Politics 4D - Environment Definitions

Ecologism - ideology, nature is an interconnected whole, embracing humans, non humans and the inanimate

Fossil Fuels - fuel formed through decomposition fo dead buried organisms making them carbon rich; oil, natural gas, coal

Entropy - A tendancy to disintegration/decay, characteristic of all closed systems

Acid Rain - Rain contaminated by sulphuric/nitric acid released into atmosphere by burning fossil fuels

Ozone Depletion - decline in amount of ozone in Earth's stratosphere, 'ozone hole' over Antartic

Global Warming - increase in Earth's temperature, due to heat trapped by greenhouse gases like CO2

Greenhouse Gases - Gases that trap heat in Earth's lower atmosphere

Anthropocentrism - Human needs and interests are of overriding moral and philosophical importance

Carrying Capacity - Max population an ecosystem can support

Global Commons - Areas and natural resources that aren't owned; beyond jurisdiction ie atmosphere, oceans, Antartica 

Shallow Ecology - green ideological perspective; puts lessons of ecology to human needs; associated with values such as sustainability and conservation

Externality - A cost of an economic activity that has wider impact but does not feature on the balance sheet of a businessor form part of the GDP of a country

Sustainability - Capacity of a system to maintain its health and continuing existance over a preiod of time

Utilitarianism - Moral philosophy, equates 'good' with pleasure/happiness and 'evil' with pain/unhappiness, aims to achieve the greatest happiness for the…