Chapter 1

Homo sapiens—The genus and species of the Linnaean classification system of humans. In Latin, it means “wise man.”

Homo neanderthalensis—The genus and species of the Linnaean classification system for Neanderthals. A homo species that coexisted and interbred with H. sapiens. Neanderthals died around 40,000 years ago.

Prehistory—The period of human existence prior to the written records or human documentation. Most of human history is prehistory.

Species—The species is the principal natural taxonomic unit, ranking below a genus and denoted by a Latin binomial, such as, H. sapiens. Historically, a species was defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding. This definition has become less useful and the concept of species has become more complicated. The Linnaean classification system hierarchy is Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.

Linear notion of human evolution—There are numerous images of human evolution described as a linear process from a monkey to an ape to H. erectus to H. sapiens. This is an incorrect oversimplification of the origins and development of H. sapiens. H. sapiens coexisted and interbred with many other hominin species.

Obstetrical dilemma—A hypothesis that the pelvis of human females evolved to be a compromise between bipedal locomotion and suitability for childbirth. One hypothesized consequence was the premature birth of human infants that fostered more social and collaborative behavior.

Three Age System—The demarcation of human prehistory into the Stone Age (~prehistory to 3,300 BCE), the Bronze Age (~3,300 BCE to 1,200 BCE), and the Iron Age (~1,200 BCE to 500 BCE).

Cognitive revolution—A point in human prehistory when our ancestors developed new abilities associated with language, gossip, and collective fiction. Yuval Noah Harari suggests that this took place roughly 70,000 years ago, while Julian Jaynes suggests that the most important aspects of the cognitive revolution happened much more recently (~3,000 years ago).

Agricultural revolution—The period of time associated with the adoption of agricultural technology resulting in food surplus and storage. It took place in many parts of the world independently; however, the Fertile Crescent in Mesopotamia is believed to be the first manifestation.

Fertile Crescent—A crescent-shaped region in the Middle East covering parts of modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. It is believed to be the first region where settled farming took place.

Boserup Hypothesis—Esther Boserup suggested that population growth is independent of food supply and the population increase was the driving force for changes in agricultural practices. The Boserup hypothesis is counter to the ideas of Malthus who suggested that changes in food supply influenced population growth trajectories.

Animal domestication—The process of capturing and cultivating wild animals for human uses including textiles (e.g., leather and wool) and food (meat, poultry, and fish).

Bipedalism—The process of locomotion on two feet. We believe Australopithecus was the first hominin to commit to bipedalism between 2 and 4 million years ago.

Global biomass by species—The mass (typically in kilograms) of all the members of a species on the earth. All H. sapiens on the planet weigh over 500 billion kilograms representing roughly 0.01% of the world’s total biomass (plants and animals). Humans and their domesticated livestock (e.g., cows, sheep, pigs, and goats) compose more than 95% of the mammalian biomass on the planet. Anthropogenic mass (buildings, cars, etc.) exceeds the total global biomass (all plants and animals) on the earth.

Chapter 2

Exponential growth—Exponential growth occurs when something increases in quantity over time. It takes place when the instantaneous rate of change of a quantity with respect to time is proportional to the quantity itself.

Logistic growth—Logistic growth occurs when a population growth rate declines to zero as the population approaches carrying capacity. A graph of quantity (aka population) versus time for a logistic growth process is a sigmoid or “S” curve.

Zero Population Growth (ZPG)—ZPG occurs when the growth rate of a population is zero. This can occur with a large population or a small population.

Carrying capacity—The carrying capacity of an environment or region is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be supported by that environment’s food, space, water, and other resources indefinitely.

Limits to Growth—The Limits to Growth is a 1972 report that discussed the potential consequences of exponential economic and population growth on a planet (earth) with a finite supply of resources. The report described a systems dynamics model (World3) that simulated several scenarios of potential change to population, food production, industrialization, nonrenewable resources, and pollution.

Overshoot and Collapse—A drop in population as a consequence of overshoot (demand for resources exceeding regeneration of resources by the environment) has been termed “collapse.” Overshoot and collapse can happen to animals and people.

The Rule of 72—The Rule of 72 is a simple equation that provides a way to calculate how long it takes for a population or financial investment to double in size based on its annual growth rate or rate of return. For example, 100 people (or a $100 investment) growing at a rate of 6% per year will double in 72 / 6 = 12 years.

The Great Population Growth Rate Spike—W.W. Rostow pointed out that a graph of the human population growth rate over time is really a long flat line (representing a very low growth rate over a long period of time) that rapidly rises starting around 1750 and peaking in the early 1960s at just over 2% and then proceeding to drop back to a very small (and likely negative) value for a long period of time.

