1816: “The Mighty Operations of Nature”: an Environmental
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World Population
You keep Wikipedia going. Not ads. $1.4M USD $7.5M USD Donate Now [Hide] [Show] Wikipedia Forever Our shared knowledge. Our shared treasure. Help us protect it. [Show] Wikipedia Forever Our shared knowledge. Our shared treasure. Help us protect it. World population From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Population density (people per km²) by country, 2006 Population by region as a percentage of world population (1750–2005) The world population is the total number of living humans on Earth at a given time. As of 29 November 2009, the Earth's population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 6.8 billion.[1] The world population has been growing continuously since the end of the Black Death around 1400.[2] The fastest rates of world population growth (above 1.8%) were seen briefly during the 1950s then for a longer period during the 1960s and 1970s (see graph). According to population projections, world population will continue to grow until at least 2050. The 2008 rate of growth has almost halved since its peak of 2.2% per year, which was reached in 1963. World births have levelled off at about 134 million per year, since their peak at 163- million in the late 1990s, and are expected to remain constant. However, deaths are only around 57 million per year, and are expected to increase to 90 million by the year 2050. Because births outnumber deaths, the world's population is expected to reach about 9 billion by the year 2040.[3][4] Contents [hide] 1 Population figures 2 Rate of increase o 2.1 Models o 2.2 Milestones o 2.3 Years for population to double 3 Distribution 4 Most populous nations 5 Ethnicity 6 Demographics of youth 7 Forecast 8 Predictions based on population growth 9 Number of humans who have ever lived 10 See also 11 Further resources 12 References 13 External links [edit] Population figures Further information: World population estimates A dramatic population bottleneck is theorized for the period around 70,000 BC (see Toba catastrophe theory). -
Review of Local and Global Impacts of Volcanic Eruptions and Disaster Management Practices: the Indonesian Example
geosciences Review Review of Local and Global Impacts of Volcanic Eruptions and Disaster Management Practices: The Indonesian Example Mukhamad N. Malawani 1,2, Franck Lavigne 1,3,* , Christopher Gomez 2,4 , Bachtiar W. Mutaqin 2 and Danang S. Hadmoko 2 1 Laboratoire de Géographie Physique, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, UMR 8591, 92195 Meudon, France; [email protected] 2 Disaster and Risk Management Research Group, Faculty of Geography, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia; [email protected] (C.G.); [email protected] (B.W.M.); [email protected] (D.S.H.) 3 Institut Universitaire de France, 75005 Paris, France 4 Laboratory of Sediment Hazards and Disaster Risk, Kobe University, Kobe City 658-0022, Japan * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: This paper discusses the relations between the impacts of volcanic eruptions at multiple- scales and the related-issues of disaster-risk reduction (DRR). The review is structured around local and global impacts of volcanic eruptions, which have not been widely discussed in the literature, in terms of DRR issues. We classify the impacts at local scale on four different geographical features: impacts on the drainage system, on the structural morphology, on the water bodies, and the impact Citation: Malawani, M.N.; on societies and the environment. It has been demonstrated that information on local impacts can Lavigne, F.; Gomez, C.; be integrated into four phases of the DRR, i.e., monitoring, mapping, emergency, and recovery. In Mutaqin, B.W.; Hadmoko, D.S. contrast, information on the global impacts (e.g., global disruption on climate and air traffic) only fits Review of Local and Global Impacts the first DRR phase. -
P.S.: You Had Better Remove the Records: Early Federal Archives
“P.S.: You had better remove the records” Early Federal Archives and the Burning of Washington during the War of 1812 By Jessie Kratz hen British troops began to advance toward And so clerks packed Wthe United States’ new capital of Wash such things as the books and ington in the summer of 1814, it was clear that papers of the State Department; government leaders had not prepared an adequate unpublished secret journals of defense for the city and its government buildings. Congress; George Washington’s The British navy already had control of nearby Chesa commission and correspondence; peake Bay and some 4,500 troops in the port town of the Articles of Confederation; papers Benedict, Maryland—poised for an attack on the capital. of the Continental Congress; and all the Despite the show of force, the secretary of war, treaties, laws, and correspondence dating John Armstrong, was convinced the British were back to 1789. more interested in the port of Baltimore than in Along with these early records, the clerks Washington, which then had only 8,200 residents. also bagged up the Charters of Freedom—the Secretary of State James Monroe felt differently collective term for the Declaration of Indepen and met with President James Madison to discuss dence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. the enemy’s intentions. Then Monroe himself rode And so these three documents began a long jour by horse, accompanied by cavalry, into southern ney as the War of 1812 raged. Maryland to scout the situation. The journey would not end until 1952, when Upon seeing the British advancing toward all three were placed together, side by side, in special Washington, Monroe dispatched a note to Presi encasements in the Rotunda of the National Archives dent Madison. -
