1.
Atoll
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An atoll, sometimes called a coral atoll, is a ring-shaped coral reef including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands/cays on the rim, the coral of the atoll often sits atop the rim of an extinct seamount or volcano which has eroded or subsided partially beneath the water. The lagoon forms over the crater or caldera while the higher rim remains above water or at shallow depths that permit the coral to grow. For the atoll to persist, continued erosion or subsidence must be at a slow enough to permit reef growth upwards and outwards to replace the lost height. The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu, meaning an administrative subdivision, the distribution of atolls around the globe is instructive, most of the worlds atolls are in the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean has no large groups of atolls, other than eight atolls east of Nicaragua that belong to the Colombian department of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean. Reef-building corals will thrive only in tropical and subtropical waters of oceans and seas. The northernmost atoll of the world is Kure Atoll at 28°24 N, the southernmost atolls of the world are Elizabeth Reef at 29°58 S, and nearby Middleton Reef at 29°29 S, in the Tasman Sea, both of which are part of the Coral Sea Islands Territory. The next southerly atoll is Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Islands Group, at this latitude coral reefs would not develop without the warming waters of the Gulf Stream. However, Bermuda is termed a pseudo-atoll because its general form, while there is no atoll directly on the equator, the closest atoll to the Equator is Aranuka of Kiribati, with its southern tip just 12 km north of the equator. In most cases, the area of an atoll is very small in comparison to the total area. Atoll islands are low lying, with their elevations less than 5 meters, measured by total area, Lifou is the largest raised coral atoll of the world, followed by Rennell Island. More sources however list as the largest atoll in the world in terms of land area Kiritimati, the remains of an ancient atoll as a hill in a limestone area is called a reef knoll. The second largest atoll by dry land area is Aldabra with 155 km², the largest atoll in terms of island numbers is Huvadhu Atoll in the south of the Maldives with 255 islands. In 1842, Charles Darwin explained the creation of coral atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean based upon observations made during a voyage aboard the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836. In time, subsidence carries the old volcano below the ocean surface, at this point, the island has become an atoll. Atolls are the product of the growth of marine organisms. Volcanic islands located beyond the water temperature requirements of hermatypic organisms become seamounts as they subside and are eroded away at the surface
2.
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
3.
Tuvalu
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It comprises three reef islands and six true atolls spread out between the latitude of 5° to 10° south and longitude of 176° to 180°, west of the International Date Line. Tuvalu has a population of 10,640, the total land area of the islands of Tuvalu is 26 square kilometres. The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesians, in 1568, Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to sail through the archipelago, sighting the island of Nui during his expedition in search of Terra Australis. In 1819 the island of Funafuti was named Ellices Island, the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. A referendum was held in December 1974 to determine whether the Gilbert Islands, as a consequence of the referendum, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony ceased to exist on 1 January 1976 and the separate British colonies of Kiribati and Tuvalu came into existence. Tuvalu became fully independent within the Commonwealth on 1 October 1978, on 5 September 2000 Tuvalu became the 189th member of the United Nations. The origins of the people of Tuvalu are addressed in the theories regarding migration into the Pacific that began about 3000 years ago, during pre-European-contact times there was frequent canoe voyaging between the nearer islands including Samoa and Tonga. Eight of the nine islands of Tuvalu were inhabited, thus the name, Tuvalu, possible evidence of fire in the Caves of Nanumanga may indicate human occupation for thousands of years. The stories as to the ancestors of the Tuvaluans vary from island to island, on Niutao, Funafuti and Vaitupu the founding ancestor is described as being from Samoa, whereas on Nanumea the founding ancestor is described as being from Tonga. Mendaña made contact with the islanders but was unable to land, during Mendañas second voyage across the Pacific he passed Niulakita on 29 August 1595, which he named La Solitaria. Captain John Byron passed through the islands of Tuvalu in 1764 during his circumnavigation of the globe as captain of the Dolphin, Byron charted the atolls as Lagoon Islands. Chambers and Doug Munro identified Niutao as the island that Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa sailed past on 5 May 1781, mourelles map and journal named the island El Gran Cocal, however, the latitude and longitude was uncertain. Longitude could only be reckoned crudely as accurate chronometers were unavailable until the late 18th century, the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. In 1820 the Russian explorer Mikhail Lazarev visited Nukufetau as commander of the Mirny, Louis Isidore Duperrey, captain of La Coquille, sailed past Nanumanga in May 1824 during a circumnavigation of the earth. A Dutch expedition found Nui on the morning of 14 June 1825, whalers began roving the Pacific, although visiting Tuvalu only infrequently because of the difficulties of landing on the atolls. Captain George Barrett of the Nantucket whaler Independence II has been identified as the first whaler to hunt the waters around Tuvalu, in November 1821 he bartered coconuts from the people of Nukulaelae and also visited Niulakita. A shore camp was established on Sakalua islet of Nukufetau, where coal was used to melt down the whale blubber, the Rev. A. W. Elekana began proselytising Christianity. He was trained at Malua Theological College, a London Missionary Society school in Samoa, in 1865 the Rev. A. W. Murray of the LMS – a Protestant congregationalist missionary society – arrived as the first European missionary where he too proselytised among the inhabitants of Tuvalu
4.
Human settlement
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In geography, statistics and archaeology, a settlement, locality or populated place is a community in which people live. A settlement can range in size from a number of dwellings grouped together to the largest of cities with surrounding urbanized areas. Settlements may include hamlets, villages, towns and cities, a settlement may have known historical properties such as the date or era in which it was first settled, or first settled by a particular people. In the field of geospatial predictive modeling, settlements are a city, town, village ghost or other agglomeration of buildings where people live and work. The oldest remains that have found of constructed dwellings are remains of huts that were made of mud. The Natufians built houses, also in the Levant, around 10,000 BC, remains of settlements such as villages become much more common after the invention of agriculture. Landscape history studies the form of settlements – for example whether they are dispersed or nucleated, urban morphology can thus be considered a special type of cultural-historical landscape studies. Settlements can be ordered by size, centrality or other factors to define a settlement hierarchy, geoscience Australia defines a populated place as a named settlement with a population of 200 or more persons. The Committee for Geographical Names in Australasia used the term localities for rural areas, the Bulgarian Government publishes a National Register of Populated Places. The Canadian government uses the term populated place in the Atlas of Canada, Statistics Canada uses the term localities for historical named locations. The Croatian Bureau of Statistics records population in units called settlements, the Census Commission of India has a special definition of census towns. The Central Statistics Office of the Republic of Ireland has a definition of census towns. There are various types of inhabited localities in Russia, Statistics Sweden uses the term localities for various densely populated places. The common English-language translation is urban areas, the UK Department for Communities and Local Government uses the term urban settlement to denote an urban area when analysing census information. The Registrar General for Scotland defines settlements as groups of one or more contiguous localities, the Scottish settlements are used as one of several factors defining urban areas. A populated place is not incorporated and by definition has no legal boundaries. However, a place may have a corresponding civil record. Census − a statistical area delineated locally specifically for the tabulation of Census Bureau data, civil − a political division formed for administrative purposes
5.