Cartogram—A cartogram is a type of map in which the areal extent or size of regions is distorted to be proportional to the values of some other variable associated with those regions. A typical example is a cartogram of the nations of the world by population. This map will show China and India as roughly 3 times larger than the United States because their populations are roughly 3 times larger.

Dot-density map—A dot-density map is a type of thematic map that employs dots or other symbols on the map to show the values of one or more numeric data fields. A dot-density map of the population might use a dot to represent 1,000 people. Areas of high population density have a higher density of dots.

Choropleth map—A choropleth map uses differences in shading or coloring within the polygonal boundaries delineated on the map to indicate the average values of a property or quantity in those areas.

Population size—The absolute magnitude or size of a population. For the U.S. Census, it represents the total number of persons counted in the census. For the 2020 census, the total population size of the United States was 331,449,281.

Population rate—A population rate is a way to make “apples to apples” comparisons between two populations of different sizes. If there were 1,679 murders in California in 2019 and 471 murders in Alabama in 2020, which state has a more serious murder problem? To compare these two states, one must use population rates rather than population size. The murder rate in California is 1,679 / 39.37 million = 4.26 murders per 100,000 people. In Alabama, the comparable murder rate is 471 / 5.04 million = 9.6 murders per 100,000 people. Alabama’s murder rate is more than double that of California’s.

Population density—Simply put population density is the population divided by corresponding area. This is typically expressed in persons per square kilometer. In practice, this can be somewhat problematic. According to the census, the population density of airports is low because the census measures where people typically live and sleep. India has a population density of roughly 475 persons per square kilometer, whereas Australia has a population density of 3.4 persons per square kilometer.

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI)—VGI is spatially referenced data that is provided for free by volunteers (typically cell phone users). Sometimes this is done intentionally (e.g., people helping OpenStreetMap build a data set of the streets of the world via their cell phones); in many other cases, it is provided with only limited awareness of those who are contributing the information (e.g., when you “agree” to share location information when installing an app on your phone).

Constant growth—If something (e.g., a population) grows at a fixed annual rate, it is experiencing “constant growth.” It is important to realize that exponential growth is constant growth.

Chapter 3

Demography—Demography is the scientific study of populations. Typically demographers study human populations; however, demographic analysis of trees, squirrels, and other living things that reproduce, live, die, and migrate can also be considered a kind of demography.

John Graunt—John Graunt (1620–1674) is arguably the world’s first demographer and epidemiologist. His book Natural and Political Observations Made Upon the Bills of Mortality provided insights that were seminal to the establishment of demography. Some of these were the idea of life expectancy and the analysis of ways to identify the cause of death.

Thomas Robert Malthus—Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) wrote the famous treatise An Essay on the Principle of Population that warned of the problems and challenges of a growing population and its demand on a food supply that cannot grow as fast.

Reputation bias—Reputation bias is similar to “The Halo Effect.” The halo effect is a cognitive bias that occurs when positive impressions of people, brands, and products in one area positively influence our feelings and/or impressions in another area. An example of this is when one assumes that a good-looking person in a photograph is also an overall good person. This produces a misjudgment that is often influenced by our individual perceptions and experiences.

Census—A census is the process of systematically acquiring, documenting, and calculating information about the individuals in a given population.

Basic Demographic Equation—This is a very simple equation describing how a population changes over time. Population Change = (Births − Deaths) +/− (In-Migration − Out-Migration)

Crude birth rate (CBR)—The CBR is simply the number of live births occurring during the year, per 1,000 of the corresponding population estimated at midyear.

Total fertility rate (TFR)—The TFR for a given year is defined as the total number of children that would be born to each woman if she were to live to the end of her childbearing years and give birth to children in alignment with the prevailing age-specific fertility rates.

Natural increase—The rate of natural increase is derived by subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate. This is equal to the rate of population change in the absence of migration.

Life expectancy – The number of years a person can expect to live. When reported for a county it is typically life expectancy at birth. People who have achieved a certain age typically have a life expectancy that is higher than life expectancy at birth.

de facto versus de jure census—A de facto census counts the people who exist on that day in a given administrative area. A de jure census counts people who legally and normally reside in that administrative area. The U.S. Census used a mix of these two by counting all persons who normally live in the given administrative area regardless of their legal status.

Stable population—A stable population has an unchanging age structure and a fixed rate of natural increase.

Stationary population—A stationary population is a special case of a stable population in that it has a zero population growth rate.

American Community Survey (ACS)—The ACS is a survey of roughly 300,000 persons in the United States conducted monthly by the U.S. Census Bureau. It is intended as a supplement to the decennial census and replaces the long form of the census that was sent to a subset of the population. The ACS provides a much higher temporal resolution (i.e., monthly).

