Portal:World

The World Portal

The world 

---

The Blue Marble, a photograph of the planet Earth made on 7 December 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft.

The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique while others talk of a "plurality of worlds". Some treat the world as one simple object while others analyze the world as a complex made up of parts.

In scientific cosmology, the world or universe is commonly defined as "[t]he totality of all space and time; all that is, has been, and will be". Theories of modality talk of possible worlds as complete and consistent ways how things could have been. Phenomenology, starting from the horizon of co-given objects present in the periphery of every experience, defines the world as the biggest horizon or the "horizon of all horizons". In philosophy of mind, the world is contrasted with the mind as that which is represented by the mind. Theology conceptualizes the world in relation to God, for example, as God's creation, as identical to God or as the two being interdependent. In religions, there is a tendency to downgrade the material or sensory world in favor of a spiritual world to be sought through religious practice. A comprehensive representation of the world and our place in it, as is found in religions, is known as a worldview. Cosmogony is the field that studies the origin or creation of the world while eschatology refers to the science or doctrine of the last things or of the end of the world.

In various contexts, the term "world" takes a more restricted meaning associated, for example, with the Earth and all life on it, with humanity as a whole or with an international or intercontinental scope. In this sense, world history refers to the history of humanity as a whole and world politics is the discipline of political science studying issues that transcend nations and continents. Other examples include terms such as "world religion", "world language", "world government", "world war", "world population", "world economy", or "world championship". (Full article...)

Selected articles -

• 
  
  

  

  Hotspots of sulfate aerosol pollution in 2005–2007 are highlighted in orange. Such sulfates rarely occur naturally outside of volcanic activity, and their increased levels are the main cause of global dimming

  
  Global dimming is a decline in the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface. It is caused by atmospheric particulate matter, predominantly sulfate aerosols, which are components of air pollution. Global dimming was observed soon after the first systematic measurements of solar irradiance began in the 1950s. This weakening of visible sunlight proceeded at the rate of 4–5% per decade until the 1980s. During these years, air pollution increased due to post-war industrialization. Solar activity did not vary more than the usual during this period.
  
  As aerosols have a cooling effect, global dimming has masked the extent of global warming experienced to date, with the most-polluted regions even experiencing cooling in the 1970s. Global dimming has interfered with the water cycle by lowering evaporation, and thus has probably reduced rainfall in certain areas. It may have weakened the Monsoon of South Asia and caused the entire tropical rain belt to shift southwards between 1950 and 1985, with a limited recovery afterwards. Record levels of particulate pollution in the Northern Hemisphere caused or at least exacerbated the monsoon failure behind the 1984 Ethiopian famine. (Full article...)
• 
  The Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) is an industry taxonomy developed in 1999 by MSCI and Standard & Poor's (S&P) for use by the global financial community. The GICS structure consists of 11 sectors, 25 industry groups, 74 industries and 163 sub-industries into which S&P has categorized all major public companies. The system is similar to ICB (Industry Classification Benchmark), a classification structure maintained by FTSE Group.
  
  GICS is used as a basis for S&P and MSCI financial market indexes in which each company is assigned to a sub-industry, and to an industry, industry group, and sector, by its principal business activity. "GICS" is a registered trademark of McGraw Hill Financial and MSCI Inc. (Full article...)
• 

  

  A facsimile of the signature-and-seals page of the 1864 Geneva Convention, which established humane rules of war

  
  The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term Geneva Convention colloquially denotes the agreements of 1949, negotiated in the aftermath of the Second World War (1939–1945), which updated the terms of the two 1929 treaties and added two new conventions. The Geneva Conventions extensively define the basic rights of wartime prisoners, civilians and military personnel; establish protections for the wounded and sick; and provide protections for the civilians in and around a war-zone.
  
  The Geneva Conventions define the rights and protections afforded to non-combatants who fulfill the criteria of being protected persons. The treaties of 1949 were ratified, in their entirety or with reservations, by 196 countries. The Geneva Conventions concern only protected non-combatants in war. The use of wartime conventional weapons is addressed by the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, while the biological and chemical warfare in international armed conflicts is addressed by the 1925 Geneva Protocol. (Full article...)
• 

  

  The Blue Marble, taken by either Ron Evans or Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 crew in 1972. The original photograph was taken with the South Pole facing the top, however this version is the most widely distributed.

