Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an Oceanian country that occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia. Its capital, located along its southeastern coast, is Port Moresby; the western half of New Guinea forms the Indonesian provinces of West Papua. At the national level, after being ruled by three external powers since 1884, Papua New Guinea established its sovereignty in 1975; this followed nearly 60 years of Australian administration, which started during World War I. It became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1975 with Elizabeth II as its queen, it became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations in its own right. Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, it is one of the most rural, as only 18 per cent of its people live in urban centres. There are 851 known languages in the country. Most of the population of more than 8 million people lives in customary communities, which are as diverse as the languages.
The country is one of the world's least explored and geographically. It is known to have numerous groups of uncontacted peoples, researchers believe there are many undiscovered species of plants and animals in the interior. Papua New Guinea is classified as a developing economy by the International Monetary Fund. Strong growth in Papua New Guinea's mining and resource sector led to the country becoming the sixth-fastest-growing economy in the world in 2011. Growth was expected to slow once major resource projects came on line in 2015. Mining remains a major economic factor, however. Local and national governments are discussing the potential of resuming mining operations at the Panguna mine in Bougainville Province, closed since the civil war in the 1980s–1990s. Nearly 40 per cent of the population lives a self-sustainable natural lifestyle with no access to global capital. Most of the people still live in strong traditional social groups based on farming, their social lives combine traditional religion including primary education.
These societies and clans are explicitly acknowledged by the Papua New Guinea Constitution, which expresses the wish for "traditional villages and communities to remain as viable units of Papua New Guinean society" and protects their continuing importance to local and national community life. The nation is an observer state in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN since 1976, has filed its application for full membership status, it is the Commonwealth of Nations. Archaeological evidence indicates that humans first arrived in Papua New Guinea around 42,000 to 45,000 years ago, they were descendants of migrants out of Africa, in one of the early waves of human migration. Agriculture was independently developed in the New Guinea highlands around 7000 BC, making it one of the few areas in the world where people independently domesticated plants. A major migration of Austronesian-speaking peoples to coastal regions of New Guinea took place around 500 BC; this has been correlated with the introduction of pottery and certain fishing techniques.
In the 18th century, traders brought the sweet potato to New Guinea, where it was adopted and became part of the staples. Portuguese traders had introduced it to the Moluccas; the far higher crop yields from sweet potato gardens radically transformed traditional agriculture and societies. Sweet potato supplanted the previous staple and resulted in a significant increase in population in the highlands. Although by the late 20th century headhunting and cannibalism had been eradicated, in the past they were practised in many parts of the country as part of rituals related to warfare and taking in enemy spirits or powers. In 1901, on Goaribari Island in the Gulf of Papua, missionary Harry Dauncey found 10,000 skulls in the island's long houses, a demonstration of past practices. According to Marianna Torgovnick, writing in 1991, "The most documented instances of cannibalism as a social institution come from New Guinea, where head-hunting and ritual cannibalism survived, in certain isolated areas, into the Fifties and Seventies, still leave traces within certain social groups."Little was known in Europe about the island until the 19th century, although Portuguese and Spanish explorers, such as Dom Jorge de Menezes and Yñigo Ortiz de Retez, had encountered it as early as the 16th century.
Traders from Southeast Asia had visited New Guinea beginning 5,000 years ago to collect bird-of-paradise plumes. The country's dual name results from its complex administrative history before independence; the word papua is derived from an old local term of uncertain origin. "New Guinea" was the name coined by the Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez. In 1545, he noted the resemblance of the people to those he had earlier seen along the Guinea coast of Africa. Guinea, in its turn, is etymologically derived from the Portuguese word Guiné; the name is one of several toponyms sharing similar etymologies meaning "land of the blacks" or similar meanings, in reference to the dark skin of the inhabitants. In the nineteenth century, Germany ruled the northern half of the country for some decades, beginning in 1884, as a colony named German New Guinea. In 1914 after the outbreak of World War I, Australian forces landed and captured German New Guinea in a small military campaign and occupied it throughout the war.