Population pyramid—The population pyramid is one of the first “info-graphics.” It describes the sex structure of a population using bar graphs /histograms split by sex (left and right) and sorted by age vertically (young on bottom, older as you go up).

Dependency ratio—The dependency ratio measures the number of people aged 0–14 and those aged 65 years or older, relative to the total population aged 15–64. This indicator provides insight into the number of people of nonworking age, relative to the number of those of working age.

Cohort—A group of people having a common statistical factor (e.g., age or class membership). Age cohorts are common in demographic studies and we use them in our daily vernacular more than many of us realize (e.g., sophomore class, class of 1983, baby boomers, Gen Z).

Longitudinal study—In a longitudinal study, the same individuals are observed over an extended period of time to detect any changes that might occur. Longitudinal studies are a kind of correlational research that observes and collects data on a variety of variables. These kinds of studies are common in medicine, economics, and epidemiology; nonetheless, they can also be found in the other social or medical sciences.

Infant mortality rate—The infant mortality rate is the number of deaths children of aged 1 to 1-year-old for every 1,000 live births. The infant mortality rate provides information about maternal and infant health in addition to being a very good proxy measure of the overall health of a society.

Age-specific fertility rate—Age-specific fertility is the number of births to females in a particular age category (typically in ranges of 15–20, 21–25, 26–30, etc.) for a given year compared to the number of females in that age category.

Maternal mortality—Maternal mortality is the number of maternal deaths during a given time period per 100,000 live births for the same time period. In 2020, the maternal mortality rate in the United States was 24 deaths per 100,000 live births this is more than 3 times the rate in most other high-income countries.

Chapter 4

Demographic transition—The demographic transition is the change in birth and death rates over time for a region or country. Several people are mentioned for proposing the demographic transition model or demographic transition theory (e.g., Warren Thompson in 1929, Frank Notestein in the 1950s). The transition is typically one from high birth and death rates (stage I) to falling death rates (Stage II) to falling birth rates (Stage III) to low birth and death rates (Stage IV) with some suggesting there is a Stage V in which death rates exceed birth rates and population decline manifests.

Secularization—The process of disassociation from religious or spiritual concerns. In general, secularization is a word used to describe the declining importance of religion in a society.

Economic development—Economic development is typically characterized as an increase in a country or region’s wealth and standard of living. Economic development is typically characterized by increased levels of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, improved productivity, higher literacy rates, and effective public education systems. It is important to distinguish economic development from economic growth. Economic development implies improved well-being for the average person, whereas economic growth typically means increased GDP, which may or may not increase GDP per capita depending upon demographic trajectories.

Fertility control—There are many ways in which people exhibit control over their fertility (e.g., how many children they have). Condoms, birth control pills, and intra-uterine devices (IUDs) are examples of technological mechanisms to reduce fertility. There are also behavioral methods such as the rhythm method and cultural methods (e.g., average age of sexual union). In vitro fertilization is a means of fertility control aimed at increasing fertility.

Mortality control—Mortality control consists of the social, behavioral, and technological means by which we change the death rate. Most mortality control aims to prolong life; however, war, degraded environments and lack of sanitation, education, and health care can be choices that societies make that increase the death rate and reduce life expectancy. Typical life-extending mortality controls are public sanitation and sewer systems, antibiotics, health care systems, vaccinations, and water purification.

Migration transition—The Zelinsky Model of Migration Transition, also known as the Migration Transition Model or Zelinsky’s Migration Transition Model, posits that the type of migration that takes place within a country depends on its level of economic development and its society type. Migration transition theory suggests that as countries develop they experience a transition from predominantly migrant-sending to migrant-receiving.

Age transition—As the population of a country or region passes through a demographic transition, in which mortality and fertility rates decline, it moves from a young age structure toward an old age structure. Japan is one of the major countries that is farthest along in experiencing the age transition.

Urban transition—The urban transition has historically correlated with the demographic transition. Urbanization is associated with lower fertility rates, higher levels of economic development, and lower death rates. The urban demographic transition is sometimes defined as the historical period in which the population growth of cities structurally changed the nature of human settlement in most of the countries of the world.

Birth control pill—The birth control pill (aka “The Pill”) is a hormone-based drug that is almost 100% effective at preventing pregnancy. The most commonly prescribed pill consists of a combination of hormones (estrogen and progesterone). Progesterone is the hormone that prevents pregnancy, and the estrogen component controls menstrual bleeding.

Diaphragm—The diaphragm is a physical barrier method of contraception. A diaphragm is a dome-shaped, silicone cup that is inserted in the vagina hours before sex to prevent pregnancy.

