1.
International Union for Conservation of Nature
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The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, lobbying. IUCNs mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of resources is equitable. Over the past decades, IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to equality, poverty alleviation. Unlike other international NGOs, IUCN does not itself aim to mobilize the public in support of nature conservation and it tries to influence the actions of governments, business and other stakeholders by providing information and advice, and through lobbying and partnerships. The organization is best known to the public for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List. IUCN has a membership of over 1200 governmental and non-governmental organizations, some 11,000 scientists and experts participate in the work of IUCN commissions on a voluntary basis. It employs approximately 1000 full-time staff in more than 60 countries and its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland. IUCN has observer and consultative status at the United Nations, and plays a role in the implementation of several conventions on nature conservation. It was involved in establishing the World Wide Fund for Nature, in the past, IUCN has been criticized for placing the interests of nature over those of indigenous peoples. In recent years, its relations with the business sector have caused controversy. It was previously called the International Union for Protection of Nature, establishment In 1947, the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature organised an international conference on the protection of nature in Brunnen. It is considered to be the first government-organized non-governmental organization, the initiative to set up the new organisation came from UNESCO and especially from its first Director General, the British biologist Julian Huxley. At the time of its founding IUPN was the international organisation focusing on the entire spectrum of nature conservation Early years. Its secretariat was located in Brussels and its first work program focused on saving species and habitats, increasing and applying knowledge, advancing education, promoting international agreements and promoting conservation. Providing a solid base for conservation action was the heart of all activities. IUPN and UNESCO were closely associated and they jointly organized the 1949 Conference on Protection of Nature. In preparation for this conference a list of endangered species was drawn up for the first time
2.
Miami-Dade County, Florida
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Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U. S. state of Florida. It is the southeasternmost county on the U. S. mainland, according to a 2015 census report, the county had a population of 2,693,117, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in the United States. It is also Floridas third-largest county in terms of land area, Miami-Dade County is included in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county is home to 34 incorporated cities and many unincorporated areas, southern Miami-Dade County includes the Redland and Homestead areas, which make up the agricultural economy of Miami. Agricultural Redland makes up one third of Miami-Dade Countys inhabited land area, and is sparsely populated. The western portion of the county extends into the Everglades National Park and is populated only by a Miccosukee tribal village, East of the mainland in Biscayne Bay is also Biscayne National Park and the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserves. The earliest evidence of Native American settlement in the Miami region came from about 12,000 years ago, the first inhabitants settled on the banks of the Miami River, with the main villages on the northern banks. The Tequesta Indians fished, hunted, and gathered the fruit and roots of plants for food and they buried the small bones of the deceased with the rest of the body, and put the larger bones in a box for the village people to see. The Tequesta are credited with making the Miami Circle, Juan Ponce de León was the first European to visit the area in 1513 by sailing into Biscayne Bay. His journal records that he reached Chequescha, a varianth of Tequesta and it is unknown whether he came ashore or made contact with the natives. