Ice age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth is in the Quaternary glaciation, known in popular terminology as the Ice Age. Individual pulses of cold climate are termed "glacial periods", intermittent warm periods are called "interglacials", with both climatic pulses part of the Quaternary or other periods in Earth's history. In the terminology of glaciology, ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres. By this definition, we are in an interglacial period—the Holocene; the amount of heat trapping gases emitted into Earth's Oceans and atmosphere will prevent the next ice age, which otherwise would begin in around 50,000 years, more glacial cycles. In 1742, Pierre Martel, an engineer and geographer living in Geneva, visited the valley of Chamonix in the Alps of Savoy. Two years he published an account of his journey.
He reported that the inhabitants of that valley attributed the dispersal of erratic boulders to the glaciers, saying that they had once extended much farther. Similar explanations were reported from other regions of the Alps. In 1815 the carpenter and chamois hunter Jean-Pierre Perraudin explained erratic boulders in the Val de Bagnes in the Swiss canton of Valais as being due to glaciers extending further. An unknown woodcutter from Meiringen in the Bernese Oberland advocated a similar idea in a discussion with the Swiss-German geologist Jean de Charpentier in 1834. Comparable explanations are known from the Val de Ferret in the Valais and the Seeland in western Switzerland and in Goethe's scientific work; such explanations could be found in other parts of the world. When the Bavarian naturalist Ernst von Bibra visited the Chilean Andes in 1849–1850, the natives attributed fossil moraines to the former action of glaciers. Meanwhile, European scholars had begun to wonder. From the middle of the 18th century, some discussed ice as a means of transport.
The Swedish mining expert Daniel Tilas was, in 1742, the first person to suggest drifting sea ice in order to explain the presence of erratic boulders in the Scandinavian and Baltic regions. In 1795, the Scottish philosopher and gentleman naturalist, James Hutton, explained erratic boulders in the Alps by the action of glaciers. Two decades in 1818, the Swedish botanist Göran Wahlenberg published his theory of a glaciation of the Scandinavian peninsula, he regarded glaciation as a regional phenomenon. Only a few years the Danish-Norwegian geologist Jens Esmark argued a sequence of worldwide ice ages. In a paper published in 1824, Esmark proposed changes in climate as the cause of those glaciations, he attempted to show. During the following years, Esmark's ideas were discussed and taken over in parts by Swedish and German scientists. At the University of Edinburgh Robert Jameson seemed to be open to Esmark's ideas, as reviewed by Norwegian professor of glaciology Bjørn G. Andersen. Jameson's remarks about ancient glaciers in Scotland were most prompted by Esmark.
In Germany, Albrecht Reinhard Bernhardi, a geologist and professor of forestry at an academy in Dreissigacker, since incorporated in the southern Thuringian city of Meiningen, adopted Esmark's theory. In a paper published in 1832, Bernhardi speculated about former polar ice caps reaching as far as the temperate zones of the globe. In 1829, independently of these debates, the Swiss civil engineer Ignaz Venetz explained the dispersal of erratic boulders in the Alps, the nearby Jura Mountains, the North German Plain as being due to huge glaciers; when he read his paper before the Schweizerische Naturforschende Gesellschaft, most scientists remained sceptical. Venetz convinced his friend Jean de Charpentier. De Charpentier transformed Venetz's idea into a theory with a glaciation limited to the Alps, his thoughts resembled Wahlenberg's theory. In fact, both men shared the same volcanistic, or in de Charpentier's case rather plutonistic assumptions, about the Earth's history. In 1834, de Charpentier presented his paper before the Schweizerische Naturforschende Gesellschaft.
In the meantime, the German botanist Karl Friedrich Schimper was studying mosses which were growing on erratic boulders in the alpine upland of Bavaria. He began to wonder. During the summer of 1835 he made some excursions to the Bavarian Alps. Schimper came to the conclusion that ice must have been the means of transport for the boulders in the alpine upland. In the winter of 1835 to 1836 he held. Schimper assumed that there must have been global times of obliteration with a cold climate and frozen water. Schimper spent the summer months of 1836 at Devens, near Bex, in the Swiss Alps with his former university friend Louis Agassiz and Jean de Charpentier. Schimper, de Charpentier and Venetz convinced Agassiz that there had been a time of glaciation. During the winter of 1836/37, Agassiz and Schimper developed the theory of a sequence of glaciations, they drew upon the preceding works of Venetz, de Charpentier and on their own fieldwork. Agassiz appears to have been familiar with Bernhardi's paper at that time.