Oral history
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These interviews are conducted with people who participated in or observed past events and whose memories and perceptions of these are to be preserved as an aural record for future generations. Oral history strives to obtain information from different perspectives and most of these cannot be found in written sources, Oral history also refers to information gathered in this manner and to a written work based on such data, often preserved in archives and large libraries. Knowledge presented by Oral History is unique in that it shares the tacit perspective, thoughts, opinions, however, as the Columbia Encyclopedia explains, Primitive societies have long relied on oral tradition to preserve a record of the past in the absence of written histories. In Western society, the use of oral material goes back to the early Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides, the modern concept of oral history was developed in the 1940s by Allan Nevins and his associates at Oral history has become an international movement in historical research. Oral historians in different countries have approached the collection, analysis, however, it should also be noted that there are many ways of creating oral histories and carrying out the study of oral history even within individual national contexts. Authors such as Studs Terkel, Alex Haley, and Oscar Lewis have employed oral history in their books, in another important example of the genre, a massive archive covering the oral history of American music has been compiled at the Yale School of Music. By the end of the 20th cent, Oral history had become a respected discipline in many colleges and universities. At that time the Italian historian Alessandro Portelli and his associates began to study the role that memory itself, whether accurate or faulty, plays in the themes and structures of oral history. Their published work has become standard material in the field. Since the early 1970s, oral history in Britain has grown from being a method in folklore studies to becoming a key component in community histories, Oral history continues to be an important means by which non-academics can actively participate in the compilation and study of history. However, practitioners across a range of academic disciplines have also developed the method into a way of recording, understanding. Influences have included womens history and labour history, in Britain, the Oral History Society has played a key role in facilitating and developing the use of oral history. A more complete account of the history of history in Britain. The Bureau of Military History conducted over 1700 interviews with veterans of the First World War, the documentation was released for research in 2003. During 1998 and 1999,40 BBC local radio stations recorded personal oral histories from a broad cross-section of the population for The Century Speaks series. The result was 640 half-hour radio documentaries, broadcast in the weeks of the millennium, and one of the largest single oral history collections in Europe. The interview based recordings are held by the British Library Sound Archive in the history collection. In one of the largest memory project anywhere, The BBC in 2003-6 invited its audiences to send in recollections of the homefront in the Second World War and it put 47,000 of the recollections online, along with 15,000 photographs
6.
Slavery
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A slave is unable to withdraw unilaterally from such an arrangement and works without remuneration. Many scholars now use the chattel slavery to refer to this specific sense of legalised. In a broader sense, however, the word slavery may also refer to any situation in which an individual is de facto forced to work against his or her will. Scholars also use the generic terms such as unfree labour or forced labour. However – and especially under slavery in broader senses of the word – slaves may have some rights and/or protections, Slavery began to exist before written history, in many cultures. A person could become a slave from the time of their birth, capture, while slavery was institutionally recognized by most societies, it has now been outlawed in all recognized countries, the last being Mauritania in 2007. Nevertheless, there are still more slaves today than at any point in history. The most common form of the trade is now commonly referred to as human trafficking. Chattel slavery is still practiced by the Islamic State of Iraq. An older interpretation connected it to the Greek verb skyleúo to strip a slain enemy, there is a dispute among historians about whether terms such as unfree labourer or enslaved person, rather than slave, should be used when describing the victims of slavery. Chattel slavery, also called traditional slavery, is so named because people are treated as the chattel of the owner and are bought, although it dominated many societies in the past, this form of slavery has been formally abolished and is very rare today. Even when it can be said to survive, it is not upheld by the system of any internationally recognized government. Indenture, otherwise known as bonded labour or debt bondage is a form of labour under which a person pledges himself or herself against a loan. The services required to repay the debt, and their duration, debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation, with children required to pay off their parents debt. It is the most widespread form of slavery today, debt bondage is most prevalent in South Asia. This may also include institutions not commonly classified as slavery, such as serfdom, conscription, Human trafficking primarily involves women and children forced into prostitution. And is the fastest growing form of forced labour, with Thailand, Cambodia, India, Brazil, in 2007, Human Rights Watch estimated that 200,000 to 300,000 children served as soldiers in current conflicts. A forced marriage may be regarded as a form of slavery by one or more of the involved in the marriage
7.
Kiribati
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Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation in the central Pacific Ocean. The permanent population is just over 100,000, more than half of live on Tarawa Atoll. The nation comprises 33 atolls and reef islands and one raised coral island and they have a total land area of 800 square kilometres and are dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometers. Their spread straddles the equator and the 180th meridian, although the International Date Line is indented to bring the Line Islands in the day as the Kiribati Islands. The International Date Line circumscribes Kiribati by swinging far to the east, almost reaching the 150°W meridian, Kiribatis easternmost islands, the southern Line Islands south of Hawaii, have the most advanced time on Earth, UTC+14 hours. Kiribati became independent from the United Kingdom in 1979, the capital and now most populated area, South Tarawa, consists of a number of islets, connected by a series of causeways. These comprise about half the area of Tarawa Atoll, Kiribati is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the IMF and the World Bank, and became a full member of the United Nations in 1999. The name Kiribati was adopted at independence and it is local enunciation of Gilberts. This name derives from the archipelago that forms the nation. It was named the Gilbert Islands after the British explorer Thomas Gilbert and he sighted many of the islands in 1788 while mapping out the Outer Passage route from Port Jackson to Canton. The Kiribati archipelago was named Îles Gilbert, in about 1820, by Russian admiral Adam von Krusenstern, both their maps, published in 1820, were written in French. The archipelagos name was incorporated in the entire Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony from 1916, the spelling of Gilberts in the Gilbertese language as Kiribati may be found in books in Gilbertese prepared by missionaries and others. It is often suggested that the name for the Gilbert Islands proper is Tungaru. The pronunciation differs, Kiribas is the pronunciation as ti in Kiribatese makes an s sound. The area now called Kiribati has been inhabited by Micronesians speaking the same Oceanic language since sometime between 3000 BC and AD1300, the area was not isolated, invaders from Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji, later introduced Polynesian and Melanesian cultural aspects, respectively. Intermarriage tended to blur cultural differences and resulted in a significant degree of cultural homogenisation, chance visits by European ships occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries, as these ships attempted circumnavigations of the world or sought sailing routes from the south to north Pacific Ocean. The passing trade gave rise to European, Chinese, Samoan and other residents from the 1830s, they included beachcombers, castaways, traders and missionaries. In 1892 local authorities on each of the Gilbert Islands agreed to Captain Davis RN declaring them part of a British protectorate with the nearby Ellice Islands
8.