After the war, in which Germany and the Central Pow
Peru
Peru the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, in the west by the Pacific Ocean. Peru is a megadiverse country with habitats ranging from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region in the west to the peaks of the Andes mountains vertically extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the tropical Amazon Basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon river. Peruvian territory was home to several ancient cultures. Ranging from the Norte Chico civilization in the 32nd century BC, the oldest civilization in the Americas and one of the five cradles of civilization, to the Inca Empire, the largest state in pre-Columbian America, the territory now including Peru has one of the longest histories of civilization of any country, tracing its heritage back to the 4th millennia BCE; the Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a viceroyalty that encompassed most of its South American colonies, with its capital in Lima.
Peru formally proclaimed independence in 1821, following the military campaigns of José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar, the decisive battle of Ayacucho, Peru secured independence in 1824. In the ensuing years, the country enjoyed relative economic and political stability, which ended shortly before the War of the Pacific with Chile. Throughout the 20th century, Peru endured armed territorial disputes, social unrest, internal conflicts, as well as periods of stability and economic upswing. Alberto Fujimori was elected to the presidency in 1990. Fujimori left the presidency in 2000 and was charged with human rights violations and imprisoned until his pardon by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in 2017. After the president's regime, Fujimori's followers, called Fujimoristas, have caused political turmoil for any opposing faction in power causing Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to resign in March 2018; the sovereign state of Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. It is classified as an emerging market with a high level of human development and an upper middle income level with a poverty rate around 19 percent.
It is one of the region's most prosperous economies with an average growth rate of 5.9% and it has one of the world's fastest industrial growth rates at an average of 9.6%. Its main economic activities include mining, manufacturing and fishing; the country forms part of The Pacific Pumas, a political and economic grouping of countries along Latin America's Pacific coast that share common trends of positive growth, stable macroeconomic foundations, improved governance and an openness to global integration. Peru ranks high in social freedom. Peru has a population of 32 million, which includes Amerindians, Europeans and Asians; the main spoken language is Spanish, although a significant number of Peruvians speak Quechua or other native languages. This mixture of cultural traditions has resulted in a wide diversity of expressions in fields such as art, cuisine and music; the name of the country may be derived from Birú, the name of a local ruler who lived near the Bay of San Miguel, Panama City, in the early 16th century.
When his possessions were visited by Spanish explorers in 1522, they were the southernmost part of the New World yet known to Europeans. Thus, when Francisco Pizarro explored the regions farther south, they came to be designated Birú or Perú. An alternative history is provided by the contemporary writer Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, son of an Inca princess and a conquistador, he said the name Birú was that of a common Indian happened upon by the crew of a ship on an exploratory mission for governor Pedro Arias de Ávila, went on to relate more instances of misunderstandings due to the lack of a common language. The Spanish Crown gave the name legal status with the 1529 Capitulación de Toledo, which designated the newly encountered Inca Empire as the province of Peru. Under Spanish rule, the country adopted the denomination Viceroyalty of Peru, which became Republic of Peru after independence; the earliest evidences of human presence in Peruvian territory have been dated to 9,000 BC. Andean societies were based on agriculture, terracing.
Organization relied on reciprocity and redistribution because these societies had no notion of market or money. The oldest known complex society in Peru, the Norte Chico civilization, flourished along the coast of the Pacific Ocean between 3,000 and 1,800 BC; these early developments were followed by archaeological cultures that developed around the coastal and Andean regions throughout Peru. The Cupisnique culture which flourished from around 1000 to 200 BC along what is now Peru's Pacific Coast was an example of early pre-Incan culture; the Chavín culture that developed from 1500 to 300 BC was more of a religious than a political phenomenon, with their religious centre in Chavín de Huantar. After the decline of the Chavin culture around the beginning of the 1st century AD, a series of localized and specialized cultures rose and fell
Lecture
A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, background and equations. A politician's speech, a minister's sermon, or a businessman's sales presentation may be similar in form to a lecture; the lecturer will stand at the front of the room and recite information relevant to the lecture's content. Though lectures are much criticised as a teaching method, universities have not yet found practical alternative teaching methods for the large majority of their courses. Critics point out that lecturing is a one-way method of communication that does not involve significant audience participation but relies upon passive learning. Therefore, lecturing is contrasted to active learning. Lectures delivered by talented speakers can be stimulating. Lectures have a significant role outside the classroom, as well. Academic and scientific awards include a lecture as part of the honor, academic conferences center on "keynote addresses", i.e. lectures.