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and his men made the first recorded landing when they visited the Tequesta settlement in 1566 while looking for Avilés missing son, shipwrecked a year earlier. Spanish soldiers led by Father Francisco Villarreal built a Jesuit mission at the mouth of the Miami River a year later, after the Spaniards left, the Tequesta Indians were left to fend themselves from European-introduced diseases like smallpox. By 1711, the Tequesta sent a couple of local chiefs to Havana, Cuba, the Cubans sent two ships to help them, but Spanish illnesses struck and most of the Indians died. The first permanent European settlers arrived in the early 19th century, people came from the Bahamas to South Florida and the Keys to hunt for treasure from the ships that ran aground on the treacherous Great Florida Reef. Some accepted Spanish land offers along the Miami River, at about the same time, the Seminole Indians arrived, along with a group of runaway slaves. The area was affected by the Second Seminole War, during which Major William S. Harney led several raids against the Indians, most non-Indian residents were soldiers stationed at Fort Dallas. It was the most devastating Indian war in American history, causing almost a total loss of population in Miami, after the Second Seminole War ended in 1842, William English, re-established a plantation started by his uncle on the Miami River. He charted the “Village of Miami” on the bank of the Miami River
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Key Biscayne, Florida
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Key Biscayne is an island town in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The population was 12,344 at the 2010 census, Key Biscayne lies south of Miami Beach and east of Miami. The village is connected to Miami via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originally built in 1947, because of its low elevation and direct exposure to the Atlantic Ocean, it is usually among the first Miami areas to be evacuated before an oncoming hurricane. According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has an area of 1.4 square miles. 1.3 square miles of it is land and 0.1 square miles of it is water. The village is bordered on the north by Crandon Park, Miami-Dade County park, on the south by Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and on the west by Biscayne Bay. The northern two-thirds of the island had been operated as the largest coconut plantation in the continental United States during the first half of the 20th century. In 1940 the Matheson family donated over 800 acres of their land to Dade County for a park in exchange for a commitment that the county would build a causeway to the island. The remaining Matheson property, stretching across the middle of the island, was sold off to developers. Starting in 1951, the Mackle Construction Company offered new homes on the island for US$9,540, post Office contract branch was opened, the Community Church started holding services in an old coconut-husking shed, and the Key Biscayne Elementary School opened in 1952. The southern third of Key Biscayne, which included Cape Florida, was owned by James Deering and, after his death, by his brother Charles, in 1948 José Manuel Áleman, a Cuban politician in exile, bought the Cape Florida property from the Deering estate. After Áleman died in 1951, his widow, Elena Santeiro Garcia and this strip included a canal that had been dug by William Matheson in the 1920s, and which extended from the bay across most of the island. The land north of this canal was developed as part of what is now the Village of Key Biscayne, Garcia sold the Cape Florida property in 1966 to the state of Florida. This land became Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, which opened January 1,1967, bebe Rebozo, owner of the Key Biscayne Bank, was indicted for laundering a $100,000 donation from Howard Hughes to the Nixon election campaign. President Kennedy and Nixon met for the first time after the 1960 Election loss by Nixon in an oceanfront villa at the old Key Biscayne Hotel. Plans for the Watergate break-in at Democratic headquarters were discussed at the Key Biscayne Nixon compound and, as the Watergate scandal unfolded, Nixon visited Key Biscayne more than 50 times between 1969 and 1973. The area was incorporated as a new municipality in 1991 - the first new city in Miami-Dade County in over fifty years. Rafael Conte was elected the first mayor along with members of the founding Village Council including Clifford Brody, Mortimer Fried, Michael Hill, Luis Lauredo, Joe Rasco, the municipalitys first manager was C. Samuel Kissinger and the first clerk was Guido Inguanzo
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
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The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is the Florida government agency charged with environmental protection. It is under the control of the governor. In the late 1960s, the Florida Department of Air and Water Pollution Control was created under Governor Claude R. Kirk, most staff were being taken from the Bureau of Sanitary Engineering of the state Department of Health. The name of the new agency was simplified to the Florida Department of Pollution Control and this revised agency was entrusted with the quality of the states air and water, and with making major land management decisions, primarily related to shorelines and wetlands. Johns River Water Management District, Southwest Florida Water Management District, South Florida Water Management District, by 1992, it was the nations third-largest such state agency, with 1,500 employees and a budget of some $650 million. In the mid-1990s, the state merged the DER with the substantially larger Department of Natural