  
  
  The Blue Marble is a photograph of Earth taken on December 7, 1972, from a distance of around 29,400 kilometers (18,300 miles) from the planet's surface.
  
  The original image (NASA designation AS17-148-22727) was taken by either Ron Evans or Harrison Schmitt of the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft on its way to the Moon, and showed the Earth with the south pole facing upwards; since then, a cropped and rotated version has become one of the most reproduced images in history. (Full article...)
• 

  

  An early nuclear power plant that used atomic energy to generate electricity

  
  The Atomic Age, also known as the Atomic Era, is the period of history following the detonation of the first nuclear weapon, The Gadget at the Trinity test in New Mexico, on 16 July 1945, during World War II. Although nuclear chain reactions had been hypothesized in 1933 and the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (Chicago Pile-1) had taken place in December 1942, the Trinity test and the ensuing bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II represented the first large-scale use of nuclear technology and ushered in profound changes in sociopolitical thinking and the course of technological development.
  
  While atomic power was promoted for a time as the epitome of progress and modernity, entering into the nuclear power era also entailed frightful implications of nuclear warfare, the Cold War, mutual assured destruction, nuclear proliferation, the risk of nuclear disaster (potentially as extreme as anthropogenic global nuclear winter), as well as beneficial civilian applications in nuclear medicine. It is no easy matter to fully segregate peaceful uses of nuclear technology from military or terrorist uses (such as the fabrication of dirty bombs from radioactive waste), which complicated the development of a global nuclear-power export industry right from the outset. (Full article...)
• 
  Global change in broad sense refers to planetary-scale changes in the Earth system. It is most commonly used to encompass the variety of changes connected to the rapid increase in human activities which started around mid-20th century, i.e., the Great Acceleration. While the concept stems from research on the climate change, it is used to adopt a more holistic view of the observed changes. Global change refers to the changes of the Earth system, treated in its entirety with interacting physicochemical and biological components as well as the impact human societies have on the components and vice versa. Therefore, the changes are studied through means of Earth system science. (Full article...)
• 

  

  Conjectured illustration of the scorched Earth after the Sun has entered the red giant phase, about 5–7 billion years from now

  
  
  The biological and geological future of Earth can be extrapolated based on the estimated effects of several long-term influences. These include the chemistry at Earth's surface, the cooling rate of the planet's interior, the gravitational interactions with other objects in the Solar System, and a steady increase in the Sun's luminosity. An uncertain factor is the pervasive influence of technology introduced by humans, such as climate engineering, which could cause significant changes to the planet. For example, the current Holocene extinction is being caused by technology, and the effects may last for up to five million years. In turn, technology may result in the extinction of humanity, leaving the planet to gradually return to a slower evolutionary pace resulting solely from long-term natural processes.
  
  Over time intervals of hundreds of millions of years, random celestial events pose a global risk to the biosphere, which can result in mass extinctions. These include impacts by comets or asteroids and the possibility of a near-Earth supernova—a massive stellar explosion within a 100-light-year (31-parsec) radius of the Sun. Other large-scale geological events are more predictable. Milankovitch's theory predicts that the planet will continue to undergo glacial periods at least until the Quaternary glaciation comes to an end. These periods are caused by the variations in eccentricity, axial tilt, and precession of Earth's orbit. As part of the ongoing supercontinent cycle, plate tectonics will probably result in a supercontinent in 250–350 million years. Sometime in the next 1.5–4.5 billion years, Earth's axial tilt may begin to undergo chaotic variations, with changes in the axial tilt of up to 90°. (Full article...)

General images -

The following are images from various world-related articles on Wikipedia.