At the beginning of 1837, Schimper coined the term "ice age" for the period of the glaciers. In July 1837 Ag
Estuary
An estuary is a enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environments, they are subject both to marine influences—such as tides and the influx of saline water—and to riverine influences—such as flows of fresh water and sediment. The mixing of sea water and fresh water provide high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world. Most existing estuaries formed during the Holocene epoch with the flooding of river-eroded or glacially scoured valleys when the sea level began to rise about 10,000–12,000 years ago. Estuaries are classified according to their geomorphological features or to water-circulation patterns, they can have many different names, such as bays, lagoons, inlets, or sounds, although some of these water bodies do not meet the above definition of an estuary and may be saline.
The banks of many estuaries are amongst the most populated areas of the world, with about 60% of the world's population living along estuaries and the coast. As a result, many estuaries suffer degradation from a variety of factors including: sedimentation from soil erosion from deforestation and other poor farming practices; the word "estuary" is derived from the Latin word aestuarium meaning tidal inlet of the sea, which in itself is derived from the term aestus, meaning tide. There have been many definitions proposed to describe an estuary; the most accepted definition is: "a semi-enclosed coastal body of water, which has a free connection with the open sea, within which sea water is measurably diluted with freshwater derived from land drainage". However, this definition excludes a number of coastal water bodies such as coastal lagoons and brackish seas. A more comprehensive definition of an estuary is "a semi-enclosed body of water connected to the sea as far as the tidal limit or the salt intrusion limit and receiving freshwater runoff.
This broad definition includes fjords, river mouths, tidal creeks. An estuary is a dynamic ecosystem having a connection to the open sea through which the sea water enters with the rhythm of the tides; the sea water entering the estuary streams. The pattern of dilution varies between different estuaries and depends on the volume of fresh water, the tidal range, the extent of evaporation of the water in the estuary. Drowned river valleys are known as coastal plain estuaries. In places where the sea level is rising relative to the land, sea water progressively penetrates into river valleys and the topography of the estuary remains similar to that of a river valley; this is the most common type of estuary in temperate climates. Well-studied estuaries include the Severn Estuary in the United Kingdom and the Ems Dollard along the Dutch-German border; the width-to-depth ratio of these estuaries is large, appearing wedge-shaped in the inner part and broadening and deepening seaward. Water depths exceed 30 m.
Examples of this type of estuary in the U. S. are the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay along the Mid-Atlantic coast, Galveston Bay and Tampa Bay along the Gulf Coast. Bar-built estuaries are found in place where the deposition of sediment has kept pace with rising sea level so that the estuaries are shallow and separated from the sea by sand spits or barrier islands, they are common in tropical and subtropical locations. These estuaries are semi-isolated from ocean waters by barrier beaches. Formation of barrier beaches encloses the estuary, with only narrow inlets allowing contact with the ocean waters. Bar-built estuaries develop on sloping plains located along tectonically stable edges of continents and marginal sea coasts, they are extensive along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U. S. in areas with active coastal deposition of sediments and where tidal ranges are less than 4 m. The barrier beaches that enclose bar-built estuaries have been developed in several ways: building up of offshore bars by wave action, in which sand from the sea floor is deposited in elongated bars parallel to the shoreline, reworking of sediment discharge from rivers by wave and wind action into beaches, overwash flats, dunes, engulfment of mainland beach ridges due to sea level rise and resulting in the breaching of the ridges and flooding of the coastal lowlands, forming shallow lagoons, elongation of barrier spits from the erosion of headlands due to the action of longshore currents, with the spits growing in the direction of the littoral drift.