Earthquake Measurements
EARTHQUAKE MEASUREMENTS The vibrations produced by earthquakes are detected, recorded, and measured by instruments call seismographs1. The zig-zag line made by a seismograph, called a "seismogram," reflects the changing intensity of the vibrations by responding to the motion of the ground surface beneath the instrument. From the data expressed in seismograms, scientists can determine the time, the epicenter, the focal depth, and the type of faulting of an earthquake and can estimate how much energy was released. Seismograph/Seismometer Earthquake recording instrument, seismograph has a base that sets firmly in the ground, and a heavy weight that hangs free2. When an earthquake causes the ground to shake, the base of the seismograph shakes too, but the hanging weight does not. Instead the spring or string that it is hanging from absorbs all the movement. The difference in position between the shaking part of the seismograph and the motionless part is Seismograph what is recorded. Measuring Size of Earthquakes The size of an earthquake depends on the size of the fault and the amount of slip on the fault, but that’s not something scientists can simply measure with a measuring tape since faults are many kilometers deep beneath the earth’s surface. They use the seismogram recordings made on the seismographs at the surface of the earth to determine how large the earthquake was. A short wiggly line that doesn’t wiggle very much means a small earthquake, and a long wiggly line that wiggles a lot means a large earthquake2. The length of the wiggle depends on the size of the fault, and the size of the wiggle depends on the amount of slip. -
The Year Without a Summer
The Year Without a Summer In 1816, half a foot of snow fell in New England. That would be Mount Tambora, an active completely unremarkable. Except that it was in one day—in June. stratovolcano that is a peninsula of and the highest That same summer, Mary Shelley spent a chilly vacation holed peak on the island of up indoors—and used the time to write Frankenstein. Crops Sumbawa in Indonesia. failed around the world, plunging Thomas Jefferson into serious Credit: Jialiang Gao (peace-on- debt for the rest of his life. Oats became scarce in Germany, earth.org) via Wikimedia Commons making horse travel expensive—and leading to the invention (CC BY-SA 3.0 [http://creative- of the bicycle. Struggling farmers in China began raising opium, commons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0]) giving rise to a drug trade that has lasted to modern times. And famine in many areas led to widespread disease, including a cholera outbreak that killed millions. What was the cause of all this chaos? A year earlier, a volcano erupted in Indonesia. Larger than Krakatoa, Vesuvius, or Mount St. Helens, Mount Tambora erupted for 2 weeks straight. Around it, nearly 100,000 people died, buried under thick layers of ash like in Pompeii. Greenhouse-gas emissions from the eruption, which could have warmed the atmosphere, were offset by particulates and sulfur dioxide gas. Ash and dust blocked out the sun temporarily, darkening skies around the world. The sulfur dioxide was longer-lasting, becoming aerosols that reflected the sun’s heat for 3 years! This turned 1816 into “The Year Without a Summer,” as it was called, with long-term global effects. -
The Causes of the Civil War
THE CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR: A NEWSPAPER ANALYSIS by DIANNE M. BRAGG WM. DAVID SLOAN, COMMITTEE CHAIR GEORGE RABLE MEG LAMME KARLA K. GOWER CHRIS ROBERTS A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Communication and Information Sciences in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2013 Copyright Dianne Marie Bragg 2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT This dissertation examines antebellum newspaper content in an attempt to add to the historical understanding of the causes of the Civil War. Numerous historians have studied the Civil War and its causes, but this study will use only newspapers to examine what they can show about the causes that eventually led the country to war. Newspapers have long chronicled events in American history, and they offer valuable information about the issues and concerns of their communities. This study begins with an overview of the newspaper coverage of the tariff and territorial issues that began to divide the country in the early decades of the 1800s. The study then moves from the Wilmot Proviso in 1846 to Lincoln’s election in 1860, a period in which sectionalism and disunion increasingly appeared on newspaper pages and the lines of disagreement between the North and the South hardened. The primary sources used in this study were a diverse sampling of articles from newspapers around the country and includes representation from both southern and northern newspapers. Studying these antebellum newspapers offers insight into the political, social, and economic concerns of the day, which can give an indication of how the sectional differences in these areas became so divisive. -