• 
  Lithified stromatolites on the shores of Lake Thetis, Western Australia. Archean stromatolites are the first direct fossil traces of life on Earth. (from History of Earth)
• 
  Chloroplasts in the cells of a moss (from History of Earth)
• 
  Standing Buddha from Gandhara, 2nd century CE
• 
  Shanghai. China urbanized rapidly in the 21st century.
• 
  Empires of the world in 1898
• 
  Earth and the Moon as seen from Mars by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (from Earth)
• 
  A view of Earth with different layers of its atmosphere visible: the troposphere with its clouds casting shadows, a band of stratospheric blue sky at the horizon, and a line of green airglow of the lower thermosphere around an altitude of 100 km, at the edge of space (from Earth)
• 
  Hagia Sophia, Istanbul – a symbol of Byzantine civilization
• 
  Trilobites first appeared during the Cambrian period and were among the most widespread and diverse groups of Paleozoic organisms. (from History of Earth)
• 
  Image of the physical world, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (from World)
• 
  A reconstruction of Pannotia (550 Ma). (from History of Earth)
• 
  Earth's land use for human agriculture in 2019 (from Earth)
• 
  Last Moon landing: Apollo 17 (1972)
• 
  Machu Picchu, Inca Empire, Peru
• 
  Olmec colossal head, now at the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa
• 
  Conjectured illustration of the scorched Earth after the Sun has entered the red giant phase, about 5–7 billion years from now (from Earth)
• 
  An artist's impression of ice age Earth at glacial maximum. (from History of Earth)
• 
  Artist's conception of Devonian flora (from History of Earth)
• 
  Persepolis, Achaemenid Empire, 6th century BCE
• 
  Taj Mahal, Mughal Empire, India
• 
  A composite image of Earth, with its different types of surface discernible: Earth's surface dominating Ocean (blue), Africa with lush (green) to dry (brown) land and Earth's polar ice in the form of Antarctic sea ice (grey) covering the Antarctic or Southern Ocean and the Antarctic ice sheet (white) covering Antarctica. (from Earth)
• 
  James Watt's steam engine powered the Industrial Revolution.
• 
  Great Mosque of Kairouan, Tunisia, founded 670 CE
• 
  A 2012 artistic impression of the early Solar System's protoplanetary disk from which Earth and other Solar System bodies were formed (from Earth)
• 
  "Lucy", the first Australopithecus afarensis skeleton found. Lucy was only 1.06 m (3 ft 6 in) tall.
• 
  Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989
• 
  Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, photographed by Neil Armstrong, 1969 (from History of Earth)
• 
  Earth's night-side upper atmosphere appearing from the bottom as bands of afterglow illuminating the troposphere in orange with silhouettes of clouds, and the stratosphere in white and blue. Next the mesosphere (pink area) extends to the orange and faintly green line of the lowest airglow, at about one hundred kilometers at the edge of space and the lower edge of the thermosphere (invisible). Continuing with green and red bands of aurorae stretching over several hundred kilometers. (from Earth)
• 
  The Pantheon, originally a Roman temple, now a Catholic church
• 
  Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates throughout most of the Mesozoic (from History of Earth)
• 
  Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of the Somme in World War I
• 
  Scientific worldview. (from World)
• 
  Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
• 
  Chennakesava Temple, Belur, India
• 
  Earth's axial tilt causing different angles of seasonal illumination at different orbital positions around the Sun (from Earth)
• 
  Cave paintings, Lascaux, France, c. 17,000 BCE
• 
  Japanese depiction of a Portuguese carrack. European maritime innovations led to proto-globalization.
• 
  View of Earth from the Moon by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (from Earth)
• 
  Change in average surface air temperature and drivers for that change. Human activity has caused increased temperatures, with natural forces adding some variability. (from Earth)
• 
  Earth's major plates, which are:

  •   Pacific Plate
  •   African Plate
  •   North American Plate
  •   Eurasian Plate
  •   Antarctic Plate
  •   Indo-Australian Plate
  •   South American Plate