Whaling
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Whaling is the hunting of whales for their usable products like meat, oil and blubber. Its earliest forms date to at least circa 3000 BC, various coastal communities have long histories of subsistence whaling and harvesting beached whales. By the late 1930s, more than 50,000 whales were killed annually In 1986, contemporary whaling is subject to intense debate. Pro-whaling countries, notably Japan, Norway, and Iceland, wish to lift the ban on certain whale stocks for hunting, anti-whaling countries and environmental groups oppose lifting the ban. Whaling began in times and was initially confined to coastal waters. Early whaling affected the development of disparate cultures – such as Norway. The Basques were the first to catch whales commercially, and dominated the trade for five centuries, spreading to the far corners of the North Atlantic and even reaching the South Atlantic. Although prehistoric hunting and gathering is considered to have had little ecological impact. Whale oil is used today and modern commercial whaling is primarily done for food. The primary species hunted are the common minke whale and Antarctic minke whale, recent scientific surveys estimate a population of 103,000 in the northeast Atlantic. International cooperation on whaling began in 1931 and culminated in the signing of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling in 1946. Its aim is to, provide for the conservation of whale stocks. The International Whaling Commission was set up under the ICRW to decide hunting quotas, non-member countries are not bound by its regulations and conduct their own management programs. The IWC voted on July 23,1982, to establish a moratorium on commercial whaling beginning in the 1985–86 season. Since 1992, the IWCs Scientific Committee has requested that it be allowed to give proposals for some whale stocks. At the 2010 meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Morocco, Japan, Norway and Iceland have urged the organisation to lift the ban. A coalition of anti-whaling nations has offered a plan that would allow these countries to continue whaling. Their plan would also completely ban whaling in the Southern Ocean, opponents of the compromise plan want to see an end to all commercial whaling, but are willing to allow subsistence-level catches by indigenous peoples
9.
United States Exploring Expedition
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The United States Exploring Expedition was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States from 1838 to 1842. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, funding for the original expedition was requested by President John Quincy Adams in 1828, however, Congress would not implement funding until eight years later. In May 1836, the oceanic exploration voyage was finally authorized by Congress, the expedition is sometimes called the U. S. Ex. Ex. for short, or the Wilkes Expedition in honor of its next appointed commanding officer, the expedition was of major importance to the growth of science in the United States, in particular the then-young field of oceanography. During the event, armed conflict between Pacific islanders and the expedition was common and dozens of natives were killed in action and it was to promote commerce and to offer protection to the heavy investment in the whaling and seal hunting industries, chiefly in the Pacific Ocean. Congress also agreed that a ship or ships should be used. At the time, the ships owned by the government capable of such a circumnavigation were those of the navy. So, in fact, Congress had decided that an expedition be authorized. The veteran US Sloop-of-war Peacock was decommissioned and broken down in 1827 to be rebuilt as USS Peacock, intended as an exploration ship. There were to be many unforeseen impediments and it was not until May 18,1836, that an act was passed, which authorized funding, and approved by President Andrew Jackson, Adams political rival. Even with the burden of finance lifted, there were two years of alteration of formation and command before six oddly assorted ships moved down from Norfolk to Hampton Roads on August 9,1838. On August 17, they were joined by the tenders Sea Gull and Flying-Fish, due to light breezes, the expedition did not discharge their pilots until 09,00 August 19, when they passed Cape Henry Light. By 11,00, the fleet was standing to open seas. Originally, the expedition was organized under Commodore Jones, however, several more senior officers had either resigned from or indicated their unwillingness to accept command of the expedition. Command was finally vested in Lieutenant Wilkes, the three duties laid down were daunting to officers trained only in fighting ships. As well, a scientific corps was to be included as an additional command responsibility. There were few officers in the American navy at that time with any surveying experience, the United States Coast Survey, where most of the surveyors were employed and learned their trade, was a civilian organization. Wilkes, who had trained himself in surveying work, cut the excessively large number of scientists down to nine
10.
Charles Wilkes
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Charles Wilkes was an American naval officer, ships captain, and explorer. His behavior led to two convictions by court-martial, one stemming from the massacre of almost 80 Fijians on Malolo in 1840, Wilkes was born in New York City, on April 3,1798, as the great nephew of the former Lord Mayor of London John Wilkes. His mother was Mary Seton, who died in 1802 when Charles was just three years old. As a result, Charles was raised by his aunt, Elizabeth Ann Seton, when Elizabeth was left widowed with five children, Charles was sent to a boarding school, and later attended Columbia College, which is the present-day Columbia University. He entered the United States Navy as a midshipman in 1818, in 1833, for his survey of Narragansett Bay, he was placed in charge of the Navys Department of Charts and Instruments, out of which developed the Naval Observatory and Hydrographic Office. Wilkes interdisciplinary expedition set a physical oceanography benchmark for the offices first superintendent Matthew Fontaine Maury, in 1838, although not yet a seasoned naval line officer, Wilkes was experienced in nautical survey work, and was working with civilian scientists. Upon this background, he was given command of the government exploring expedition, for the purpose of exploring and surveying the Southern Ocean. Exploring Squadron was authorized by act of the Congress on May 18,1836, next the expedition visited Fiji and the Hawaiian Islands. In Fiji, the expedition kidnapped the chief Ro Veidovi, charging him with the murder of a crew of American whalers. And, in July 1840, two sailors, one of whom was Wilkes nephew, Midshipman Wilkes Henry, were killed while bartering for food on Fijis Malolo Island, Wilkes retribution was swift and severe. According to an old man of Malolo Island, nearly 80 Fijians were killed in the incident, from December 1840 to March 1841, he employed hundreds of native Hawaiian porters and many of his men to haul a pendulum to the summit of Mauna Loa to measure gravity. Instead of using the trail, he blazed his own way. The conditions on the mountain reminded him of Antarctica, many of his crew suffered snow blindness, altitude sickness and foot injuries from wearing out their shoes. He explored the west coast of North America, including the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, the Columbia River, San Francisco Bay and he held the first American Independence Day celebration west of the Mississippi River in Dupont, Washington on July 5,1841. The United States Exploring Expedition passed through the Ellice Islands and visited Funafuti, Nukufetau, the expedition returned by way of the Philippines, the Sulu Archipelago, Borneo, Singapore, Polynesia and the Cape of Good Hope, reaching New York on June 10,1842. After having completely encircled the globe, Wilkes had logged some 87,000 miles, a major witness against him was ship doctor Charles Guillou. He was acquitted on all charges except illegally punishing men in his squadron, for a short time, he was attached to the Coast Survey, but from 1844 to 1861, he was chiefly engaged in preparing the report of the expedition. His Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition were published in 1844 and he edited the scientific reports of the expedition and was the author of Vol. XI and Vol. XXIII
11.