Global Catastrophic Risks 2016
Global Challenges Foundation Global Catastrophic Risks 2016 © Global Challenges Foundation/Global Priorities Project 2016 GLOBAL CATASTROPHIC RISKS 2016 THE GLOBAL CHALLENGES FOUNDATION works to raise awareness of the The views expressed in this report are those of the authors. Their Global Catastrophic Risks. Primarily focused on climate change, other en- statements are not necessarily endorsed by the affiliated organisations. vironmental degradation and politically motivated violence as well as how these threats are linked to poverty and rapid population growth. Against this Authors: background, the Foundation also works to both identify and stimulate the Owen Cotton-Barratt*† development of good proposals for a management model – a global gover- Sebastian Farquhar* nance – able to decrease – and at best eliminate – these risks. John Halstead* Stefan Schubert* THE GLOBAL PRIORITIES PROJECT helps decision-makers effectively prior- Andrew Snyder-Beattie† itise ways to do good. We achieve his both by advising decision-makers on programme evaluation methodology and by encouraging specific policies. We * = The Global Priorities Project are a collaboration between the Centre for Effective Altruism and the Future † = The Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford of Humanity Institute, part of the University of Oxford. Graphic design: Accomplice/Elinor Hägg Global Challenges Foundation in association with 4 Global Catastrophic Risks 2016 Global Catastrophic Risks 2016 5 Contents Definition: Global Foreword 8 Introduction 10 Catastrophic Risk Executive summary 12 1. An introduction to global catastrophic risks 20 – risk of events or 2. What are the most important global catastrophic risks? 28 Catastrophic climate change 30 processes that would Nuclear war 36 Natural pandemics 42 Exogenous risks 46 lead to the deaths of Emerging risks 52 Other risks and unknown risks 64 Our assessment of the risks 66 approximately a tenth of 3. -
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Romanticism on the Net #74-75 (Spring-Fall 2020) 1816 and 2020: The Years Without Summers Kandice Sharren Simon Fraser University Kate Moffatt Simon Fraser University Abstract The WPHP Monthly Mercury is the podcast for the Women’s Print History Project (WPHP), a bibliographical database that seeks to provide a comprehensive account of women’s involvement in print in a long Romantic period. The podcast provides us with an opportunity to develop in- depth analyses of our data. The December 2020 episode, “1816 and 2020: The Years Without Summers,” explores women’s writing in the WPHP inspired by 1816, known as the Year Without a Summer, when abnormally cold weather, exacerbated by the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, led to crop failures and typhus and cholera epidemics. Often remembered as the cold and fog-laden year in which an 18-year-old Mary Shelley came up with the idea for Frankenstein, 1816 was a year of catastrophe more generally. In this episode, hosts Kate Moffatt and Kandice Sharren explore how the bibliographical metadata contained in the WPHP can uncover a wider range of voices writing about catastrophe. Our findings, which include political writing, travel memoirs, and poetry, reveal the lived experiences of women in a tumultuous time. We conclude by meditating on the nature of literary production during catastrophe, and how our own experiences during the upheavals of 2020 influenced our approach to the books that we uncovered. Biographical Note Kandice Sharren completed her PhD in English at Simon Fraser University in 2018. Her research investigates the relationship between the material features of the printed book and narrative experimentation during the Romantic period. -
A Conjecture on the Origin of Language, with Many Helps from Friedrich Nietzsche
A Conjecture on the Origin of Language, with many helps from Friedrich Nietzsche Heesook Kim1 ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Available Online March 2014 It is agreed upon that among all the living things that have existed, only Key words: humans can speak. However, we do not know yet since when we have Language evolution; spoken. We find that Nietzsche left distinctive ideas on the origin of Friedrich Nietzsche; language. Reflecting on “eternal recurrence” and “overmen”, the concepts Eternal recurrence; that Nietzsche made popular, we found out that he would agree on dating overmen and Lake Toba. the origin of language from some 70,000 years ago when the human population shrank drastically to aslow as 2,000 in the wake of the super- volcanic eruption at Lake Toba. At that time, the eternal recurrence that had shackled our ancestors for a long time suddenly disappeared and the small band of surviving members could not help becoming overmen or supermen of entire human species. We ascertained the conjecture with the latest development in evolution theory, archaeology and anatomical analysis on human fossils. 1. Introduction It is agreed upon that among all the living things that have existed on the earth, only humans can speak. However, we are still uncertain when human-beings acquired this facility. It is known that some 150,000 years ago, the so-called Mitochondrial Eve embarked on the journey out of Africa and that we are all her descendants. If she had not spoken before, language could never be more than 150,000 years old. Sumerian is believed the oldest language with written account, dating back around 2900 BC. -