IUD—The IUD is a little, t-shaped piece of plastic inserted into the uterus to provide birth control. IUDs have been used extensively in China for years due to their effectiveness.

Rhythm method—The rhythm method is a form of behavioral fertility control or natural family planning. It is accomplished by tracking one’s menstrual history to predict when ovulation will occur. This helps one determine when one is most likely to conceive.

Vasectomy—Vasectomy is a form of male birth control that removes the supply of sperm to the man’s semen. Vasectomies are accomplished by cutting and sealing the tubes that carry sperm. Vasectomy is a low-risk procedure that can be performed in an outpatient setting under local anesthesia. Roughly 1 in 10 men in the United States have had a vasectomy.

Tubal ligation—Tubal ligation (aka “getting your tubes tied”) is a medical procedure in which the fallopian tubes are cut, tied, or blocked. Tubal ligation stops eggs from traveling from the ovaries down the fallopian tubes and blocks sperm from traveling up the fallopian tubes to the egg.

Aging population—A population that is experiencing the last stages of the demographic transition. This is characterized by death rates exceeding birth rates, increased life expectancy, and a growing age dependency ratio. Many countries of the world are experiencing an aging population including most of Europe, the United States, Japan, and China.

Infant mortality—The infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of children aged 0 to 1-year old for every 1,000 live births. The infant mortality rate provides information about maternal and infant health in addition to being a very good proxy measure of the overall health of a society.

Chapter 5

Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth—Walt Whitman Rostow wrote a book titled The Stages of Economic Growth. In this book, Rostow characterized the process of economic development for all societies to pass through five stages: (1) the traditional society, (2) the preconditions for takeoff, (3) the takeoff, (4) the drive to maturity, and (5) the age of high mass consumption. As Kate Raworth notes—he did not describe how this ship of state might land.

Economic development versus economic growth—Economic development implies improved well-being for the average person, whereas economic growth typically means increased GDP, which may or may not increase GDP per capita depending upon demographic trajectories.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—GDP measures the dollar value of the final goods and services produced in a country or region. The crude formula for GDP is as follows: GDP = private consumption + gross private investment + government investment + government spending + (exports − imports). GDP is usually tabulated by national statistical agencies according to an international standard.

Globalization—Globalization is the process by which national corporations increasingly become transnational corporations and develop international influence and operate at an international scale. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which later evolved into the World Trade Organization, is a corporate–industrial manifestation of globalization. Some would argue that globalization is simply when people and goods move easily across borders. This is usually followed by bland statements about the integration of markets and reduced barriers to the flow of products and services between nations. The world today is not one in which people can move easily across borders. We have a globalized world in which capital can move easily but not labor. Globalization has nonetheless taken place to a great extent and there are many people that are not in favor of it. Interestingly, the opponents of globalization in the United States are often from both the far left and far right of the political spectrum.

Race to the bottom—An economic situation that is intensified by globalization in which companies compete with each other to reduce costs by paying the lowest wages or giving workers the worst conditions. Often these lower wages and working conditions are in the less developed countries of the world, which motivates companies to move their manufacturing operations to these countries. Seeking lax environmental and labor regulations in these countries is another way corporations race to the bottom.

Supply chain system—A supply chain is a network of people, businesses, resources, transportation services, and technologies that are used to produce and sell a product or service. Supply chains start with the delivery of raw materials from a supplier to a manufacturer and end with the delivery of the finished product or service to the end consumer. As supply chains get extended across greater distances between numerous countries, the resilience of the supply chain system degrades because the supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

GINI coefficient—The GINI coefficient or GINI Index measures the inequality among values of a frequency distribution such as levels of income. The mathematics of calculating the GINI index are associated with the Lorenz curve. GINI values range from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (maximum inequality). According to the CIA World Factbook, the GINI coefficients for income in the following countries are South Africa (0.63) highest inequality in the world, United States (0.41), Haiti (0.41), Mexico (0.37), Australia (0.34), and Norway (0.27).

Autarky—A country, state, region, or society that is economically independent. No countries in the world are fully autarkic.

Feudalism—Feudalism was the prevailing socioeconomic system in medieval Europe. It is characterized by land ownership in which nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for the promise of military service when needed. Vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, and the peasants (villeins or serfs) were obliged to live on their lord’s land and pay him homage, labor, and a share of the produce. Presumably, all of this was in exchange for military protection, not really that much different than the patronage systems of modern mafias.

Mercantilism—An economic belief system that sees trade as the mechanism by which wealth is created. Wealth creation via trade then stimulates the accumulation of profitable balances, which a nation or government should encourage by means of protectionism.