London Missionary Society
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The London Missionary Society was a missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and various nonconformists. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational missions in Oceania and Africa, although there were also Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists and it now forms part of the Council for World Mission. In 1793, Edward Williams, then minister at Carrs Lane, Birmingham, wrote a letter to the churches of the Midlands, expressing the need for world evangelization and it was effective and Williams began to play an active part in the plans for a missionary society. He left Birmingham in 1795, becoming pastor at Masbrough, Rotherham, also in 1793, the Anglican cleric John Eyre of Hackney founded the Evangelical Magazine. He had the support of the presbyterian John Love, and congregationalists Edward Parsons and this aimed to overcome the difficulties that establishment of overseas missions had faced. Edward Williams continued his involvement and, in July 1796, gave the charge to the first missionaries sent out by the Society, the society aimed to create a forum where evangelicals could work together, give overseas missions financial support and co-ordination. It also advocated againt opponents who wanted unrestricted commercial and military relations with peoples throughout the world. After Ryland showed Carey’s letter to Henry Overton Wills, a campaigner in Bristol. Scottish ministers in the London area, David Bogue and James Steven, as well as other such as John Hey. Bogue wrote an appeal in the Evangelical Magazine for September 1794, Ye were once Pagans, living in cruel. The servants of Jesus came from lands, and preached His Gospel among you. John Eyre responded by inviting a leading and influential evangelical, Rev. Thomas Haweis, the Cornishman sided firmly with Bogue, and immediately identified two donors, one of £500, and one of £100. From this start, a campaign developed to raise money for the proposed society, eighteen supporters showed up and helped agree the aims of the proposed missionary society – to spread the knowledge of Christ among heathen and other unenlightened nations. By Christmas over thirty men were committed to forming the society, in the following year,1795, Spa Fields Chapel was approached for permission to preach a sermon to the various ministers and others by now keenly associated with the plan to send missionaries abroad. Hundreds of evangelicals attended, and the newly launched society quickly began receiving letters of financial support, the Missionary Societys board quickly began interviewing prospective candidates. In 1800 the society placed missionaries with the Rev. David Bogue of Gosport for preparation for their ministries, a Captain James Wilson offered to sail the missionaries to their destination unpaid. The society was able to afford the small ship Duff, of 267 tons and it could carry 18 crew members and 30 missionaries. Seven months after the crew left port from the Woolwich docks in late 1796 they arrived in Tahiti, the missionaries were then instructed to become friendly with the natives, build a mission house for sleeping and worship, and learn the native language
12.
Copra
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Copra is the dried meat, or dried kernel, of the coconut used to extract coconut oil. The earliest evidence of the extracting and use of oil from copra is in early Tamil literature from the 1st century AD. The word originated from the Malayalam word koppra, Coconut oil is extracted from it and this has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake, which is used as feed for livestock. Copra has traditionally been grated and ground then boiled in water to extract coconut oil and it was used by Pacific island cultures and became a valuable commercial product for merchants in the South Seas and South Asia in the 1860s. This 19th-century copra trading inspired Robert Louis Stevensons 1893 novella The Beach of Falesá, nowadays, the process of coconut oil extraction is performed by crushing copra to produce coconut oil, the by-product is known as copra cake or copra meal. Once the oil is extracted, the remaining cake is 18–25% protein. Instead it is fed to ruminants. The production of copra – removing the shell, breaking it up, Copra can be made by smoke drying, sun drying, or kiln drying. Sun drying requires little more than racks and sufficient sunlight, halved nuts are drained of water, and left with the meat facing the sky, they can be washed to remove mold-creating contaminants. After two days the meat can be removed from the shell with ease, and the process is complete after three to five more days. This process can also be reversed, partially drying the copra in the kiln, in India, small but whole coconuts can be dried over the course of eight months to a year, and the meat inside removed and sold as a whole ball. Meat prepared in this fashion is sweet, soft, oily and is cream-coloured instead of being white, Coconut meat can be dried using direct heat and smoke from a fire, using simple racks to suspend the coconut over the fire. The smoke residue can help preserve the meat but the process overall suffers from unpredictable results. While there are large plantations with integrated operations, copra remains primarily a smallholder crop. The major producing country is the Philippines and it is also a major exporter. Copra production begins on coconut plantations, Coconut trees are generally spaced 9 m apart, allowing a density of 100–160 coconut trees per hectare. A standard tree bears around 50–80 nuts a year, and average earnings in Vanuatu were US$0.20 per kg —so a farmer could earn approximately US$120 to US$320 yearly for each planted hectare
13.
Funafuti
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Funafuti is an atoll on which the capital of the island nation of Tuvalu is located. It has a population of 6,025 people, making it the most populated atoll with 56.6 percent of Tuvalus population and it is a narrow sweep of land between 20 and 400 metres wide, encircling a large lagoon 18 km long and 14 km wide. The average depth in the Funafuti lagoon is about 20 fathoms, with a surface of 275 square kilometres, it is by far the largest lagoon in Tuvalu. The land area of the 33 islets aggregates to 2.4 square kilometres, the capital of Tuvalu is sometimes given as Fongafale or Vaiaku, but the entire atoll of Funafuti is officially the capital. Cargo ships can enter Funafutis lagoon and dock at the facilities on Fongafale. The island houses four villages and community meeting places, the Funafuti Falekaupule is the local council, with the Kaupule as the executive of the Falekaupule. Tausoa Lima Falekaupule is the meeting house on Funafuti – Tausoalima means hand of friendship. There is the Vaiaku Langi Hotel, and other guesthouses as well as homes, the most prominent building on Funafuti atoll is the Fetu Ao Lima of the Church of Tuvalu. Other sites of interest are the remains of Japanese aircraft that crashed on Funafuti during World War II, a major sporting event is the Independence Day Sports Festival held annually at Fongafale on 1 October. The most important sports event within the country is arguably the Tuvalu Games, football in Tuvalu is played at club and national team level. The Tuvalu national football team trains at the Tuvalu Sports Ground on Funafuti and competes in the Pacific Games, the police service has its headquarters on Fongafale. The High Court of Tuvalu is also located on Fongafale, as well as the jail, the Princess Margaret Hospital, which is the only hospital in Tuvalu, is located on Fongafale. It has an area of 33 km², containing 20 percent of the area of Funafuti. The land area of the six islets in the area is 8 ha. There are at least 29 islets in the atoll, the biggest is Fongafale, followed by Funafala. At least three islands are inhabited, which are Fongafale, the island in the east, Funafala in the south. The atoll has several passages with varying degrees of navigability that lead into the lagoon, the passes are listed clockwise, starting south of Fongafale islet. The first two clearly separate the part of Funafuti Atoll from the rest
14.