James Buchanan As Savior? Judicial Power, Political Fragmentation, and the Failed 1831 Repeal of Section 25
MARK A. GRABER* James Buchanan as Savior? Judicial Power, Political Fragmentation, and the Failed 1831 Repeal of Section 25 A ntebellum Americans anticipated contemporary political science when they complained about the tendency of embattled political elites to take refuge in the judiciary. Recent scholarship on comparative judicial politics suggests that judicial review is a means by which constitutional framers provided protection for certain class interests that may no longer be fully protected in legislative settings. Tom Ginsburg claims, "[I]f they foresee themselves losing in postconstitutional elections," the politicians responsible for the constitution "may seek to entrench judicial review as a form of political insurance." 1 Such a constitutional design ensures "[e]ven if they lose the election, they will be able to have some access to a forum in which to challenge the legislature."2 In 1801, Thomas Jefferson foreshadowed this strategy. He asserted that the defeated Federalist Party had "retired into the judiciary as a stronghold ...and from that battery all the works of republicanism are to be beaten down and erased.",3 More than a half century later, Chief Justice David S. *Professor of Law and Government, University of Maryland School of Law. This Article was written while the author was the 2008-09 Wayne Morse Chair at the University of Oregon School of Law. I am grateful to the Morse Foundation, Margaret Hallock, and Elizabeth Weber for their remarkable support. I am also grateful to numerous colleagues at the University of Maryland School of Law and elsewhere who read and commented on what follows without giggling too much. -
Catastrophism, Natural Disasters, and Cultural Change John Grattan and Robin Torrence
Theme: Archaeology and the Environment Symposium 017/1 Grattan & Torrence Symposium: Catastrophism, Natural Disasters, and Cultural Change John Grattan and Robin Torrence The aim of this session is to examine both the short and long-term consequences of extreme natural events on patterns of cultural change. Archaeological theory about the pace and character of cultural change generally focuses on processes which are internally generated and which unfold slowly through time. Since environmental determinism has fallen out of favour, theories about social evolution pay very little attention to external, nonhuman factors nor to random factors. Little or no consideration has been given to the effects of one-off natural disasters. In contrast, a number of theoretical perspectives involving catastrophism, chaos, punctuated evolution, etc. provide a range of alternative views that focus on the effects of random events. One of the goals of the symposium is to assess the value of these theories for explaining the impacts of natural disasters on cultural change. Through extended discussions following short presentations of case studies representing a very broad coverage in spatial, chronological and cultural terms, the participants will consider a range of general questions. How and in what ways do natural hazards affect human societies? Have natural disasters played an important role in human evolution? Do natural disasters have only short-term, limited effects or should they play an important role within general theories about cultural change and -
How to Stop a Supervolcano
HOW TO STOP A SUPERVOLCANO [VIDEO TRANSCRIPT] In 1816, red snow fell in Maryland. And brown snow. And blue snow.1 Which was kind of weird. Even weirder? It was May. Parts of Pennsylvania were covered in half an inch of ice … in July.2 1816 was known as “The Year Without a Summer.” And the phenomenon wasn’t limited to the U.S. In fact, the reason Americans were shivering in the middle of the year … had to do with something that happened half a world away. The darkened, hazy skies produced by “The Year Without a Summer” led to a series of famous paintings by the likes of J.M.W. Turner, Caspar David Friedrich, and John Crome. Modern audiences often believe that the use of lighting in these works is stylized, not realizing that it was a reflection of the actual conditions at the time. Another artistic legacy of the year without a summer: Mary Shelley and her summer vacation companions at Lake Geneva were forced indoors, where they entertained each other by coming up with horror stories. Shelley’s contribution eventually became Frankenstein. The eruption of the volcano at Mount Tambora in Indonesia had released a massive cloud of ash and sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. As a result, temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere plummeted. Crops failed and livestock died en masse. Between the eruption itself, the ensuing tsunamis, and the resulting starvation, approximately 92,000 people died.3 It is widely regarded as the worst volcanic eruption in recorded history. Here’s the good news: you didn’t have to live through it.