The public lecture has a long history in social movements. Union halls, for instance have hosted numerous free and public lectures on a wide variety of matters. Churches, community centers, libraries and other organizations have hosted lectures in furtherance of their missions or their constituents' interests. Lectures represent a continuation of oral tradition in contrast to textual communication in books and other media. Lectures may be considered a type of grey literature; the noun "lecture" dates from 14th century, meaning "action of reading, that, read," from the Latin lectus, pp. of legere "to read." Its subsequent meaning as "oral discourse on a given subject before an audience for purposes of instruction" is from the 16th century. The verb "to lecture" is attested from 1590; the noun "lectern" refers to the reading desk used by lecturers. The practice in the medieval university was for the instructor to read from an original source to a class of students who took notes on the lecture; the reading from original sources evolved into the reading of glosses on an original and more to lecture notes.
Throughout much of history, the diffusion of knowledge via handwritten lecture notes was an essential element of academic life. In the twentieth century, the lecture notes taken by students, or prepared by a scholar for a lecture, have sometimes achieved wide circulation. Many lecturers were, still are, accustomed to reading their own notes from the lectern for that purpose. Modern lectures incorporate additional activities, e.g. writing on a chalk-board, class questions and discussions, or student presentations. The use of multimedia presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint has changed the form of lectures, e.g. video, websites, or prepared exercises may be included. Most however, only outlines composed of "bullet points" are presented. Critics such as Edward Tufte contend that this style of lecture bombards the audience with unnecessary and distracting or confusing graphics. A modified lecture format presented in 5 to 15 minute short segments, is now presented as video, for example in massive open online courses or in programs such as the Khan Academy.
Bligh, in What's the Use of Lectures?, argues that lectures "represent a conception of education in which teachers who know give knowledge to students who do not and are therefore supposed to have nothing worth contributing." Based on his review of numerous studies, he concludes that lecturing is as effective, but not more effective, as any other teaching method in transmitting information. Lecturing is not the most effective method for promoting student thought, changing attitudes, or teaching behavioral skills. Bligh summarises research on memory to show the significance of the meaningfulness of material on retention and the importance of immediate rehearsal of information, he relates his own research on arousal during lectures to suggest a decrement in attention during the first 25 minutes. Lloyd and Scerbo et al. showed that students take less notes as lectures proceed. Bligh shows that after a short break filled by buzz group discussion, attention will recover somewhat; the largest section of Bligh's book is devoted to lecturing technique the organisation of lectures, how to make a point, the effectiveness of taking notes, the use of handouts, ways of obtaining feedback.
Early editions of the book contained. This research showed that the section on alternative teaching methods within lectures was the most praised; the conception of the lecture as needing to be a didactic event has been challenged by Meltzer and Manivannan and Sandry who maintain that lectures can involve active learning. However, Elliot sees difficulties in the encouragement of active learning with phenomena such as social loafing and evaluation apprehension causing audience members to be reluctant to participate. A possible solution to the encouragement of audience involvement in lectures is the use of an audience response system which allows audience members to participate anonymously; the effectiveness of traditional lecture has been debated. Some adv
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is a city in the U. S. state of Texas. It is fifth-largest city in Texas, it is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly 350 square miles into four other counties: Denton, Johnson and Wise. According to the 2017 census estimates, Fort Worth's population is 874,168. Fort Worth is the second-largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, the 4th most populous metropolitan area in the United States; the city of Fort Worth was established in 1849 as an army outpost on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River. Fort Worth has been a center of the longhorn cattle trade, it still embraces traditional architecture and design. USS Fort Worth is the first ship of the United States Navy named after the city. Fort Worth is home to the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and several world-class museums designed by internationally known contemporary architects; the Kimbell Art Museum, considered to have one of the best art collections in Texas, is housed in what is regarded as one of the outstanding architectural achievements of the modern era.