Capitalism—The prevailing economic and political system in the world today, which is characterized by a country’s trade and industry being controlled by private owners for profit.

Socialism—Socialism is an economic and political system distinct from capitalism that includes a range of economic and social systems ranging from no private property to regulated capitalism. The defining characteristic of most forms of socialism is greater degrees of social ownership of the means of production with an emphasis on democratic control of businesses such as worker-owned cooperatives.

Labor force participation—The labor force participation rate is simply the number of people in the labor force divided by the total working-age population. The working-age population refers to people aged 15–64.

Informal economy—The informal economy consists of economic activities that have market value but are not formally registered. These activities typically are not taxed and you typically do not receive a receipt for any goods or services provided by the informal economy. The informal economy embraces professions as diverse as minibus drivers in Africa, street food vendors in Latin America, and hawkers found at traffic lights all over the world. Prostitution and illegal drug trafficking are also significant components of the informal economy. The magnitude of the informal economy varies dramatically from country to country. In the United States, it is estimated to be 7%–10% of GDP, whereas in India it is estimated to be more than 40% of the economy.

Basic and nonbasic economy—A significant basic economy of Hollywood, California is the movie industry. For Detroit, Michigan it is automobile manufacturing. Basic industries are those exporting from the region and bringing wealth from outside, while nonbasic (or service) industries support basic industries. The Starbuck’s coffee shops in both Hollywood and Detroit represent nonbasic economic activity.

Subsistence economy—A subsistence economy is an economy characterized by activities that serve basic subsistence (the provision of food, clothing, shelter) rather than the market. Subsistence economies typically do not accumulate wealth and use money to a much lesser extent than market economies.

World-system theory and the core periphery model—World-systems theory is a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the social, economic, and political changes that make up world history. The theory emphasizes the world system (and not nation-states) as the primary real driver and controlling force for change. The idea of a “World system” points to the interregional and transnational division of labor, which divides the world into core nations, semiperiphery nations, and the periphery nations. Core nations focus on higher-skill, capital-intensive production, and the rest of the world focuses on low-skill, labor-intensive production, and extraction of natural resources. This system is self-perpetuating to maintain the dominance of the core nations.

Comparative advantage—Classical economist David Ricardo originated the theory of comparative advantage to explain why countries participate in international trade even when one country’s workers are more efficient at producing every single good than workers in other countries. Ricardo demonstrated that if two countries that can produce two commodities engage in the free market (assuming no international flow of capital or labor), then each country will gain more wealth by exporting the good for which it has a comparative advantage while importing the other good. The theory of comparative advantage is one of the foundational arguments supporting free trade.

Money—Money is a fungible commodity accepted by general consent (i.e., faith and trust) as a medium of economic exchange. Money is the medium by which prices and values are communicated. As currency money circulates anonymously from person to person and country to country. Money as a medium of exchange is considered by many a measure of wealth and a facilitator of trade, which supports the belief system of mercantilism. There is a saying—if you think you understand money you probably have not thought about it very much.

Chapter 6

The cognitive revolution—A point in human prehistory when our ancestors developed new abilities associated with language, gossip, and collective fictions. Yuval Noah Harari suggests that this took place roughly 70,000 years ago, while Julian Jaynes suggests that the most important aspects of the cognitive revolution happened much more recently (~3,000 years ago).

Natural capital—Natural capital consists of the world’s stock of natural resources. This includes geology, soils, air, water, and all living organisms. Natural capital is a “stock” resource that provides a “flow” of benefits that is often referred to as ecosystem services. This is comparable to a “stock” of financial “capital” that provides a “flow” of interest revenue. Natural capital is the fundamental basis of our existence, which underpins our economy and society, and our very lives.

Ecosystem function—Ecosystem function is the capacity of natural processes and elements to provide goods and services that satisfy human needs, either directly or indirectly. Ecosystem functions are conceived as a subset of ecological processes and ecosystem structures.

Ecosystem services—Ecosystem goods and services provide the life-sustaining benefits we receive from nature—clean air and water, fertile soil for crop production, pollination, and flood control. Ecosystem services are essential to environmental and human health and well-being.

Valuation—In general, valuation is the process of quantifying the value of a good or service in some unit of value typically dollars. In this book, we explore ecosystem service valuation, which is the process of quantifying the value of the ecosystem service benefits to people provided by a given landscape or habitat type in a defined location.