Fiji
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Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,100 nautical miles northeast of New Zealands North Island. Fiji is an archipelago of more than 330 islands, of which 110 are permanently inhabited, the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, account for 87% of the population of almost 860,000. The capital, Suva on Viti Levu, serves as Fijis principal cruise port, about three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levus coasts, either in Suva or in smaller urban centres like Nadi or Lautoka. Viti Levus interior is sparsely inhabited due to its terrain, Fiji has one of the most developed economies in the Pacific due to an abundance of forest, mineral, and fish resources. Today, the sources of foreign exchange are its tourist industry. The countrys currency is the Fijian dollar, Fijis local government, in the form of city and town councils, is supervised by the Ministry of Local Government and Urban Development. The majority of Fijis islands were formed through volcanic activity starting around 150 million years ago, today, some geothermal activity still occurs on the islands of Vanua Levu and Taveuni. Fiji has been inhabited since the second millennium BC, and was settled first by Austronesians and later by Melanesians, Europeans visited Fiji from the 17th century, and, after a brief period as an independent kingdom, the British established the Colony of Fiji in 1874. Fiji was a Crown colony until 1970, when it gained independence as a Commonwealth realm, a republic was declared in 1987, following a series of coups détat. In a coup in 2006, Commodore Frank Bainimarama seized power, later in 2009, Iloilo was replaced as President by Ratu Epeli Nailatikau. After years of delays, an election was held on 17 September 2014. Bainimaramas FijiFirst party won with 59. 2% of the vote, Fijis main island is known as Viti Levu and it is from this that the name Fiji is derived, though the common English pronunciation is based on that of their island neighbours in Tonga. Its emergence can be described as follows, Fijians first impressed themselves on European consciousness through the writings of the members of the expeditions of Cook who met them in Tonga. They were described as warriors and ferocious cannibals, builders of the finest vessels in the Pacific. They inspired awe amongst the Tongans, and all their Manufactures, especially bark cloth and clubs, were highly valued and much in demand. They called their home Viti, but the Tongans called it Fisi, and it was by this foreign pronunciation, Fiji, first promulgated by Captain James Cook, that these islands are now known. Feejee, the Anglicised spelling of the Tongan pronunciation, was used in accounts and other writings until the late 19th century, by missionaries and other travellers visiting Fiji. Pottery art from Fijian towns shows that Fiji was settled before or around 3500 to 1000 BC, the first settlements in Fiji were started by voyaging traders and settlers from the west about 5000 years ago
15.
Kioa
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Kioa is an island in Fiji, an outlier to Vanua Levu, one of Fijis two main islands. Situated opposite Buca Bay, Kioa was purchased by settlers from Vaitupu atoll in Tuvalu, despite its relatively large size, Vaitupu became so overcrowded during the 1940s that a number of families migrated to live on Kioa Island. At the end of World War II, Neli Lifuka was instrumental in collecting the funds to purchase Kioa, initially 37 people migrated from Vaitupu to live on Kioa Island, within a decade, more than 235 people followed. In 1956, Neli Lifuka joined the Kioa community and became the chairman of its council. Kioa is one of two islands in Fiji populated by migrant communities from the Pacific Islands, the other being Rabi, also in the Vanua Levu Group, early in 2005, the Fijian government decided to grant full citizenship to the Kioa and Rabi Islanders. The ceremony was led by Cabinet Ministers Josefa Vosanibola and Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, who is also the Tui Cakau, or Paramount Chief of Tovata, Lalabalavu called on the Kioa islanders to be proud of their identity and to nurture and protect their culture. A mass relocation would ensure the Tuvaluan language and culture is preserved instead of being scattered to the four corners of the earth, tuvalus nine islands stand an average height of just 3 meters above sea level. Fijis political parties were cautious in their response to Kennedys proposal, united Peoples Party President Mick Beddoes said that moving the 9000 Tuvaluans would put a great strain on Kioas resources and economy. He said that Pacific Island nations should share the cost of such a move, tuvalus prime minister Maatia Toafa said on 21 February 2006 that relocation to Kioa was under consideration, but was not a priority. Buying land in Australia or New Zealand was also an option, if they were to move to Kioa, they would need finance to develop the island, Fiji Live quoted him as saying. In 2013 Enele Sopoaga, the minister of Tuvalu, said that relocating Tuvaluans to avoid the impact of sea level rise “should never be an option because it is self defeating in itself. Pacific Islands magazine - Don Kennedys proposed population movement
16.
Demographics of Tuvalu
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The population of Tuvalu is primarily of Polynesian ethnicity with approximately 5. 6% of the population being Micronesian. Tuvaluans are ethnically related to the people of Samoa and Tonga, the vast majority of Tuvaluans belong to the Church of Tuvalu, a Protestant denomination. Their ancestors were converted by Christian missionaries in the 19th century, School attendance at school is 10 years for males and 11 years for females. Primary school enrollment,100 percent Secondary school enrollment,79.5 percent Life expectancy for women in Tuvalu is 68.41 years and 64.01 years for men. The population of Tuvalu is recorded by the Central Statistics Department of Tuvalu in the census information, the threat of global warming in Tuvalu is not a dominant motivation for migration as Tuvaluans appear to prefer to continue living on the islands for reasons of lifestyle, culture and identity. The high proportion in range of ages 15 to 29 years is described as indicating the significance of overseas tertiary education, the 2013 Census of New Zealand reported 3,537 Tuvaluans, an increase of 80 percent from the 1,965 reported in the 2001 census. In the 2013 census, only about 40 percent had been born in Tuvalu, the high proportion of Tuvaluans who are New Zealand born illustrates the significance of New Zealand as a long term destination for Tuvaluan migrants. The Tuvaluan community in Australia is recorded in the 2011 Australian Census as 228 people who put Tuvaluan as their first response to a question on ‘ancestry’, of these 120 were born in Tuvalu. The islands of Nanumea, Nanumaga, Nukufetau and Niutao had relatively high net migration losses, Vaitupu had the largest net migration gain, although this is attributed to the location of Motufoua Secondary School on Vaitupu and the movement of students from the other islands. The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated
17.
Governor-general
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Governor-General or governor general, in modern usage, is the title of an office-holder appointed to represent the monarch of a sovereign state in the governing of an independent realm. Governors-General have also previously been appointed in respect of major colonial states or other territories held by either a monarchy or republic, in modern usage, the term governor-general originated in those British colonies which became self-governing within the British Empire. In these cases, the Crowns representative in the federated Dominion was given the title of governor general. Another non-federal state, Newfoundland, was a Dominion for 16 years with the Kings representative retaining the title of governor throughout this time, since 2016, the title governor-general has been given to all representatives of the sovereign in independent Commonwealth realms. In these countries the governor-general acts as the representative, performing the ceremonial and constitutional functions of a head of state. The only other nation which uses the designation is Iran. In Iran, the authority is headed by a governor general. As such they held the prerogative powers of the monarch. The monarch or imperial government could overrule any governor-general, though this could often be cumbersome, the governors-general are entitled to wear a unique uniform, which are not generally worn today. If of the rank of general, equivalent or above. The report resulting from the 1926 Imperial Conference stated, in other words, the political reality of a self-governing Dominion within the British Empire with a governor-general answerable to the sovereign became clear. British interference in the Dominion was not acceptable and independent country status was clearly displayed, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were clearly not controlled by the United Kingdom. The governor-general, however, is appointed by the monarch. Executive authority is vested in the monarch, though much of it can be exercisable only by the governor-general on behalf of the sovereign of the independent realm. Except in rare cases, the only acts in accordance with constitutional convention and upon the advice of the national prime minister. The governor-general is still the representative of the sovereign and performs the same duties as they carried out historically. In some realms, the monarch could in principle overrule a governor-general, in Australia the present Queen is generally assumed to be head of state, since the governor-general and the state governors are defined as her representatives. However, since the governor-general performs almost all national regal functions, to a lesser extent, uncertainty has been expressed in Canada as to which officeholder—the monarch, the governor general, or both—can be considered the head of state
18.