  (from Earth)
• 
  Exaggerated illustration of Earth's elliptical orbit around the Sun, marking that the orbital extreme points (apoapsis and periapsis) are not the same as the four seasonal extreme points, the equinox and solstice (from Earth)
• 
  Map of peopling of the world (Southern Dispersal paradigm), in thousands of years ago.
• 
  Artist's impression of a Hadean landscape with the relatively newly formed Moon still looming closely over Earth and both bodies sustaining strong volcanism. (from History of Earth)
• 
  An artist's rendering of a protoplanetary disk (from History of Earth)
• 
  Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a NASA astronaut, observing Earth from the Cupola module at the International Space Station on 11 September 2010 (from Earth)
• 
  Ajloun Castle, Jordan
• 
  Cuneiform inscription, Sumer, Mesopotamia, 26th century BCE
• 
  A 580 million year old fossil of Spriggina floundensi, an animal from the Ediacaran period. Such life forms could have been ancestors to the many new forms that originated in the Cambrian Explosion. (from History of Earth)
• 
  An artist's impression of the Archean, the eon after Earth's formation, featuring round stromatolites, which are early oxygen-producing forms of life from billions of years ago. After the Late Heavy Bombardment, Earth's crust had cooled, its water-rich barren surface is marked by continents and volcanoes, with the Moon still orbiting Earth half as far as it is today, appearing 2.8 times larger and producing strong tides. (from Earth)
• 
  An animation of the changing density of productive vegetation on land (low in brown; heavy in dark green) and phytoplankton at the ocean surface (low in purple; high in yellow) (from Earth)
• 
  Atomic bombing of Nagasaki, 1945
• 
  Relief of Earth's crust (from Earth)
• 
  A banded iron formation from the 3.15 Ga Moodies Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. Red layers represent the times when oxygen was available; gray layers were formed in anoxic circumstances. (from History of Earth)
• 
  Artist's rendition of an oxinated fully-frozen Snowball Earth with no remaining liquid surface water. (from History of Earth)
• 
  A map of heat flow from Earth's interior to the surface of Earth's crust, mostly along the oceanic ridges (from Earth)
• 
  A schematic view of Earth's magnetosphere with solar wind flowing from left to right (from Earth)
• 
  Battle during 1281 Mongol invasion of Japan
• 
  A computer-generated image mapping the prevalence of artificial satellites and space debris around Earth in geosynchronous and low Earth orbit (from Earth)
• 
  Maya observatory, Chichen Itza, Mexico
• 
  A composite image of artificial light emissions at night on a map of Earth (from Earth)
• 
  Earth's western hemisphere showing topography relative to Earth's center instead of to mean sea level, as in common topographic maps (from Earth)
• 
  Geologic map of North America, color-coded by age. From most recent to oldest, age is indicated by yellow, green, blue, and red. The reds and pinks indicate rock from the Archean.
• 
  Ming dynasty section, Great Wall of China
• 
  Moai, Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
• 
  Graph showing range of estimated partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen through geologic time (from History of Earth)
• 
  A High Desert storm in the Mojave (from Earth)
• 
  The pale orange dot, an artist's impression of the early Earth which might have appeared orange through its hazy methane rich prebiotic second atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere at this stage was somewhat comparable to today's atmosphere of Titan. (from History of Earth)
• 
  Cross-section through a liposome (from History of Earth)
• 
  A reconstruction of human history based on fossil data. (from History of Earth)
• 
  Earth's history with time-spans of the eons to scale (from History of Earth)
• 
  Artist's conception of Hadean Eon Earth, when it was much hotter and inhospitable to all forms of life. (from History of Earth)
• 
  Florence, birthplace of the Italian Renaissance
• 
  A Benin Bronze head from Nigeria
• 
  Wittenberg, birthplace of Protestantism (from Human history)
• 
  Artist's impression of the enormous collision that probably formed the Moon (from History of Earth)
• 
  Venus figurine, Germany, c. 37,500 BCE
• 
  Satellite time lapse imagery of Earth's rotation showing axis tilt (from Earth)
• 
  St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
• 
  Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci epitomizes the advances in art and science seen during the Renaissance. (from History of Earth)
• 
  Yggdrasil, an attempt to reconstruct the Norse world tree which connects the heavens, the world, and the underworld. (from World)
• 
  First airplane, the Wright Flyer, flew on 17 December 1903.
• 
  Obelisk of Axum, Ethiopia
• 
  The replicator in virtually all known life is deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is far more complex than the original replicator and its replication systems are highly elaborate. (from History of Earth)
• 
  Notre-Dame de Paris, France
• 
  Angkor Wat temple complex, Cambodia, early 12th century
• 
  Pangaea was a supercontinent that existed from about 300 to 180 Ma. The outlines of the modern continents and other landmasses are indicated on this map. (from History of Earth)
• 
  A view of Earth with its global ocean and cloud cover, which dominate Earth's surface and hydrosphere; at Earth's polar regions, its hydrosphere forms larger areas of ice cover. (from Earth)
• 
  Tiktaalik, a fish with limb-like fins and a predecessor of tetrapods. Reconstruction from fossils about 375 million years old. (from History of Earth)
• 
  Artist's impression of Earth during the later Archean, the largely cooled planetary crust and water-rich barren surface, marked by volcanoes and continents, features already round microbialites. The Moon, still orbiting Earth much closer than today and still dominating Earth's sky, produced strong tides. (from History of Earth)
• 
  Pale orange dot, an artist's impression of Early Earth, featuring its tinted orange methane-rich early atmosphere (from Earth)
• 
  A pillar at Göbekli Tepe
• 
  Pillar erected by India's Maurya Emperor Ashoka