The museum was designed by the American architect Louis Kahn, with an addition designed by world-renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano opening November 2013. Of note is the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, designed by Tadao Ando; the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, designed by Philip Johnson, houses one of the world's most extensive collections of American art. The Sid Richardson Museum, redesigned by David M. Schwarz, has one of the most focused collections of Western art in the U. S. emphasizing Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, designed by famed architect Ricardo Legorreta of Mexico, engages the diverse Fort Worth community through creative, vibrant programs and exhibits; the city is stimulated by several university communities: Texas Christian University, Texas Wesleyan, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Texas A&M University School of Law, many multinational corporations, including Bell Helicopter, Lockheed Martin, American Airlines, BNSF Railway, Pier 1 Imports, XTO Energy and RadioShack.
The Treaty of Bird's Fort between the Republic of Texas and several Native American tribes was signed in 1843 at Bird's Fort in present-day Arlington, Texas. Article XI of the treaty provided that no one may "pass the line of trading houses" without permission of the President of Texas, may not reside or remain in the Indians' territory; these "trading houses" were established at the junction of the Clear Fork and West Fork of the Trinity River in present-day Fort Worth. At this river junction, the U. S. War Department established Fort Worth in 1849 as the northernmost of a system of 10 forts for protecting the American Frontier following the end of the Mexican–American War; the city of Fort Worth continues to be known as "where the West begins." A line of seven army posts were established in 1848–49 after the Mexican War to protect the settlers of Texas along the western American Frontier and included Fort Worth, Fort Graham, Fort Gates, Fort Croghan, Fort Martin Scott, Fort Lincoln, Fort Duncan.
10 forts had been proposed by Major General William Jenkins Worth, who commanded the Department of Texas in 1849. In January 1849, Worth proposed a line of 10 forts to mark the western Texas frontier from Eagle Pass to the confluence of the West Fork and Clear Fork of the Trinity River. One month Worth died from cholera in South Texas. General William S. Harney assumed command of the Department of Texas and ordered Major Ripley A. Arnold to find a new fort site near the West Clear Fork. On June 6, 1849, advised by Middleton Tate Johnson, established a camp on the bank of the Trinity River and named the post Camp Worth in honor of the late General Worth. In August 1849, Arnold moved the camp to the north-facing bluff, which overlooked the mouth of the Clear Fork of the Trinity River; the United States War Department named the post Fort Worth on November 14, 1849. Native American attacks were still a threat in the area, as this was their traditional territory and they resented encroachment by European-American settlers, but people from the United States set up homesteads near the fort.
E. S. Terrell from Tennessee claimed to be the first resident of Fort Worth; the fort was moved to the top of the bluff. The fort was abandoned September 17, 1853. No trace of it remains; as a stop on the legendary Chisholm Trail, Fort Worth was stimulated by the business of the cattle drives and became a brawling, bustling town. Millions of head of cattle were driven north to market along this trail. Fort Worth became the center of the cattle drives, the ranching industry, it was given the nickname of Cowtown. During the Civil War, Fort Worth suffered from shortages of money and supplies; the population began to recover during Reconstruction. By 1872, Jacob Samuels, William Jesse Boaz, William Henry Davis had opened general stores; the next year, Khleber M. Van Zandt established Tidball, Van Zandt, Company, which became Fort Worth National Bank in 1884. In 1875, the Dallas Herald published an article by a former Fort Worth lawyer, Robert E. Cowart, who wrote that the decimation of Fort Worth's population, caused by the economic disaster and hard winter of 1873, had dealt a severe blow to the cattle industry.