Motufoua Secondary School
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Motufoua Secondary School is boarding school for children on Vaitupu atoll. As Tuvalu consists of 9 islands the students reside on Vaitupu during the school year, Vaitupu received worldwide attention in March 2000, when a fire in a dormitory at the school killed 18 girls and an adult supervisor. It was later discovered that the fire was caused by a student using a candle to read during the night, the School celebrated 100 years of education in 2005. In 2009 the student roll at Motufoua Secondary School was 550, the London Missionary Society established a primary school at Motufoua on Vaitupu in 1905. The purpose was to young men for entry into the LMS seminary in Samoa. This school evolved into the Motufoua Secondary School, the activities of the LMS were taken over by the Church of Tuvalu. From 1905 to 1963 Motufoua only admitted students from Church of Tuvalu schools, in 1963 the Church of Tuvalu and the administration of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony began to co-operate in providing education and students were enrolled from government schools. In 1970 a secondary school for girls was opened at Motufoua, in 1974, the Ellice Islanders voted for separate British dependency status as Tuvalu, separating from the Gilbert Islands, which became Kiribati. The following year the Tuvaluan students that attended school on Tarawa were transferred to Motufoua, from 1975 the Church of Tuvalu and the government jointly administered the School. Eventually administration of Motufoua became the responsibility of the Department of Education of Tuvalu. Reverend Sir Filoimea Telito, GCMG, MBE started out as a teacher at Motufoua, after completing theological studies, he returned to Motufoua to serve as Pastor. Later he became Principal of Motufoua, then in April 2005 he was appointed to be the Governor-General of Tuvalu, the current Principal is Siautele Lito. The previous Principal was Mosese G. Halofaki an expatriate from the Republic of the Fiji Islands, the students attend church services at the Motufoua School Church. The fire on 9 March 2000 was an event within the School and for Tuvalu and raised questions as to fire safety equipment and training. A memorial service was held the year in memory of the eighteen school girls. Tuvaluan leaders as well as parents of the attended the memorial service. The Tuvalu Philatelic Bureau also commemorated the event, the pupil-teacher ratio for secondary education is 25,1. Sixth form students who pass their Pacific Secondary School Certificate go on to the Augmented Foundation Programme and this program is required for tertiary education programmes outside of Tuvalu and is available at the University of the South Pacific Extension Centre in Funafuti
19.
Dormitory
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A dormitory or hall of residence, is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students. In the United States dorm is the most common term, which comes originally from the Latin word dormitorium, on the other hand, in the United Kingdom the term hall is more usual, especially in a university context. A dormitory can also be a room containing several beds – see Sleeping dormitories. Most colleges and universities provide single or multiple rooms for their students. These buildings consist of such rooms, like an apartment building. The largest dormitory building is Bancroft Hall at the United States Naval Academy, many colleges and universities no longer use the word dormitory and staff are now using the term residence hall or simply hall instead. Outside academia however, the dorm or dormitory is commonly used without negative connotations. Indeed, the words are used regularly in the marketplace as well as routinely in advertising, College and university residential rooms vary in size, shape, facilities and number of occupants. Typically, a United States residence hall holds two students with no toilet. This is usually referred to as a double, often, residence halls have communal bathroom facilities. In the United States, residence halls are segregated by sex, with men living in one group of rooms. Some dormitory complexes are single-sex with varying limits on visits by persons of each sex, for example, the University of Notre Dame in Indiana has a long history of Parietals, or mixed visiting hours. In the early 2000s, dorms that allowed people of opposite sexes to share a room available in some public universities. Some colleges and university coeducational dormitories also feature coeducational bathrooms, most residence halls are much closer to campus than comparable private housing such as apartment buildings. Universities may therefore provide priority to students when allocating this accommodation. Halls located away from university facilities sometimes have extra amenities such as a room or bar. Catered halls may charge for food by the meal or through a termly subscription and they may also contain basic kitchen facilities for student use outside catering hours. Most halls contain a laundry room, as of 2015 there was an expanding market for private luxury off-campus student residences which offered substantial amenities in both the United States and Britain, particularly in London
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Funeral
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A funeral is a ceremony connected with the burial, cremation, etc. of the body of a dead person, or the burial with the attendant observances. Customs vary widely both between cultures and between groups and denominations within cultures. Common secular motivations for funerals include mourning the deceased, celebrating their life, additionally, funerals often have religious aspects which are intended to help the soul of the deceased reach the afterlife, resurrection or reincarnation. The funeral usually includes a ritual through which the corpse of the deceased is given up, depending on culture and religion, these can involve either the destruction of the body or its preservation. Differing beliefs about cleanliness and the relationship between body and soul are reflected in funerary practices, when a funerary ceremony is performed but the body of the deceased is not available, it is usually called a memorial service. The word funeral comes from the Latin funus, which had a variety of meanings, including the corpse, Funerary art is art produced in connection with burials, including many kinds of tombs, and objects specially made for burial with a corpse. Funeral rites are as old as human culture itself, pre-dating modern Homo sapiens, substantial cross-cultural and historical research document funeral customs as a highly predictable, stable force in communities. Funeral customs tend to be characterized by five anchors, significant symbols, gathered community, ritual action, cultural heritage, and transition of the dead body. The Baháí funeral service also contains the only prayer thats permitted to be read as a group - congregational prayer, the Baháí decedent often controls some aspects of the Baháí funeral service, since leaving a will and testament is a requirement for Baháís. Since there is no Baháí clergy, services are conducted under the guise, or with the assistance of. A Buddhist funeral marks the transition from one life to the next for the deceased and it also reminds the living of their own mortality. Christian burials typically occur on consecrated ground, burial, rather than a destructive process such as cremation, was the traditional practice amongst Christians, because of the belief in the resurrection of the body. Cremations later came into use, although some denominations forbid them. Congregations of varied denominations perform different ceremonies, but most involve offering prayers, scripture reading from the Bible, a sermon, homily, or eulogy, and music. One issue of concern as the 21st century began was with the use of music at Christian funerals. Antyesti, literally last rites or last sacrifice, refers to the rituals associated with a funeral in Hinduism. It is sometimes referred to as Antima Samskaram, Antya-kriya, Anvarohanyya, a dead adult Hindu is cremated, while a dead child is typically buried. The rite of passage is said to be performed in harmony with the premise that the microcosm of all living beings is a reflection of a macrocosm of the universe
21.