Barrier beaches form in shallow water and are parallel to the shoreline, resulting in long, narrow estuaries. The average water depth is less than 5 m, exceeds 10 m. Examples of bar-built estuaries are Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. Fjords were formed where pleistocene glaciers deepened and widened existing river valleys so that they become U-shaped in cross s
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom provide emergency care to people with acute illness or injury and are predominantly provided free at the point of use by the four National Health Services of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is free to everyone, regardless of immigration or visitor status; the NHS commissions most emergency medical services through the 14 NHS organisations with ambulance responsibility across the UK. As with other emergency services, the public access emergency medical services through one of the valid emergency telephone numbers. In addition to ambulance services provided by NHS organisations, there are some private and volunteer emergency medical services arrangements in place in the UK, the use of private or volunteer ambulances at public events or large private sites, as part of community provision of services such as community first responders. Air ambulance services in the UK are not part of the NHS and are funded through charitable donations.
Paramedics are seconded from a local NHS ambulance service, with the exception of Great North Air Ambulance Service who employ their own paramedics. Doctors are provided by their home hospital and spend no more than 40% of their time with an air ambulance service. Public ambulance services across the UK are required by law to respond to four types of requests for care, which are: Emergency calls Doctor's urgent admission requests High dependency and urgent inter-hospital transfers Major incidentsAmbulance trusts and services may undertake non-urgent patient transport services on a commercial arrangement with their local hospital trusts or health boards, or in some cases on directly funded government contracts, although these contracts are fulfilled by private and voluntary providers; the National Health Service Act 1946 gave county and borough councils a statutory responsibility to provide an emergency ambulance service, although they could contract a voluntary ambulance service to provide this, with many contracting the British Red Cross, St John Ambulance or another local provider.
The last St John Division, to be so contracted is reputed to have been at Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire, where the two-bay ambulance garage can still be seen at the branch headquarters. The Regional Ambulance Officers’ Committee reported in 1979 that “There was considerable local variation in the quality of the service provided in relation to vehicles and equipment. Most Services were administered by Local Authorities through their Medical Officer of Health and his Ambulance Officer, a few were under the aegis of the Fire Service, whilst others relied upon agency methods for the provision of part or all of their services.” The 142 existing ambulance services were transferred by the National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973 from local authority to central government control in 1974, consolidated into 53 services under regional or area health authorities. This led to the formation of predominantly county based ambulance services, which merged up and changed responsibilities until 2006, when there were 31 NHS ambulance trusts in England.
The June 2005 report "Taking healthcare to the Patient", authored by Peter Bradley, Chief Executive of the London Ambulance Service, for the Department of Health led to the merging of the 31 trusts into 13 organisations in England, plus one organisation each in Wales and Northern Ireland. Following further changes as part of the NHS foundation trust pathway, this has further reduced to 10 ambulance service trusts in England, plus the Isle of Wight which has its own provision. Following the passage of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, commissioning of the ambulance services in each area passed from central government control into the hands of regional clinical commissioning groups; the commissioners in each region are responsible for contracting with a suitable organisation to provide ambulance services within their geographical territory. The primary provider for each area is held by a public NHS body, of which there are 11 in England, 1 each in the other three countries. In England there are now ten NHS ambulance trusts, as well as an ambulance service on the Isle of Wight, run directly by Isle of Wight NHS Trust, with boundaries following those of the former regional government offices.
The ten trusts are: East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust London Ambulance Service NHS Trust North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS TrustThe English ambulance trusts are represented by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, with the Scottish and Northern Irish providers all associate members. On the 14 November 2018 West Midlands Ambulance Service became the UK's first university-ambulance trust; the service was operated before reorganisation in 1974 by the St Andrews’ Ambulance Association under contract to the Secretary of State for Scotland. The Scottish Ambulance Service is a Special Health Board that provides ambulance services throughout whole of Scotland, on behalf of the Health and Social Care Directorates of the Scottish Government.
