| A | B |
|---|
| Ecosystem | A group of interacting species along with their physical environment. |
| Environment | Everything that affects an organism during its lifetime. |
| Environmental science | An interdisciplinary area of study that includes both applied and theoretical aspects of human impact on the world. |
| Sustainable development | Using renewable resources in harmony with ecological systems to produce a rise in real income per person and an improved standard of living for everyone. |
| Wilderness | Designation of land use for the exclusive protection of the area’s natural wildlife; thus no human development is allowed. |
| Anthropocentric | Human centered; a theory of moral responsibility that views the environment as a resource for humankind. |
| Biocentric | Life—centered; a theory of moral responsibility that states that all forms of life have an inherent right to exist. |
| Conservation ethic | An environmental ethic that stresses a balance between total development and absolute preservation. |
| Corporation | A business structure that has a particular legal status. |
| Development ethic | Philosophy that states that the human race should be the master of nature and that the Earth and its resources exist for human benefit and pleasure. |
| Ecocentrism | An approach to environmental responsibility that maintains that the environment deserves direct moral consideration rather than consideration derived merely from human interests. |
| Economic growth | The perceived increase in monetary growth within a society. |
| Environmental justice | Fair application of laws designed to protect the health of human beings and ecosystems; that no groups suffer unequal environmental harm. |
| Ethics | A discipline that seeks to define what is fundamentally right and wrong. |
| Industrial ecology | A concept that stresses cycling resources rather than extracting and eventually discarding them. |
| Morals | Predominant feeling of a culture about ethical issues. |
| Profitability | The extent to which economic benefits exceed the economic costs of doing business. |
| Resource exploitation | The use of natural resources by society. |