Resources, in 2004, it started the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative,6 years after a presidential order had instructed 7 states with reefs to develop roadmaps of conservation. During the period from 2000 to 2005, the department functioned with a staff of about 3,600 employees, in 2011, DEP suspended its wetlands director after she refused to approve a permit to a failed effort to sell off surplus park land and Everglades scientists. Leading positions have been filled by prior consultants for developers and polluting industries in revolving door, the regulatory climate has changed from prosecuting violations to helping industry avoid fines. The patrol bureau was divided into 4 districts, NE, NW, officers utilized traditional patrol cars, 4x4 sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks, ATVs, boats, airboats, personal watercraft, dirt-bikes, and bicycles. The headquarters occupied the floor of the DEP main offices in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas building in Tallahassee. Officers of the bureau were fully constituted law enforcement officers of the state. Although dedicated primarily to the protection and conservation of state lands, parks, properties and bodies of water, the Bureau of Emergency Response was not part of the merger and remained with DEP as the Office of Emergency Response. The following have been secretaries of the DEP, Herschel Vinyard Jr and it DEP oversees the Florida Reef System, from Biscayne National Park in Miami-Dade County to the St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County, with its Coral Reef Conservation Program. A1998 presidential executive order created the U. S. Coral Reef Task Force, in 2002, Florida determined how to implement this locally. From May to November 2003 this Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative Team developed an action strategy. The Florida Oceans and Coastal Council’s Annual Research Plan 2014-15 avoided the term climate change and used climate drivers, some critical employees were terminated or gave their notice during that time. Until 2015, the term sea-level rise was not permitted and had to be replaced by the term nuisance flooding, per the departments the Office of Inspector General annual report from fiscal year 2011-2012 the DEP had more than 4,176 employees. Florida Governor Rick Scott recommended to decrease DEPs FY 2015-16 budget by about $29 million to $1,535,984,614 compared to actual FY 2014-15 budget and his plan funded 2,939.5 positions, which is 155 positions less than the prior year
7.
Key Biscayne
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Key Biscayne is an island located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. It is the southernmost of the islands along the Atlantic coast of Florida. The key is connected to Miami via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originally built in 1947, the northern portion of Key Biscayne is home to Crandon Park, a county park. The middle section of the consists of the incorporated Village of Key Biscayne. The southern part of the island is now protected as Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, adjacent to Biscayne National Park, there is no hard bedrock near the surface of the island, only layers of weak shelly sandstone to depths of 100 feet or more. The coastal transport of sand southward ends at Key Biscayne, in the 1850s Louis Agassiz noted that outh of Cape Florida no more silicacious sand is to be seen. Geologists believe that the island emerged around 2000 BCE, soon after the sea level stopped rising, Key Biscayne is elongated in the north-south direction, tapering to a point at each end. It is approximately 5 miles long and 1 to 2 miles wide, the northern end of the island is separated from another barrier island, Virginia Key, by Bear Cut. The southern end of the island is Cape Florida, only Soldier Key, approximately 200 by 100 yards wide, lies between Key Biscayne and the Ragged Keys. The Cape Florida Channel and Bear Cut are the deepest natural channels into Biscayne Bay and they provided the only access for ocean-going vessels to Biscayne Bay until artificial channels were dredged starting early in the 20th century. In 1849 the island had a sandy beach on the east side. The average elevation of the island is less than five feet above sea level, people from Key Biscayne are known as Key Rats. Key Biscayne is located at 25°41′25″N 80°9′54″W, the first known indigenous inhabitants of Key Biscayne were Tequestas. Shells, bones and artifacts found on the island indicate extensive use of it by the Tequesta, a large community appeared to inhabit the island between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago. In 1992 Hurricane Andrew scoured much of the vegetation from the end of Key Biscayne. An archaeological survey of the ground found evidence of extensive habitation. Juan Ponce de León charted Key Biscayne on his first mission to the New World in 1513 and he christened the island Santa Marta and claimed it for the Spanish Crown. He reported that he found a water spring on the island
8.
