BigPic Explorer Glossary

Acronym/Term	Definition
Acceleration	The rate of change of the rate of change of some variable such as distance, population, amount of resources, or consumption. Simply, how fast speed changes.
Bha	Billion hectares, typically of bioproductive land.
Biocapacity	The total mass of resources that can be annually generated by the Earth's biosphere.
Bioproductive Land	Land, as part of the biosphere, that provides resources that can be used by people and other species.
Biosphere	The totality of Earth life and the non-living resources it uses.
Capacity	The total mass of resources that are regenerated or reusable for at least one year.
Capacity Growth	Annual rate of increase in capacity (%).
Capita	Unit of population, typically a person.
Change Year	Year that a change in variable value takes effect.
Combined Population Model	Also: combined model.
Comfort Zone	An environment in which a person is most happy and productive.
Community	Group of people who interact regularly, typically for survival.
Consumption	Mass of resources per unit of time that are made unavailable for use. This includes extraction losses, pollution, and degradation.
Consumption Laws	Also: Jarvis's Laws of Consumption.
Consumption Model	Model of consumption as a function of how available resources change over time.
Consumption Potential	Electrical equivalent of consumption.
CPC	Consumption per capita.
Depletion Time	Amount of time a constant population takes to deplete its resources at a fixed rate (consumption). Also: Tmax.
Ecological Debt	Cost of hectares consumed beyond what is available (capacity). Expressed in pounds or dollars.
Ecological Footprint	Global ecological footprint.
Ecological Resources	Natural resources, including air, land, water , and the species that maintain them. Measured by the Global Ecological Footprint.
Energy	1. Fundamental part of the Universe, measured as the ability of one thing to change another (do work). 2. Result of consuming fuel. 3. World energy production (quadrillion Btu).
Environment	1. The full set of circumstances that affects a person's wellbeing at a particular time. 2. From EPA: "The sum of all external conditions affecting the life, development and survival of an organism."
Environment Type	Also, "Etype." A numerical representation of the external conditions (environment) perceived and influenced by people of a certain person type. See Environment History.
Evil	1. An action that intentionally harms or kills a living organism for any reason other than meeting the most basic need to survive. 2. Characteristic of someone who consistently enables such an action and considers it acceptable.
Expected Value	A combination of several projections into one representative projection. Uses the PERT method, which approximates a statistical bell curve to calculate the mean [Expected Value = (Low Estimate + 4 * Mode Estimate + High Estimate)/6].
Extraction Mass	Average mass per person in an isolated population extracted for use. See Transaction Mass.
Footprint	Global Ecological Footprint.
Fossil Fuel	Fuel derived from organic matter, typically millions of years old.
Fuel	Resource used for energy.
GEF	Model of population and consumption using global ecological footprint and population for the years 1961 through 2005. See calculations.
Global Ecological Footprint	Bioproductive land that provides ecological resources (see WWF Living Planet Report 2006).
Group	1. A number of people with one or more common characteristics. 2. The smallest unit of a community (between 12 and 36 members; typically 24).
GWP	Gross World Product (typically in trillions of fixed dollars).
Happiness	People's satisfaction with their lives, usually measured in percent. (See Happiness, World Comfort, Limits to Happiness).
Healthy Society	A society that can meet its needs using only biocapacity.
Hectare (ha)	Metric unit of area. Here, it is an area of land that provides ecological resources, equivalent to one global hectare (used in Global Ecological Footprint). One hectare is approximately 2.47 acres.
High Growth	Population-consumption scenario where resources are increased to accommodate current trends. It typically involves a speed limit that is much higher than presently achievable on a routine basis.
Ideality	Average of life expectancy and happiness, where life expectancy is in years and happiness is in percent of maximum (100).
Ideal World	Possible future that maximizes the time that humanity can survive and thrive on Earth. See Visualizing an Ideal World, Future Alternatives, and Imagining the Future for slightly different treatments of this.
Ideal World Index	IWI. The product of ideality and population, normalized to the end of the year 2000 (IWI=1.0 on 12/31/00).