Due to the remote nature of many areas of Scotland compared to the other Home Nations, the Scottish Ambulance Service has Britain's only publi
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,797; the name Falmouth is of English origin. It is claimed that an earlier Celtic name for the place was Peny-cwm-cuic, the same as the anglicised "Pennycomequick" district in Plymouth. Falmouth was where Henry VIII built Pendennis Castle to defend Carrick Roads in 1540; the main town of the district was at Penryn. Sir John Killigrew created the town of Falmouth shortly after 1613. In the late 16th century, under threat from the Spanish Armada, the defences at Pendennis were strengthened by the building of angled ramparts. During the Civil War, Pendennis Castle was the second to last fort to surrender to the Parliamentary Army. After the Civil War, Sir Peter Killigrew received royal patronage when he gave land for the building of the Church of King Charles the Martyr, dedicated to Charles I, "the Martyr"; the seal of Falmouth was blazoned as "An eagle displayed with two heads and on each wing with a tower".
The arms of the borough of Falmouth were "Arg. A double-headed eagle displayed Sa. each wing charged with a tower Or. in base issuant from the water barry wavy a rock Sa. thereon surmounting the tail of the eagle a staff proper flying therefrom a pennant Gu". Being the nearest to the entrance of the English Channel, two Royal Navy squadrons were permanently stationed here. In the 1790s one was under the command of Sir Edward Pellew and the other under the command of Sir John Borlase Warren; each squadron consisted with either 32 or 44 guns. Pellew's flagship was Warren's HMS Révolutionnaire. At the time of the French Revolutionary Wars, battle ships and small vessels were continually arriving with war prizes taken from the French ships and prisoners of war. Near Penryn, at Tregellick and Roscrow, were two large camps for the French prisoners; the Falmouth Packet Service operated out of Falmouth for over 160 years between 1689 and 1851. Its purpose was to carry mail to and from Britain's growing empire.
At the end of the 18th century there were thirty to forty, full rigged, three-masted ships. The crews were hand picked and both officers and men made large fortunes from the private contraband trade they partook, while under the protection of being a Government ship, free from customs and excise searches and therefore payment of duty. Captain John Bullock worked in the Packet Service and built Penmere Manor in 1825. In 1805 news of Britain's victory and Admiral Nelson's death at Trafalgar was landed here from the schooner Pickle and taken to London by stagecoach. On 2 October 1836 HMS Beagle anchored at Falmouth at the end of her noted survey voyage around the world; that evening, Charles Darwin left the ship and took the Mail coach to his family home at The Mount, Shrewsbury. The ship stayed a few days and Captain Robert FitzRoy visited the Fox family at nearby Penjerrick Gardens. Darwin's shipmate Sulivan made his home in the nearby waterside village of Flushing home to many naval officers.
In 1839 Falmouth was the scene of a gold dust robbery when £47,600 worth of gold dust from Brazil was stolen on arrival at the port. The Falmouth Docks were developed from 1858, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution opened Falmouth Lifeboat Station nearby in 1867; the present building dates from 1993 and houses Her Majesty's Coastguard. The RNLI operates two lifeboats from Falmouth: Richard Cox Scott, a 17-metre Severn-class all-weather boat, Eve Park, an Atlantic 75 inshore lifeboat. Near the town centre is Kimberley Park; the land pre-dates 1877, is named after the Earl of Kimberley who leased the park's land to the borough of Falmouth. Today the park has exotic and ornate trees; the Cornwall Railway reached Falmouth on 24 August 1863. The railway brought new prosperity to Falmouth, it allowed the swift transport of the goods disembarked from the ships in the port. The town now has three railway stations. Falmouth Docks railway station is the original terminus and is close to Pendennis Castle and Gyllyngvase beach.
Falmouth Town railway station was opened on 7 December 1970 and is convenient for the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, the waterfront, town centre. Penmere railway station opened on 1 July 1925 towards the north of Falmouth and within easy walking distance of the top of The Moor. All three stations are served by regular trains from Truro on the Maritime Line. Penmere Station was renovated in the late 1990s, using materials. During World War II, 31 people were killed in Falmouth by German bombing. An anti-submarine net was laid from Pendennis to St Mawes, to prevent enemy U-boats entering the harbour, it was the launching point for the noted commando raid on Saint-Nazaire in 1942. Between 1943 and 1944, Falmouth was a base for American troops preparing for the D-Day invasions. There are commemoration plaques at Turnaware Point, Falmouth Watersports marina and Trebah gardens. Arwenack, the estate which occupied the site before the development of the town of Falmouth, long the seat of the Killigrew family.