Cape Florida Light
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The Cape Florida Light is a lighthouse on Cape Florida at the south end of Key Biscayne in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Constructed in 1825, it guided mariners off the Florida Reef and it was operated by staff, with interruptions, until 1878, when it was replaced by the Fowey Rocks lighthouse. The lighthouse was put back into use in 1978 by the U. S. Coast Guard to mark the Florida Channel, within the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park since 1966, the lighthouse was relit in 1996. It is owned and operated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the construction contract called for a 65-foot-tall tower with walls of solid brick, five feet thick at the bottom tapering to two feet thick at the top. It was later found that the contractor had scrimped on materials, the first keeper of the lighthouse was Captain John Dubose, who served for more than ten years. In 1835 a major hurricane struck the island, damaging the lighthouse and the keepers house, when the Second Seminole War started in 1835, the Seminoles attacked the few European-American settlers in southern Florida. In January 1836 the Seminoles massacred the family of William Cooley at their plantation on the New River. On hearing of the massacre, the settlers on the mainland around the Miami River crossed over Biscayne Bay to the lighthouse, as the island was not considered safe, the settlers and Captain Duboses family moved to Key West for refuge. Later in January, Lt. George M. Bache, U. S. Navy, arrived from Key West with a work party to fortify the lighthouse tower, they boarded up the ground floor windows. On July 18,1836, Captain Dubose went to visit his family in Key West, the assistant keeper, John W. B. Thompson, was in charge, aided by Aaron Carter, an African American, five days later, on July 23,1836, a band of Seminole attacked the lighthouse. Thompson and Carter reached the tower, Thompson later recounted feeling rifle balls go through his clothes. The Seminoles grabbed the door just after he turned the key to lock it, rifle balls had penetrated tanks in the bottom of the tower, which held 225 gallons of lamp oil for the light, and the oil caught fire. Thompsons clothing had been soaked with oil, and he and Carter retreated to the top of the tower, taking a keg of gunpowder, balls, and a rifle with them. The two men cut away a part of the wooden stairway below them in the tower before being out of the top by the searing flames. Thompsons clothes were burning, and both he and Carter had been wounded by the Seminoles rifle shots, the lighthouse lens and the glass panes of the lantern shattered from the heat. Sure that he was going to die and wanting a quick end, the keg exploded, but did not topple the tower. It dampened the fire briefly, but the flames soon returned as fierce as ever before dying down, Thompson found that Carter had died from his wounds and the fire
9.
Forbes
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Forbes is an American business magazine. Published bi-weekly, it features articles on finance, industry, investing. Forbes also reports on related subjects such as technology, communications, science, politics and its headquarters is located in Jersey City, New Jersey. Primary competitors in the business magazine category include Fortune and Bloomberg Businessweek. The magazine is known for its lists and rankings, including its lists of the richest Americans. Another well-known list by the magazine is The Worlds Billionaires list, the motto of Forbes magazine is The Capitalist Tool. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes, and its CEO is Mike Perlis, Forbes, a financial columnist for the Hearst papers, and his partner Walter Drey, the general manager of the Magazine of Wall Street, founded Forbes magazine on September 15,1917. Forbes provided the money and the name and Drey provided the publishing expertise, the original name of the magazine was Forbes, Devoted to Doers and Doings. Drey became vice-president of the B. C. Forbes Publishing Company, while B. C. Forbes became editor-in-chief, B. C. Forbes was assisted in his later years by his two eldest sons, Bruce Charles Forbes and Malcolm Stevenson Forbes. Bruce Forbes took over on his fathers death, and his strengths lay in streamlining operations, during his tenure, 1954–1964, the magazines circulation nearly doubled. On Malcolms death, his eldest son Malcolm Stevenson Steve Forbes Jr. became President and Chief Executive of Forbes, between 1961 and 1999 the magazine was edited by James Michaels. In 1993, under Michaels, Forbes was a finalist for the National Magazine Award. com, a 2009 New York Times report said,40 percent of the enterprise was sold. For a reported $300 million, setting the value of the enterprise at $750 million, according to Mark M. Edmiston of AdMedia Partners, Its probably not worth half of that now. The companys headquarters moved to the Newport section of downtown Jersey City. In November 2013, Forbes Media, which publishes Forbes magazine, was put up for sale and this was encouraged by Elevation Partners, of whom were minority shareholders. Sales documents prepared by Deutsche Bank revealed that the publishers 2012 EBITDA was $15 million, Forbes reportedly sought a price of $400 million. In July 2014, Forbes sold a majority of itself to Integrated Whale Media Investments, Steve Forbes and his magazines writers offer investment advice on the weekly Fox TV show Forbes on Fox and on Forbes On Radio. Other company groups include Forbes Conference Group, Forbes Investment Advisory Group, from the 2009 Times report, Steve Forbes recently returned from opening up a Forbes magazine in India, bringing the number of foreign editions to 10