Added to the slowdown due to the railroad's stopping the laying of track 30 miles outside of Fort Worth, Cowart said that Fort Worth was so slow th
Herbarium
A herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study.. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; the specimens in a herbarium are used as reference material in describing plant taxa. The same term is used in mycology to describe an equivalent collection of preserved fungi, otherwise known as a fungarium. A xylarium is a herbarium specialising in specimens of wood; the term hortorium has been applied to a herbarium specialising in preserving material of horticultural origin. The oldest traditions of making herbarium collection or Hortus sicci have been traced to Italy. Luca Ghini and his students created herbaria of which the oldest extant one is that of Gherardo Cibo from around 1532. While most of the early herbaria were prepared with sheets bound into books, Carolus Linnaeus came up with the idea of maintaining them on free sheets that allowed their easy re-ordering within cabinets. Commensurate with the need of wildlife conservation, it is desirable to include in a herbarium sheet as much of the plant as possible, or at least representative parts of them in the case of large specimens.
To preserve their form and colour, plants collected in the field are arranged and spread flat between thin sheets, known as'flimsies', dried in a plant press, between blotters or absorbent paper. During the drying process the specimens are retained within their flimsies at all times to minimise damage, only the thicker, absorbent drying sheets are replaced. For some plants it may prove helpful to allow the fresh specimen to wilt before being arranged for the press. An opportunity to check and further lay out the specimen to best reveal the required features of the plant occurs when the damp absorbent sheets are changed during the drying/pressing process; the specimens, which are mounted on sheets of stiff white paper, are labelled with all essential data, such as date and place found, description of the plant and special habitat conditions. The sheet is placed in a protective case; as a precaution against insect attack, the pressed plant is frozen or poisoned, the case disinfected. Certain groups of plants are soft, bulky, or otherwise not amenable to drying and mounting on sheets.
For these plants, other methods of preparation and storage may be used. For example, conifer cones and palm fronds may be stored in labelled boxes. Representative flowers or fruits may be pickled in formaldehyde to preserve their three-dimensional structure. Small specimens, such as mosses and lichens, are air-dried and packaged in small paper envelopes. No matter the method of preservation, detailed information on where and when the plant was collected, habitat and the name of the collector is included; the value of a herbarium is much enhanced by the possession of “types”, that is, the original specimens on which the study of a species was founded. Thus the herbarium at the British Museum, rich in the earlier collections made in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, contains the types of many species founded by the earlier workers in botany, it is rich in types of Australian plants from the collections of Sir Joseph Banks and Robert Brown, contains in addition many valuable modern collections.
Most herbaria utilize a standard system of organizing their specimens into herbarium cases. Specimen sheets are stacked in groups by the species to which they belong and placed into a large lightweight folder, labelled on the bottom edge. Groups of species folders are placed together into larger, heavier folders by genus; the genus folders are sorted by taxonomic family according to the standard system selected for use by the herbarium and placed into pigeonholes in herbarium cabinets. Locating a specimen filed in the herbarium requires knowing the nomenclature and classification used by the herbarium, it requires familiarity with possible name changes that have occurred since the specimen was collected, since the specimen may be filed under an older name. Modern herbaria maintain electronic databases of their collections. Many herbaria have initiatives to digitize specimens to produce a virtual herbarium; these records and images are made publicly accessible via the Internet. Herbarium collections can have great significance and value to science, have a large number of uses.