Public goods—Public goods are goods that are commonly available to all people within a society or community and that possess two specific qualities: They are nonexcludable and nonrivalrous. Everyone has access to use them, and their use does not deplete their availability for future use. They are regarded as “Goods” because their benefits exceed their cost. Public goods are a market failure because they are “efficient” yet individuals acting in a free market will not produce them because of their nonrival and nonexcludable properties. The creation and maintenance of public goods is often the purview of government; indeed, it is one of the primary reasons governments should exist. Typical examples of public goods are lighthouses, highways, and national defense. Many ecosystem services are also public goods (e.g., water purification and oxygen generation).

Common property and open access regimes—Garrett Hardin’s famous piece “The Tragedy of the Commons” identified common property as a significant market failure related to population growth. Common property resources or open-access property is not managed by anyone, and access to it is not controlled. It is sometimes referred to as a public good or a common pool resource. Examples of this can be air, water, sights, and sounds.

Land degradation—Land degradation is a process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of human-induced processes acting upon the land.

Net Primary Productivity (NPP)—NPP results primarily from photosynthesis taking place in the marine and terrestrial plants of the earth. NPP directly refers to the rate of accumulation of energy in the form of biomass. It excludes energy lost in the metabolic processes associated with decay, burning, and respiration.

Sustainable development—According to the Brundtland report: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Another perspective suggests that sustainable development is economic development that is conducted without depletion of natural resources.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)— The IPCC is the scientific group assembled by the United Nations to monitor and assess all global science related to climate change. The IPCC meets annually and produces a report every 5–6 years.

Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)—The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an independent intergovernmental body established by the countries of the world to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services to promote the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and long-term human well-being.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA)—

Insectageddon—A potential worldwide disaster that could happen due to many insect species going extinct. Current science on this topic is limited and it is not clear to what extent insect populations are declining throughout the world. However, we do know that many insect populations are declining as we also know that many noninsect species are going extinct at rates significantly higher than historical background extinction rates.

Ecological economics—From the website of the International Society for Ecological Economics:

Ecological economics exists because a hundred years of disciplinary specialization in scientific inquiry has left us unable to understand or manage the interactions between the human and environmental components of our world. While none would dispute the insights that disciplinary specialization has brought, many now recognize that it has also turned out to be our Achilles heel. In an interconnected evolving world, reductionist science has pushed out the envelope of knowledge in many different directions, but it has left us bereft of ideas as to how to formulate and solve problems that stem from the interactions between humans and the natural world. How is human behavior connected to changes in hydrological, nutrient, or carbon cycles? What are the feedbacks between the social and natural systems, and how do these influence the services we get from ecosystems? Ecological economics as a field attempts to answer questions such as these.

Nonrival resources—Nonrivalrous goods are public goods that are consumed by people but whose supply is not affected by people’s consumption (e.g., a lighthouse).

Nonexcludable resources—Nonexcludable goods refer to public goods that cannot exclude a certain person or group of persons from using such goods (e.g., fresh air).

Biogeochemical cycles—Biogeochemical cycles are the natural pathways by which essential elements of needed by living things are circulated. Biogeochemical is an abbreviated concatenation of biology, geology, and chemistry that refers to the three aspects of the cycle.

The carbon cycle—The carbon cycle describes the process in which carbon atoms continually travel from the atmosphere to the Earth and then back into the atmosphere.

The nitrogen cycle—The nitrogen cycle is the biogeochemical cycle through which nitrogen is converted into a variety of chemical forms as it circulates through atmospheric, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems. The conversion of nitrogen can be carried out through both biological and physical processes.

Fritz Haber—Fritz Haber received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber–Bosch process. This process has changed the world. It is a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas. This invention is important for the large-scale synthesis of fertilizers and explosives.

The Haber–Bosch process—The process developed by Fritz Haber involves exposing diatomic hydrogen and diatomic nitrogen to very high pressure in the presence of a palladium catalyst to produce ammonia. This anthropogenic process has significantly changed the earth’s nitrogen cycle.

The global methane budget—After carbon dioxide, methane (CH4) is the most important greenhouse gas contributing to human-induced climate change. Methane remains in the atmosphere for a much shorter timeframe compared to carbon dioxide; around 9 years compared with the hundreds to thousands of years for carbon dioxide. However, methane has a higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide (86 times larger over 20 years). This is because methane absorbs thermal infrared radiation from the sun much more efficiently than carbon dioxide so holds more heat in our atmosphere. Common methane sources are fossil fuel production, livestock farming, landfills and waste, biomass burning, and rice agriculture.

The phosphorus cycle—The phosphorus cycle is the biogeochemical cycle that describes the movement of phosphorus through the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Phosphorus is a vital chemical for life as it manifests in DNA and RNA, is essential to bone and teeth, and is present in phospholipids found in cell walls.