Megacities of the world -

Skyline of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires (/ˌbweɪnəs ˈɛəriːz/ or /-ˈaɪrɪs/; Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbwenos ˈajɾes] ^ⓘ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South America's southeastern coast. "Buenos aires" is Spanish for "fair winds" or "good airs". Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha global city, according to the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) 2020 ranking.

The city of Buenos Aires is neither part of Buenos Aires Province nor the Province's capital; rather, it is an autonomous district. In 1880, after decades of political infighting, Buenos Aires was federalized and removed from Buenos Aires Province. The city limits were enlarged to include the towns of Belgrano and Flores; both are now neighborhoods of the city. The 1994 constitutional amendment granted the city autonomy, hence its formal name of Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Its citizens first elected a Chief of Government in 1996; previously, the Mayor was directly appointed by the President of Argentina. (Full article...)

Did you know -

• ... that the 1917 Leeds Convention in Britain passed resolutions calling for the end of the First World War and praising the February Revolution in Russia?
• ... that Frederick Murray Trotter had a distinguished career as a field geologist despite losing a part of his skull and an eye to shrapnel during World War I?
• ... that Auguste Rodin's erotic sculpture The Kiss was removed from Lewes Town Hall during the First World War after a local headmistress complained?
• ... that Able Seaman Rex Julius was the lowest-ranked Australian official war artist of World War II?
• ... that an observer once described a play-by-mail game as "the most complex game system on Earth"?
• ... that Chekri Ganem's play Antar was described as the most significant display of Arab nationalism organized outside the Arab world?
• ... that Laura J. Crossey has shown that travertines are more likely to form when meteoric groundwater mixes with deeper groundwater from the Earth's mantle?
• ... that the 1994 Mascara earthquake destroyed every house in the Algerian villages of Shadlia, Hacine and Sidi Ali Cherif?

Countries of the world -

Moldova (/mɒlˈdoʊvə/ ^ⓘ mol-DOH-və, sometimes UK: /ˈmɒldəvə/ MOL-də-və; Romanian pronunciation: [molˈdova]), officially the Republic of Moldova (Romanian: Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, on the northeastern corner of the Balkans. The country spans a total of 33,483 km² (12,928 sq mi) and has a population of approximately 2.5 million as of January 2023. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised breakaway state of Transnistria lies across the Dniester river on the country's eastern border with Ukraine. Moldova is a unitary parliamentary representative democratic republic with its capital in Chișinău, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre.

Most of Moldovan territory was a part of the Principality of Moldavia from the 14th century until 1812, when it was ceded to the Russian Empire by the Ottoman Empire (to which Moldavia was a vassal state) and became known as Bessarabia. In 1856, southern Bessarabia was returned to Moldavia, which three years later united with Wallachia to form Romania, but Russian rule was restored over the whole of the region in 1878. During the 1917 Russian Revolution, Bessarabia briefly became an autonomous state within the Russian Republic. In February 1918, it declared independence and then integrated into Romania later that year following a vote of its assembly. The decision was disputed by Soviet Russia, which in 1924 established, within the Ukrainian SSR, a so-called Moldavian autonomous republic on partially Moldovan-inhabited territories to the east of Bessarabia. In 1940, as a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Romania was compelled to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union, leading to the creation of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian SSR). (Full article...)

Wonders of the World -

Seven Wonders of the Industrial World is a 7-part British docudrama television miniseries that originally aired from 4 September 2003 (2003-09-04) to 16 October 2003 (2003-10-16) on BBC and was later released on DVD. The programme examines seven engineering feats that occurred since the Industrial Revolution. The same feats are covered in a companion book of the same name by producer Deborah Cadbury. (Full article...)

Related portals

---

Protected areas of the world -

• 
  The Protected areas of Kyrgyzstan are regulated by the law on specially protected natural areas of 2 May 2011, last modified on 2 June 2018. In total, they cover 14,761.216 km² (5,699.337 sq mi) and account for 7.38% of the country's total area (as of 2017). The first protected area in Kyrgyzstan (Issyk-Kul) was established in 1948. According to the Government Decree on Priorities of Conservation of Biological Diversity and the relevant Action Plan for 2014-2024 the target area for the protected areas in Kyrgyzstan is 10 percent of the country’s area by 2024.
  