Initial Population	Value of the population function for the first year of the data used to make projections.
Initial Year	First year of the data used to make projections.
Intelligence	A measure of a person's perception of where they are relative to their preferred position.
IWI	Ideal World Index.
IWIsum	"Ideal World Index Sum." The sum of the annual values of the Ideal World Index over a span of time (starting in 2000). Used to evaluate scenarios.
Laws of Consumption	Laws relating consumption to population, speed, and life expectancy.
Life Expectancy	The average time that a person can be expected to live when born in a given year, measured in years. It is related to both happiness and consumption. Also: lifespan.
Lifespan	Life expectancy.
Longevity Function	The relationship between depletion time, resources, and speed.
Max. Capacity	Maximum allowable capacity.
Max. Speed	Maximum allowable speed.
Nature	Also: biosphere. Used in discussions of consumption, the part of the biosphere that contributes to the survival of life on Earth, especially humanity.
Natural Capacity	The amount of resources generated by Nature each year.
Natural Capital	Also, Nature. Specifically, the part of Earth (mostly other species) that generate natural capacity.
No Growth	Population-consumption scenario involving no population growth or decline and no change in per- capita consumption.
Non-renewable Resource	A resource that, once consumed, is not replaced by Nature (at least within the span of time of interest).
Normalized	Expressed as a fraction of a specific number (usually the value for a given year).
Oil	One of several fossil fuels used for energy.
Peak	The maximum value of a mathematical function, typically the point in time where a variable stops increasing and either levels off or begins dropping.
Per-capita	Per person.
Per-capita Consumption	Consumption per person.
Per Capita Consumption Function (CPC A, CPC B)	Mathematical function used to compute consumption per person. Consumption in year "t" is C(t) = A*t^B. "A" is referred to as "CPC A" and "B" is referred to as "CPC B."
Personality	Preferred way of dealing with the world. Here, used as a means of characterizing people's satisfaction with their lives (happiness) in a given environment. See Personality and Happiness.
Person Type	Also, "Ptype." A numerical representation of a part of a population that perceives and interacts with the world in a specific way. See Environment Type and Personality and Happiness.
Population	Amount of people consuming a resource. Also: population size.
Population-Consumption Model	A model relating population to available resources. Also referred to as the combined population model, the latest version of which show a population crash occurring in the 2020s.
Population Crash	The end of a drastic decline in population size, typically to zero.
Population Function (Pop. A, Pop. B)	Mathematical function used to compute population size in the consumption model. Population in year "t" is P(t) = A(t)t^B where the amount of resources is R(t), and A(t) = A(t-1)R(t-1)/R(t-2). "A" is referred to as "Pop. A" and "B" is referred to as "Pop. B" or "Population B."
Power	The fraction of distance between the starting position and the preferred environment ("comfort zone") that a person can cover in an arbitrary interval of time.
Renewable Resource	A resource which is regenerated or replaced by Nature after it is consumed (typically within a year).
Resource	Something which can be consumed by humans. It is typically a natural resource, whose amount is measured in mass.
Resource Density	Amount of resources per unit of volume. Used to calculate the resources in a sphere whose radius is increasing at a given speed.
Resource Growth	Annual rate of increase in available resources (%), independent of consumption.
Species	A type of life form distinguishable from others, whose members can breed successfully.
Speed	1. Distance per unit time that the radius of a sphere changes. 2. Average distance traveled to access and move resources per unit of time.
Space Settlement	The establishment of communities on other worlds.
Speed Limit	Limit to how fast resources can be reached and moved.
Speed Model	A model relating speed to consumption and population.
Tmax	Maximum time for resources to be depleted by a isolated population of constant size (and per-capita consumption). Also: depletion time.
Transaction	An interaction between two people which results in an amount of mass becoming unavailable for further use.
Transaction Mass	Average mass per person in an isolated population used during transactions. See Extraction Mass.
T/WAB	Transition Westminster/Arvada/Broomfield (Colorado)
World	1. Earth. 2. The total amount of good in the observable universe.