Chapter 7

The Great Acceleration—The Great Acceleration is the rapid, unprecedented, continuous, and simultaneous increase across a large range of measures of human activity (e.g., population, energy consumption, CO₂ emissions, marine fish catch, ocean acidification, etc.). It seems to begin immediately after WWII in the mid-20th century and continues to this day. The Great Acceleration is commonly associated with the proposed epoch of the Anthropocene.

I=P×A×T—I = (PAT) is the simple equation suggested by Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren to describe the impact of human activity on the environment. The equation equates human impact on the environment to a function of three factors: population (P), affluence (A), and technology (T).

The Anthropocene—The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch dating from the beginning of significant human impact on Earth’s geology and ecosystems.

The ecological footprint—The ecological footprint (EF) is a method used to measure human demand on natural capital (i.e., the quantity of nature it takes to support people at a given standard of living). The EF uses an ecological accounting system based on “global hectares” of land to contrast human impact on the environment relative to the biocapacity of the land.

Impervious surface as a proxy measure of human impact—In this context impervious surface is the land surface of the earth that has been converted to sidewalks, rooftops, roads, and other built surfaces. Measures of impervious surface area (ISA) have been demonstrated to strongly correlate with other measures of human impact on the environment such as the ecological footprint. One advantage of ISA is that it is easy to measure at a relatively high spatial resolution for the entire globe in an objective and uniform way.

Net Primary Productivity (NPP)—NPP results primarily from photosynthesis taking place in the marine and terrestrial plants of the earth. NPP directly refers to the rate of accumulation of energy in the form of biomass. It excludes energy lost in the metabolic processes associated with decay, burning, and respiration.

Proxy measure—A proxy measure of something is an indirect measure. One example was the use of salt consumption to measure the population of China. Infant mortality rates are regarded as a good measure of the quality of the health care system in a country.

Carrying capacity—The carrying capacity of an environment or region is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be supported by that environment’s food, space, water, and other resources indefinitely.

The Green Revolution—The Green Revolution involved the development and dissemination of agricultural technology that resulted in dramatically increased crop yields and agricultural production. These developments in agriculture were initiated in developed countries after World War II and spread throughout most of the world. Norman Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on some of these technologies. Green revolution technology was often delivered as a package of practices meant to replace traditional agricultural technology.

Limits to Growth—The Limits to Growth is a 1972 report that discussed the potential consequences of exponential economic and population growth on a planet (earth) with a finite supply of resources. The report described a systems dynamics model (World3) that simulated several scenarios of potential change to population, food production, industrialization, non-renewable resources, and pollution.

Ecological debtor nations—Those nations whose ecological footprint exceeds the biocapacity of the land within their boundaries are regarded as ecological debtor nations. They necessarily must import resources from other countries to maintain their population at that standard of living. Both developed and developing countries can be ecological debtor nations. The following countries are ecological debtor nations: The United States, Japan, China, India, and Uganda.

Ecological surplus nations—Those nations whose biocapacity exceeds their ecological footprint. These countries are often the targets of “land-grabbing” by ecological debtor nations. Both developed and developing countries can be ecological surplus nations. The following countries are ecological surplus nations: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mongolia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity (HANPP)—HANPP is the proportion of terrestrial NPP consumed directly and indirectly through anthropogenic land use (e.g., agriculture, pastureland, and urban development).

Chapter 8

Political ecology—Political ecology is an academic avenue of inquiry that examines the relationships and interactions between nature and society. A particular of political ecology is the elucidation of the power relations that intersect, interact, and impact who gets access to natural resources and why. This avenue of inquiry often identifies disparities and injustices in the distribution of economic costs and benefits associated with land and ecosystem services. Political ecologists often find their homes in the Anthropology and Geography departments.

Political economy—Political economy is an academic avenue of inquiry that studies the relationships between individuals and society and between markets and the state. Political economists use a suite of tools and methods drawn largely from economics, political science, and sociology.

Population doctrine—A population doctrine is a set of beliefs regarding population held and promulgated by a church, political party, national government, or any other group or association. “Be fruitful and multiply” is a simple population doctrine found in the Bible.

U.N. Conference on Population—The United Nations Population Commission sponsored two world population conferences. The first was in Rome in 1954 and the second in Belgrade in 1965. These conferences were devoted to scientific and technical subjects and structured around research on demographic trends and methods. Later, The United Nations, with strong support from the United States as well as from some Western European and Asian nations, convened three decennial intergovernmental population conferences at Bucharest (1974), Mexico City (1984), and Cairo (1994).

Dualism—Dualism is a topic in the philosophy of mind. Dualism is a worldview or belief that emphasizes the radical difference between mind and matter. Dualists would typically deny that the mind is the same as the brain, in addition, many would deny that the mind is wholly a product of the brain. Scholars such as Jason Hickel argue that the adoption of a dualist worldview has been a fundamental cause of humanity’s inability to live in harmony with the natural world—partly because we do not see our essential selves as part of the natural world.