Herbaria are essential for the study of plant taxonomy, the study of geographic distributions, the stabilizing of nomenclature. Linnaeus's herbarium now belongs to the Linnean Society in England. Specimens housed in herbaria may identify the flora of an area. A large collection from a single area is used in writing a field guide or manual to aid in the identification of plants that grow there. With more specimens available, the author of the guide will better understand the variability of form in the plants and the natural distribution over which the plants grow. Herbaria preserve a historical record of change in vegetation over time. In some cases, plants may become extinct altogether. In such cases, specimens preserved in a herbarium can represent the only record of the plant's original distribution. Environmental scientists make use of such data to track changes in human impact. Herbaria have proven useful as source
Texas
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Geographically located in the South Central region of the country, Texas shares borders with the U. S. states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas to the southwest, while the Gulf of Mexico is to the southeast. Houston is the most populous city in Texas and the fourth largest in the U. S. while San Antonio is the second-most populous in the state and seventh largest in the U. S. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are the fourth and fifth largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country, respectively. Other major cities include Austin, the second-most populous state capital in the U. S. and El Paso. Texas is nicknamed "The Lone Star State" to signify its former status as an independent republic, as a reminder of the state's struggle for independence from Mexico; the "Lone Star" can be found on the Texan state seal.
The origin of Texas's name is from the word taysha. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, Texas contains diverse landscapes common to both the U. S. Southern and Southwestern regions. Although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10% of Texas's land area is desert. Most of the population centers are in areas of former prairies, grasslands and the coastline. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the desert and mountains of the Big Bend; the term "six flags over Texas" refers to several nations. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas. France held a short-lived colony. Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the union as the 28th state; the state's annexation set off a chain of events that led to the Mexican–American War in 1846.
A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, joined the Confederate States of America on March 2nd of the same year. After the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. Four major industries shaped the Texas economy prior to World War II: cattle and bison, cotton and oil. Before and after the U. S. Civil War the cattle industry, which Texas came to dominate, was a major economic driver for the state, thus creating the traditional image of the Texas cowboy. In the 19th century cotton and lumber grew to be major industries as the cattle industry became less lucrative, it was though, the discovery of major petroleum deposits that initiated an economic boom which became the driving force behind the economy for much of the 20th century. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy and high tech industry in the mid-20th century.
As of 2015, it is second on the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with 54. With a growing base of industry, the state leads in many industries, including agriculture, energy and electronics, biomedical sciences. Texas has led the U. S. in state export revenue since 2002, has the second-highest gross state product. If Texas were a sovereign state, it would be the 10th largest economy in the world; the name Texas, based on the Caddo word táyshaʼ "friend", was applied, in the spelling Tejas or Texas, by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves the Hasinai Confederacy, the final -s representing the Spanish plural. The Mission San Francisco de los Tejas was completed near the Hasinai village of Nabedaches in May 1690, in what is now Houston County, East Texas. During Spanish colonial rule, in the 18th century, the area was known as Nuevo Reino de Filipinas "New Kingdom of the Philippines", or as provincia de los Tejas "province of the Tejas" also provincia de Texas, "province of Texas", it was incorporated as provincia de Texas into the Mexican Empire in 1821, declared a republic in 1836.
The Royal Spanish Academy recognizes both spellings and Texas, as Spanish-language forms of the name of the U. S. State of Texas; the English pronunciation with /ks/ is unetymological, based in the value of the letter x in historical Spanish orthography. Alternative etymologies of the name advanced in the late 19th century connected the Spanish teja "rooftile", the plural tejas being used to designate indigenous Pueblo settlements. A 1760s map by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin shows a village named Teijas on Trinity River, close to the site of modern Crockett. Texas is the second-largest U. S. state, with an area of 268,820 square miles. Though 10% larger than France and twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Zambia. Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers; the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas to the south.