Falmouth Town is a civil parish within Cornwall, formed in 1974 from the historic Falmouth Borough Council. Falmouth received its Order of Charter in 1661; as of 2017, it is governed by sixteen councillors. Each of them serves a four-year term; the major
Good Friday
Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, may coincide with the Jewish observance of Passover, it is known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Black Friday. Members of many Christian denominations, including the Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran and Reformed traditions, observe Good Friday with fasting and church services; the date of Good Friday varies from one year to the next on both the Julian calendars. Eastern and Western Christianity disagree over the computation of the date of Easter and therefore of Good Friday. Good Friday is a instituted legal holiday around the world, including in most Western countries and 12 U. S. states. Some countries, such as Germany, have laws prohibiting certain acts, such as dancing and horse racing, that are seen as profaning the solemn nature of the day. A common folk etymology claims "Good Friday" is a corruption of "God Friday".
The term in fact comes from the sense "holy" of the word good. The Oxford English Dictionary gives other examples with the sense "of a day or season observed as holy by the church" as an archaic sense of good as in good tide meaning "Christmas" or "Shrove Tuesday", Good Wednesday meaning the Wednesday in Holy Week. In German-speaking countries, Good Friday is referred to as Karfreitag: Mourning Friday; the Kar prefix is a cognate of the English word "care" in the sense of woes. The day is known as Stiller Freitag and Hoher Freitag. In the Nordic countries it is called "The Long Friday". In Greek and Hungarian, Good Friday is referred to as Great Friday. In Bulgarian, Good Friday is called either Велики петък - Great Friday, or, more Разпети петък which translates to "Crucified Friday". According to the accounts in the Gospels, the royal soldiers, guided by Jesus' disciple Judas Iscariot, arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas received money for betraying Jesus and told the guards that whomever he kisses is the one they are to arrest.
Following his arrest, Jesus was taken to the house of Annas, the father-in-law of the high priest, Caiaphas. There he was interrogated with little result and sent bound to Caiaphas the high priest where the Sanhedrin had assembled. Conflicting testimony against Jesus was brought forth by many witnesses, to which Jesus answered nothing; the high priest adjured Jesus to respond under solemn oath, saying "I adjure you, by the Living God, to tell us, are you the Anointed One, the Son of God?" Jesus testified ambiguously, "You have said it, in time you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty, coming on the clouds of Heaven." The high priest condemned Jesus for blasphemy, the Sanhedrin concurred with a sentence of death. Peter, waiting in the courtyard denied Jesus three times to bystanders while the interrogations were proceeding just as Jesus had predicted. In the morning, the whole assembly brought Jesus to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate under charges of subverting the nation, opposing taxes to Caesar, making himself a king.
Pilate authorized the Jewish leaders to judge Jesus according to their own law and execute sentencing. Pilate told the assembly that there was no basis for sentencing. Upon learning that Jesus was from Galilee, Pilate referred the case to the ruler of Galilee, King Herod, in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. Herod received no answer. Pilate told the assembly. Under the guidance of the chief priests, the crowd asked for Barabbas, imprisoned for committing murder during an insurrection. Pilate asked what they would have him do with Jesus, they demanded, "Crucify him". Pilate's wife had seen Jesus in a dream earlier that day, she forewarned Pilate to "have nothing to do with this righteous man". Pilate had Jesus flogged and brought him out to the crowd to release him; the chief priests informed Pilate of a new charge, demanding Jesus be sentenced to death "because he claimed to be God's son." This possibility filled Pilate with fear, he brought Jesus back inside the palace and demanded to know from where he came.
