resources by humans. People with this view are called conservationists. |
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| Biologist who investigates human impacts on the diversity of life found on the earth (biodiversity) and develops practical plans for preserving such biodiversity. Compare conservationist, ecologist, environmentalist, environmental scientist, preservationist, restorationist. |
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Definition
| Person concerned with using natural areas and wildlife in ways that sustain them for current and future generations of humans and other forms of life. Compare conservation biologist, ecologist, environmentalist, environmental scientist, preservationist, restorationist. |
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Definition
| Biological scientist who studies relationships between living organisms and their environment. Compare conservation biologist, conservationist, environmentalist, environmental scientist, preservationist, restorationist. |
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| Efforts by citizens at the grassroots level to demand that political leaders enact laws and develop policies to curtail pollution, clean up polluted environments, and protect pristine areas and species from environmental degradation. |
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Definition
| Scientist who uses information from the physical sciences and social sciences to understand how the earth works, learn how humans interact with the earth, and develop solutions to environmental problems. Compare conservation biologist, conservationist, ecologist, preservationist, restorationist. |
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Definition
| Person who is concerned about the impact of people on environmental quality and believe that some human actions are degrading parts of the earth's life-support systems for humans and many other forms of life. Compare conservation biologist, conservationist, ecologist, environmental scientist, preservationist, restorationist. |
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Definition
| 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-solid waste disposal. |
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Term
| frontier environmental worldview |
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Definition
| 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. |
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Definition
| People who get their food by gathering edible wild plants and other materials and by hunting wild animals and fish. Compare agricultural revolution, environmental revolution, industrial-medical revolution, information and globalization revolution. |
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Term
| industrial-medical revolution |
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Definition
| Use of new sources of energy from fossil fuels and later from nuclear fuels, and use of new technologies, to grow food and manufacture products. Compare agricultural revolution, environmental revolution, hunter-gatherers, information and globalization revolution. |
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Term
| information and globalization revolution |
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Definition
| Use of new technologies such as the telephone, radio, television, computers, the Internet, automated databases, and remote sensing satellites to enable people to have increasingly rapid access to much more information on a global scale. Compare agricultural revolution, environmental revolution, hunter-gatherers, industrial-medical revolution. |
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Definition
| Person concerned primarily with setting aside or protecting undisturbed natural areas from harmful human activities. Compare conservation biologist, conservationist, ecologist, environmentalist, environmental scientist, restorationist. |
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Definition
| Scientist or other person devoted to the partial or complete restoration of natural areas that have been degraded by human activities. Compare conservation biologist, conservationist, ecologist, environmental scientist, preservationist. |
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Term
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Definition
| Clearing a plot of ground in a forest, especially in tropical areas, and planting crops on it for a few years (typically 2-5 years) until the soil is depleted of nutrients or the plot has been invaded by a dense growth of vegetation from the surrounding forest. Then a new plot is cleared and the process is repeated. The abandoned plot cannot successfully grow crops for 10-30 years. See also slash-and-burn cultivation. |
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Term
| slash-and-burn cultivation |
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Definition
| Cutting down trees and other vegetation in a patch of forest, leaving the cut vegetation on the ground to dry, and then burning it. The ashes that are left add nutrients to the nutrient-poor soils found in most tropical forest areas. Crops are planted between tree stumps. Plots must be abandoned after a few years (typically 2&endash;5 years) because of loss of soil fertility or invasion of vegetation from the surrounding forest. See also shifting cultivation. |
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