Enclosure Movement—The Enclosure Movement shifted land use in England from being communally owned to privately owned. The movement was driven by nobles in the 18th and 19th centuries to take land that had formerly been owned in common by all members of a village (or at least available to the public crops and pasturing) and converting it to privately owned land, usually with walls, fences, or hedges around it.

Bicameral mind—Bicameral mentality is a hypothesis in psychology and neuroscience that suggests that the human mind once operated in a state in which cognitive functions were split between one part of the brain that appears to be “speaking,” and a second part of the brain that listens and obeys—a bicameral mind. It is hypothesized that the evolutionary breakdown of this split gave rise to consciousness in humans.

Chapter 9

SDGs 1–17—The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to transform our world. They are a call to action to end poverty and inequality, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy health, justice, and prosperity.

SDG targets—Each SDG is associated with a number of “Targets.” For example, “SDG #1: End Poverty in all its forms everywhere” has five “outcome” targets numbered 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, and 1.5. and two “implementation” targets labeled 1.a and 1.b. Target 1.1 is stated as follows: “By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day.” All told there are 169 SDG targets.

SDG indicators—Each of the 169 SDG targets has one or more indicators to measure progress on that target. For example, SDG target 1.1 has one indicator numbered 1.1.1. Indicator 1.1.1 is “Proportion of population below the international poverty line, by sex, age, employment status, and geographical location (urban/rural).”

Earth Observation (EO) data supporting the SDGs—Many of the SDG indicators can be measured using EO data derived from satellites and other technology.

“Apples to Apples to Apples” comparability—In the context of the SDGs, it is important to have reasonable, appropriate, and valid comparisons between regions and nations. Comparing apples to apples means comparing things that can reasonably be compared, while the phrase apples to oranges often is used to represent a comparison that is unreasonable or perhaps impossible.

Context-Sensitive Performance Indicators for the SDGs—Achieving the SDGs will likely involve significant efforts in developing and sustaining systems for monitoring status and progress, providing incentives, and conducting enforcement. Provision of low-cost context-sensitive Sustainable Development Performance Indicators of progress at high spatial and temporal resolution is essential for effective management by governments and businesses.

Sustainable development—According to the Brundtland report: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Another perspective suggests that sustainable development is economic development that is conducted without depletion of natural resources.

Chapter 10

Steady state economy—A steady state economy is characterized by a stabilized population and per capita consumption. Birth rates are balanced by death rates, and production rates equal depreciation rates.

Plan B 4.0—Plan B 4.0 is a book by Lester R Brown that provides an explicit and costed plan for a transition to a fossil fuel-independent economic system.

Wellbeing Economy—A well-being economy can be described as an economic system operating within safe environmental limits, serving the collective well-being of current and future generations. Several countries (notably led by women) have promoted well-being economic systems as national policy. These include Iceland, New Zealand, and Scotland.

Zero Population Growth—ZPG occurs when the growth rate of a population is zero. This can occur with a large population or a small population.

Unmet need for contraception—A woman who would like to use some form of contraception but cannot access it for any reason, be it economic, social, or geographic, has an “unmet need” for contraception. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that there are currently over 200 million women in the world who fall into this category. Meeting this need would cost less than 10 billion dollars a year and would bend the population growth curve to below ZPG.

Half-Earth Project—Half-Earth proposes that half of the Earth’s surface should be designated a human-free natural reserve to preserve biodiversity. Noted biologist E.O. Wilson founded a “Half-Earth Project” to map the earth with appropriate spatial and temporal resolution to enable identification of the most important earth surfaces to save.

The Great Transition Initiative—The Great Transition Initiative is an online forum of ideas and an international network for the critical exploration of concepts, strategies, and visions for a transition to a future of enriched lives, human solidarity, and a resilient biosphere. By enhancing scholarly discourse and public awareness of possibilities arising from converging social, economic, and environmental crises, and by fostering a broad network of thinkers and doers, it aims to contribute to a new praxis for global transformation.

Scenario development—The use of scenarios for exploring potential and plausible futures is increasingly recognized as a useful tool in the science–policy interface. The people at the Great Transition Initiative suggest that Global scenarios are stories about how history might unfold in this century. Beginning with contemporary trends and driving forces, each embodies different assumptions on the resolution of critical uncertainties and human choice—thought experiments for stimulating imagination, alerting us to dangers, and inspiring corrective action. Exploring the frontiers of the possible helps gives soul, sight, and direction to the blind march of history.