Coming before the crowd one last time, Pilate declared Jesus innocent and washed his own hands in water to show he had no part in this condemnation. Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified in order to forestall a riot and to keep his job; the sentence written was "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." Jesus carried his cross to the site of execution, called the "place of the Skull", or "Golgotha" in Hebrew and in Latin "Calvary". There he was crucified along with two criminals. Jesus agonized on the cross for six hours. During his last three hours on the cross, from noon to 3 pm, darkness fell over the whole land. Jesus spoke from the cross, quoting the messianic Psalm 22: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" With a loud cry, Jesus gave up his spirit. There was an earthquake
Tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business. Tourism may be international, or within the traveller's country; the World Tourism Organization defines tourism more in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only", as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure and not less than 24 hours and other purposes". Tourism can be domestic or international, international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments. Tourism suffered as a result of a strong economic slowdown of the late-2000s recession, between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus, but recovered. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.03 trillion in 2005, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 3.8% from 2010. International tourist arrivals surpassed the milestone of 1 billion tourists globally for the first time in 2012, emerging markets such as China and Brazil had increased their spending over the previous decade.
The ITB Berlin is the world's leading tourism trade fair. Global tourism accounts for ca. 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The word tourist was used in 1772 and tourism in 1811, it is formed from the word tour, derived from Old English turian, from Old French torner, from Latin tornare. Tourism has become an important source of income for many regions and entire countries; the Manila Declaration on World Tourism of 1980 recognized its importance as "an activity essential to the life of nations because of its direct effects on the social, cultural and economic sectors of national societies and on their international relations."Tourism brings large amounts of income into a local economy in the form of payment for goods and services needed by tourists, accounting as of 2011 for 30% of the world's trade in services, for 6% of overall exports of goods and services. It generates opportunities for employment in the service sector of the economy associated with tourism; the hospitality industries which benefit from tourism include transportation services.
This is in addition to goods bought by tourists, including souvenirs. On the flip-side, tourism can degrade sour relationships between host and guest. In 1936, the League of Nations defined a foreign tourist as "someone traveling abroad for at least twenty-four hours", its successor, the United Nations, amended this definition in 1945, by including a maximum stay of six months. In 1941, Hunziker and Kraft defined tourism as "the sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents, insofar as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning activity." In 1976, the Tourism Society of England's definition was: "Tourism is the temporary, short-term movement of people to destinations outside the places where they live and work and their activities during the stay at each destination. It includes movements for all purposes." In 1981, the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined tourism in terms of particular activities chosen and undertaken outside the home.
In 1994, the United Nations identified three forms of tourism in its Recommendations on Tourism Statistics: Domestic tourism, involving residents of the given country traveling only within this country Inbound tourism, involving non-residents traveling in the given country Outbound tourism, involving residents traveling in another countryThe terms tourism and travel are sometimes used interchangeably. In this context, travel implies a more purposeful journey; the terms tourism and tourist are sometimes used pejoratively, to imply a shallow interest in the cultures or locations visited. By contrast, traveler is used as a sign of distinction; the sociology of tourism has studied the cultural values underpinning these distinctions and their implications for class relations. International tourist arrivals reached 1.035 billion in 2012, up from over 996 million in 2011, 952 million in 2010. In 2011 and 2012, international travel demand continued to recover from the losses resulting from the late-2000s recession, where tourism suffered a strong slowdown from the second half of 2008 through the end of 2009.
After a 5% increase in the first half of 2008, growth in international tourist arrivals moved into negative territory in the second half of 2008, ended up only 2% for the year, compared to a 7% increase in 2007. The negative trend intensified during 2009, exacerbated in some countries due to the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus, resulting in a worldwide decline of 4.2% in 2009 to 880 million international tourists arrivals, a 5.7% decline in international tourism receipts. The World Tourism Organization reports the following ten destinations as the most visited in terms of the number of international travelers in 2017. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.26 Trillion in 2015, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 4.4% from 2014. The World Tourism Organization reports the following entities as the top ten tourism earners for the year 2015: The World Tourism Organizati
South West Coast Path
The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for 630 miles, running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset; because it rises and falls with every river mouth, it is one of the more challenging trails. The total height climbed has been calculated to be 114,931 ft four times the height of Mount Everest, it has been voted'Britain's Best Walking route' twice in a row by readers of the Ramblers Walk magazine, features in lists of the world's best walks. The final section of the path was designated as a National Trail in 1978. Many of the landscapes which the South West Coast Path crosses have special status, either as a national park or one of the heritage coasts; the path passes through two World Heritage Sites: the Dorset and East Devon Coast, known as the Jurassic Coast, was designated in 2001, the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape in 2007. In the 1990s it was thought that the path brought £150 million into the area each year, but new research in 2003 indicated that it generated around £300 million a year in total, which could support more than 7,500 jobs.