The Red River forms a natural border with Arkansas to the north. The Sabine River forms a natural border with Louisiana to the east; the Texas Panhandle has an eastern border with Oklahoma at 100° W, a northern border with Oklahoma at 36°30' N and a western
Conservation (ethic)
Conservation is an ethic of resource use and protection. Its primary focus is upon maintaining the health of the natural world, its fisheries and biological diversity. Secondary focus is on material conservation, including non-renewable resources such as metals and fossil fuels, energy conservation, important to protect the natural world; those who follow the conservation ethic and those who advocate or work toward conservation goals are termed conservationists. The terms conservation and preservation are conflated outside the academic and professional kinds of literature; the US National Park Service offers the following explanation of the important ways in which these two terms represent different conceptions of environmental protection ethics: ″Conservation and preservation are linked and may indeed seem to mean the same thing. Both terms involve a degree of protection, but how that protection is carried out is the key difference. Conservation is associated with the protection of natural resources, while preservation is associated with the protection of buildings and landscapes.
Put conservation seeks the proper use of nature, while preservation seeks protection of nature from use. During the environmental movement of the early 20th century, two opposing factions emerged: conservationists and preservationists. Conservationists sought to regulate human use while preservationists sought to eliminate human impact altogether.″ To conserve habitat in terrestrial ecoregions and to stop deforestation is a goal shared by many groups with a wide variety of motivations. To protect sea life from extinction due to overfishing or climate change is another stated goal of conservation – ensuring that "some will be available for future generations" to continue a way of life; the consumer conservation ethic is sometimes expressed by the four R's: " Rethink, Recycle, Repair" This social ethic relates to local purchasing, moral purchasing, the sustained, efficient use of renewable resources, the moderation of destructive use of finite resources, the prevention of harm to common resources such as air and water quality, the natural functions of a living earth, cultural values in a built environment.
The principal value underlying most expressions of the conservation ethic is that the natural world has intrinsic and intangible worth along with utilitarian value – a view carried forward by the scientific conservation movement and some of the older Romantic schools of ecology movement. More Utilitarian schools of conservation seek a proper valuation of local and global impacts of human activity upon nature in their effect upon human well being, now and to posterity. How such values are assessed and exchanged among people determines the social and personal restraints and imperatives by which conservation is practiced; this is a view common in the modern environmental movement. These movements have diverged but they have deep and common roots in the conservation movement. In the United States of America, the year 1864 saw the publication of two books which laid the foundation for Romantic and Utilitarian conservation traditions in America; the posthumous publication of Henry David Thoreau's Walden established the grandeur of unspoiled nature as a citadel to nourish the spirit of man.
From George Perkins Marsh a different book and Nature subtitled "The Earth as Modified by Human Action", catalogued his observations of man exhausting and altering the land from which his sustenance derives. In common usage, the term refers to the activity of systematically protecting natural resources such as forests, including biological diversity. Carl F. Jordan defines the term as: biological conservation as being a philosophy of managing the environment in a manner that does not despoil, exhaust or extinguish. While this usage is not new, the idea of biological conservation has been applied to the principles of ecology, bio geography, anthropology and sociology to maintain biodiversity; the term "conservation" itself may cover the concepts such as cultural diversity, genetic diversity and the concept of movements environmental conservation, seedbank. These are summarized as the priority to respect diversity by Greens. Much recent movement in conservation can be considered a resistance to commercialism and globalization.
Slow Food is a consequence of rejecting these as moral priorities, embracing a slower and more locally focused lifestyle. Distinct trends exist regarding conservation development. While many countries' efforts to preserve species and their habitats have been government-led, those in the North Western Europe tended to arise out of the middle-class and aristocratic interest in natural history, expressed at the level of the individual and the national, regional or local learned society, thus countries like Britain, the Netherlands, etc. had what we would today term NGOs – in the shape of the RSPB, National Trust and County Naturalists' Trusts Natuurmonumenten, Provincial Conservation Trusts for each Dutch province, etc. – a long time before there were national parks and national nature reserves. This in part reflects the absence of wilderness areas in cultivated Europe, as well as a longstanding interest in laissez-faire government in some countries, like the UK, leaving it as no coincidence that John Muir, the Scottish-born founder of the National Park movement did his sterling work in the USA, where he was the motor force behind the establishment of such NPs as Yosemite and Yellowstone.
Nowadays more than 10 percent