Photovoltaics
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A typical photovoltaic system employs solar panels, each comprising a number of solar cells, which generate electrical power. PV installations may be ground-mounted, rooftop mounted or wall mounted, the mount may be fixed, or use a solar tracker to follow the sun across the sky. Dust, clouds, and other things in the atmosphere also diminish the power output, another main issue is the concentration of the production in the hours corresponding to main insolation, which dont usually match the peaks in demand in human activity cycles. Unless current societal patterns of consumption and electrical networks mutually adjust to this scenario, electricity still need to be made up by other power sources, Photovoltaic systems have long been used in specialized applications, and standalone and grid-connected PV systems have been in use since the 1990s. They were first mass-produced in 2000, when German environmentalists and the Eurosolar organization got government funding for a ten thousand roof program, advances in technology and increased manufacturing scale have in any case reduced the cost, increased the reliability, and increased the efficiency of photovoltaic installations. Net metering and financial incentives, such as preferential feed-in tariffs for solar-generated electricity, have supported solar PV installations in many countries, more than 100 countries now use solar PV. After hydro and wind powers, PV is the renewable energy source in terms of globally capacity. In 2014, worldwide installed PV capacity increased to 177 gigawatts, with current technology, photovoltaics recoups the energy needed to manufacture them in 1.5 years in Southern Europe and 2.5 years in Northern Europe. The term photo-voltaic has been in use in English since 1849, photovoltaics are best known as a method for generating electric power by using solar cells to convert energy from the sun into a flow of electrons by the photovoltaic effect. Solar cells produce direct current electricity from sunlight which can be used to power equipment or to recharge a battery, the first practical application of photovoltaics was to power orbiting satellites and other spacecraft, but today the majority of photovoltaic modules are used for grid connected power generation. In this case an inverter is required to convert the DC to AC, there is a smaller market for off-grid power for remote dwellings, boats, recreational vehicles, electric cars, roadside emergency telephones, remote sensing, and cathodic protection of pipelines. Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels composed of a number of cells containing a photovoltaic material. Copper solar cables connect modules, arrays, and sub-fields, because of the growing demand for renewable energy sources, the manufacturing of solar cells and photovoltaic arrays has advanced considerably in recent years. Solar photovoltaic power generation has long seen as a clean energy technology which draws upon the planet’s most plentiful. Cells require protection from the environment and are usually packaged tightly in solar panels, Photovoltaic power capacity is measured as maximum power output under standardized test conditions in Wp. Solar photovoltaic array capacity factors are typically under 25%, which is lower than other industrial sources of electricity. For best performance, terrestrial PV systems aim to maximize the time they face the sun, Solar trackers achieve this by moving PV panels to follow the sun. The increase can be by as much as 20% in winter, static mounted systems can be optimized by analysis of the sun path
22.
New Zealand
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New Zealand /njuːˈziːlənd/ is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu—and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, the countrys varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealands capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland, sometime between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that later were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand, in 1840, representatives of Britain and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands. In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire, today, the majority of New Zealands population of 4.7 million is of European descent, the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealands culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, New Zealand is a developed country and ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as health, education, economic freedom and quality of life. Since the 1980s, New Zealand has transformed from an agrarian, Queen Elizabeth II is the countrys head of state and is represented by a governor-general. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes, the Realm of New Zealand also includes Tokelau, the Cook Islands and Niue, and the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealands territorial claim in Antarctica. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Pacific Islands Forum, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and called it Staten Landt, in 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand, Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand. It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the country before the arrival of Europeans. Māori had several names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North, Middle and South, in 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907, this was the accepted norm. The New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised and this set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island or Te Waipounamu
23.
European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
24.
Swamp
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A swamp is a wetland that is forested. Many swamps occur along rivers where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations. Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes, some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation. The two main types of swamp are true or swamp forests and transitional or shrub swamps, in the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used for what is more correctly termed a bog or muskeg. The water of a swamp may be water, brackish water or seawater. Some of the worlds largest swamps are found along rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi. Swamps are characterized by slow-moving to stagnant waters and they are usually associated with adjacent rivers or lakes. Swamps are features of areas with very low topographic relief, historically, humans have drained swamps to provide additional land for agriculture and to reduce the threat of diseases borne by swamp insects and similar animals. Many swamps have also undergone intensive logging, requiring the construction of drainage ditches and these ditches and canals contributed to drainage and, along the coast, allowed salt water to intrude, converting swamps to marsh or even to open water. Large areas of swamp were therefore lost or degraded, louisiana provides a classic example of wetland loss from these combined factors. Europe has probably lost nearly half its wetlands, New Zealand lost 90 percent of its wetlands over a period of 150 years. Ecologists recognise that swamps provide valuable ecological services including flood control, fish production, water purification, carbon storage, in many parts of the world authorities protect swamps. In parts of Europe and North America, swamp restoration projects are becoming widespread, often the simplest steps to restoring swamps involve plugging drainage ditches and removing levees. Swamps and other wetlands have traditionally held a very low property value compared to fields, prairies and they have a reputation for being unproductive land that cannot easily be utilized for human activities, other than perhaps hunting and trapping. Farmers, for example, typically drained swamps next to their fields so as to more land usable for planting crops. Many societies now realize that swamps are important to providing fresh water and oxygen to all life. Indeed, floodplain swamps are important in fish production. Government environmental agencies are taking steps to protect and preserve swamps, in Europe, major effort is being invested in the restoration of swamp forests along rivers
25.
Mangrove
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A mangrove is a shrub or small tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are salt tolerant trees, also called halophytes, and are adapted to life in coastal conditions. They contain a complex filtration system and complex root system to cope with salt water immersion. They are adapted to the low oxygen conditions of waterlogged mud, the saline conditions tolerated by various mangrove species range from brackish water, through pure seawater, to water concentrated by evaporation to over twice the salinity of ocean seawater. The term mangrove comes to English from Spanish, and is likely to originate from Guarani and it was earlier mangrow, but this word was corrupted via folk etymology influence of the word grove. Mangrove swamps are found in tropical and subtropical tidal areas, areas where mangal occurs include estuaries and marine shorelines. The intertidal existence to which trees are adapted represents the major limitation to the number of species able to thrive in their habitat. High tide brings in water, and when the tide recedes. The return of tide can flush out these soils, bringing back to salinity levels comparable to that of seawater. At low tide, organisms are exposed to increases in temperature and desiccation. About 110 species are considered mangroves, in the sense of being a tree grows in such a saline swamp, though only a few are from the mangrove plant genus. However, a mangrove swamp typically features only a small number of tree species. It is not uncommon for a mangrove forest in the Caribbean to feature three or four tree species. For comparison, the tropical rainforest biome contains thousands of tree species, though the trees themselves are few in species, the ecosystem that these trees create provides a home for a great variety of other organisms. Mangrove plants require a number of adaptations to overcome the problems of anoxia, high salinity. Each species has its own solutions to problems, this may be the primary reason why, on some shorelines. Small environmental variations within a mangal may lead to greatly differing methods for coping with the environment, once established, mangrove roots provide an oyster habitat and slow water flow, thereby enhancing sediment deposition in areas where it is already occurring
26.