This research recorded that 27.6% of visitors to the region came because of the Path, they spent £136 million in a year. Local people took 23 million walks on the Path and spent a further £116 million, other visitors contributed the remainder. A further study in 2005 estimated this figure to have risen to around £300 million. Following investment through the Rural Development Programme for England, more detailed research was undertaken in 2012, this found the annual spend by walkers to have risen to £439 million which sustains 9771 full-time equivalent jobs The path originated as a route for the Coastguard to walk from lighthouse to lighthouse patrolling for smugglers, they needed to be able to look down into every bay and cove: as a result, the path hugs the coast providing excellent views but the most direct path between two points. The South West Coast Path is no longer used by the Coastguard but it has been transformed from a practical defence system into a resource for recreational walkers.
The path is covered by England's right-of-way laws, as amended by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, which keep historic footpaths open to the public when they pass through private property. Sections of the path are maintained by the National Trust; the path is a designated National Trail funded by Natural England. It was created in stages, with its final section and North Devon, opening in 1978, it is maintained by a dedicated South West Coast Path Team. The South West Coast Path Association, a registered charity, exists to support the interests of users of the path; the Association was formed in 1973 and since it has campaigned for improvements to the path and undertakes considerable fundraising to help care for and improve the path. Its services include accommodation guides and completion certificates; the route is described here anticlockwise, from Minehead to Poole. The distance and total ascent between any two points, in either direction, can be obtained from The South West Coast Path Association Distance Reckoner.
A survey carried out in 1999 and 2000 found that at that time the path had 2,473 signposts or waymarks, included 302 bridges, 921 stiles, 26,719 steps. In practice, any such calculation is soon out of date because of path diversions due to landslips or access changes. Many walkers take about eight weeks to complete the path dividing this into sections walked over several years. In contrast, a team of six Royal Marines, taking turns in pairs to run two-hour sections, completed the path in six days in 2004 and in 2012 a runner ran the entire path in 16 days, 9 hours and 57 minutes. New records for completing the path were set on 11 May 2013, when two runners completed the trail in 14 days, 14 hours and 45 minutes and 23 April 2015, when a runner completed the trail in 14 days, 8 hours and 2 minutes; this record was however broken by Mark Berry, who ran it in 11 days, 8 hours and 15 minutes. On 24 May 2016 outdoor journalist and GB ultra runner Damian Hall set a new fastest known time of 10 days, 15 hours and 18 minutes.
The South West Coast Path starts from the western side of Minehead, in Somerset, at a marker erected in 2001 and paid for by the South West Coast Path Association. The path follows the waterfront past the harbour to Culver Cliff before climbing up on a zigzag path through woodland. Entering the Exmoor National Park, it cuts inland past North Hill, Selworthy Beacon and Bossington Hill before regaining the cliff top at Hurlestone Point. After passing through Bossington it follows the beach to Porlock Weir and connects with the Coleridge Way; the scenery of rocky headlands, ravines and towering cliffs gained the Exmoor coast recognition as a Heritage Coast in 1991. The Exmoor Coastal Heaths have been recognised as a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to the diversity of species present; the path passes the smallest parish church in Culbone Church, in Culbone. The path crosses the county boundary into Devon, a few hundred yards north of the National Park Centre at County Gate; the next big headland is Foreland Point, after which the path comes to Lynmouth with the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway linking it with Lynton on the hill above.
At Lynmouth the path intersects with the Two Moors Way. The river here suffered a catastrophic flood in the 1950s. Beyond Lynton the path passes through the Valley of the Rocks, known for its herd of goats Duty Point and Lee Bay Crock Point and Woody Bay. After Highveer Rocks the path crosses the small River Heddon skirts Tren
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