Coral reef
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Coral reefs are diverse underwater ecosystems held together by calcium carbonate structures secreted by corals. Coral reefs are built by colonies of tiny animals found in waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups, the polyps belong to a group of animals known as Cnidaria, which also includes sea anemones and jellyfish. Unlike sea anemones, corals secrete hard carbonate exoskeletons which support, most reefs grow best in warm, shallow, clear, sunny and agitated waters. Often called rainforests of the sea, shallow coral reefs form some of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, paradoxically, coral reefs flourish even though they are surrounded by ocean waters that provide few nutrients. They are most commonly found at depths in tropical waters. Coral reefs deliver ecosystem services to tourism, fisheries and shoreline protection, the annual global economic value of coral reefs is estimated between US$29. 8-375 billion. However, coral reefs are fragile ecosystems, partly because they are sensitive to water temperature. Most of the coral reefs we can see today were formed after the last glacial period when melting ice caused the sea level to rise and this means that most modern coral reefs are less than 10,000 years old. As communities established themselves on the shelves, the reefs grew upwards, Reefs that rose too slowly could become drowned reefs. They are covered by so much water there was insufficient light. Coral reefs are found in the sea away from continental shelves, around oceanic islands. The vast majority of islands are volcanic in origin. The few exceptions have tectonic origins where plate movements have lifted the deep ocean floor on the surface. In 1842 in his first monograph, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, Charles Darwin set out his theory of the formation of atoll reefs and he theorized uplift and subsidence of the Earths crust under the oceans formed the atolls. Darwin’s theory sets out a sequence of three stages in atoll formation and it starts with a fringing reef forming around an extinct volcanic island as the island and ocean floor subsides. As the subsidence continues, the reef becomes a barrier reef. Darwin predicted that underneath each lagoon would be a bed rock base, where the level of the underlying earth allows, the corals grow around the coast to form what he called fringing reefs, and can eventually grow out from the shore to become a barrier reef
27.
Cyclone Ofa
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Severe Tropical Cyclone Ofa was considered to be the worst tropical cyclone to affect Polynesia since Cyclone Bebe. The system was first noted on January 27,1990, near Tuvalu, the cloud pattern slowly organized, and on January 31, while located east of Tuvalu, Ofa attained cyclone intensity. Moving slowly southeast, Ofa developed storm-force winds and it attained hurricane-force winds on February 2. Cyclone Ofa reached peak intensity on February 4, shortly after, its peak Ofa began to weaken over a less favourable environment. Ofa was declared an extratropical cyclone on February 8, though the system was tracked by meteorologists until February 10. Ofa produced gales or high winds or gales on many islands, resulting in damage due to a combination of storm surge. In all, eight people were killed and damage totaled to US$187 million, the worst effects were recorded in Samoa, where seven people were killed. Roughly 200 people were evacuated, and 10 to 20 others were injured through the islands, extreme damage to crops and trees was also recorded. Elsewhere, Ofa was blamed for the lowest ever recorded pressure on the island of Niue, along with considerable damage. As a result, two tropical depressions were spawned, one over the Coral Sea that went on to become Cyclone Nancy. Over the next two days the system developed little and remained slow moving, near the Tuvaluan atoll of Funafuti, during January 30, the depression moved towards the north-east and started to organize, as pressures near the systems center rapidly falling. At 19,17 UTC on January 31, Fiji Meteorological Service named the system Ofa, as it was named the system was located about 300 km to the east of Tuvalu and had started to curve more towards the south-southeast. During February 1, as Ofa started to affect Western Samoa, the FMS subsequently reported during the next day that the system had become a category 3 severe tropical cyclone. Ofa passed about 110 km to the west of the Western Samoan Island of Savaii between 10,00 and 18,00 UTC during February 3. Later that day the FMS estimated that the system had peaked as a category 4 severe tropical cyclone, early on February 5, Ofa started to show signs that it had started to weaken, as it passed about 55 km to the west of Niue. The system subsequently weakened very quickly and started to transition into a cyclone, as it encountered strong upper level winds. The system completed this transition during February 8, before the remnants were last noted during February 10 after they had performed a small clockwise loop, Cyclone Ofa was considered to be the worst tropical cyclone to affect Polynesia since Severe Tropical Cyclone Bebe in 1972. The system affected seven different island nations and caused gales or much stronger winds in six of those countries, storm tide from the cyclone which is the combined effect of storm surge and high tide caused havoc in several countries and was the major cause of destruction
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2011 Tuvalu drought
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The 2011 Tuvalu drought was a period of severe drought afflicting Tuvalu, a South Pacific island country of approximately 10,500 people, in the latter half of 2011. A state of emergency was declared on September 28,2011, the La Niña event that caused the drought ended in April–May 2012. By August 2012 the El Niño-Southern Oscillation Conditions indicated that the tropical Pacific Ocean was on the brink of an El Niño event, Tuvalu experiences the effects of El Niño & La Niña that flow from changes in ocean temperatures in equatorial and central Pacific. El Niño effects increase the chances of cyclones, while La Niña effects increase the chances of drought conditions in Tuvalu. Tuvalu relies primarily on rainfall for the majority of its drinking water, the country normally receives between 200–400 mm of rain per month during an average year. In October 2011, the Tuvalu Red Cross reported that the country had not received normal rainfall in six months, the capital, Funafuti, and several of the outer atolls had been particularly affected by the drought. Nukulaelae and Nanumaga were the most seriously affected outer islands, the dry conditions on Nukulaelae affected the vast majority of pulaka pits - Pulaka, or swamp taro, is a staple crop for Tuvaluans. On Vaitupu the drought was also severe, but not as bad as the other islands, the government declared a state of emergency on September 28,2011, due to severe water shortages in the capital atoll, Funafuti. The drought conditions resulted in water being rationed on the islands of Funafuti, households on Funafuti and Nukulaelae were rationed to two buckets of fresh-water a day. A resident of Funafuti is quoted as saying that it is hard, meanwhile, other Tuvaluans were being forced to pay for imported foods as the consequence of failing crops as the result of the drought. Princess Margaret Hospital limited admissions to try and cope with the water rationing, lack of rainfall had affected other countries and territories in the region, including American Samoa, Samoa, Tokelau and Tonga. New Zealand began airlifting supplies and fresh water to Tuvalu on Monday, the New Zealand government had received reports during the prior weekend that parts of Tuvalu had just a two-day supply of water left, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully. A New Zealand Air Force C-130 Hercules transport plane landed in the country carrying two desalination units and large containers of water into Funafuti. Australia also sent a desalination plant, officials from various aid agencies, including the International Red Cross and the Tuvalu Red Cross, worked with the New Zealand and Tuvaluan governments to alleviate the drought and shortages. The government of South Korea funded the shipment of 60,000 bottles of water from Fiji to Tuvalu, in response to the 2011 drought, Japan funded the purchase of a 100 m³/d desalination plant and two portable 10 m³/d plants as part of its Pacific Environment Community program. Australia has also funded the installation of water tanks on Funafuti, in July 2012 a United Nations Special Rapporteur called on the Tuvalu Government to develop a national water strategy to improve access to safe drinking water and sanitation