  The protected areas are subdivided into seven categories: (Full article...)
• 
  
  

  

  Canada's National Parks and National Reserves by provinces and territories

  
  This list of protected areas of Quebec includes federally, provincially and municipally administered parks and wildlife reserves in Quebec, the largest province in Canada. (Full article...)
• 

  

  Rano Kau, Parque National Rapa Nui, Easter Island

  
  The protected areas of Chile are areas that have natural beauty or significant historical value protected by the government of Chile. These protected areas cover over 140,000 km² (54,054 sq mi), which is 19% of the territory of Chile. The National System of Protected Wild Areas (SNASPE by its Spanish acronym) is regulated by law #18,362 passed in 1984, and administered by the National Forest Corporation (CONAF).
  
  There are three types of territories:

  • National Parks
  • National Reserves
  • Natural Monuments

  (Full article...)
• 

  

  Network of protected areas in Albania (2020)

  
  
  Despite being a relatively small country, Albania is exceedingly rich in biodiversity. Its ecosystems and habitats support over 5,550 species of vascular and non-vascular plants and more than 15,600 species of coniferous and non-coniferous evergreens, most of which are threatened at global and European levels. The country has made recent efforts to expand its network of protected areas which now include: 11 national parks, 1 marine park, 718 nature monuments, 23 managed nature reserves, 11 protected landscapes, 4 World Heritage Sites, 4 Ramsar sites and other protected areas of various categories, that when combined, account for 21.36% of the territory. Furthermore, a biosphere reserve, 45 important plant areas and 16 important bird areas are found in the country.
  
  Meanwhile, the central government has proclaimed the Coastline and the Tirana Greenbelt as areas of national importance. (Full article...)
• 
  Bihar is a state in East India. It is bounded by Uttar Pradesh to the west, Nepal to the north, West Bengal to the east and Jharkhand to the south. About 7% of the state is protected forest area. (Full article...)
• 
  National parks of Victoria State parks of Victoria Marine national parks of Victoria Marine and coastal parks of Victoria Marine sanctuaries of Victoria Other parks of Victoria

(Full article...)

Centre for Nature Education at the Białowieża National Park, Poland

Protected areas of Poland include the following categories, as defined by the Act on Protection of Nature (Polish: Ustawa o ochronie przyrody) of 16 April 2004, by the Polish Parliament: (Full article...)

The mountain of Stob Binnein lies in the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park.

Many parts of Scotland are protected in accordance with a number of national and international designations because of their environmental, historical or cultural value. Protected areas can be divided according to the type of resource which each seeks to protect. NatureScot has various roles in the delivery of many environmental designations in Scotland, i.e. those aimed at protecting flora and fauna, scenic qualities and geological features. Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designations that protect sites of historic and cultural importance. Some international designations, such as World Heritage Sites, can cover both categories of site.

The various designations overlap considerably with many protected areas being covered by multiple designations with different boundaries. (Full article...)

Protected areas of West Bengal cover 4% of the state area. Forests make up 14% of the geographical area of West Bengal, which is lower than the national average of 33%. West Bengal has a wide variety of fauna, including Bengal tigers, Indian leopards, sloth and Himalayan black bears, chital and sambar (deer), Indian boars, pygmy hogs, Indian elephants, Indian peafowl, great Indian hornbills, Eurasian spoonbills, brahminy ducks, king and Indian cobras, white-lipped pit viper, Indian and reticulated pythons, mugger crocodiles, saltwater crocodiles, gharials, and many more. A huge montane forest, Dooars, is situated in the Northern West Bengal districts of Alipur Duar, Darjeeling, and Kalimpong. Part of the world's largest mangrove forest, Sundarbans, is located in southern West Bengal.
There are 6 national parks and 15 wildlife sanctuaries in West Bengal. (Full article...)

Dinosaur Provincial Park

This is a list of protected areas of Alberta. Protected areas are managed by the Government of Canada or the Government of Alberta. The provincial government owns 60% of Alberta's landmass but most of this has not been formally protected. The total protected area throughout Alberta including federal and provincial protected areas is approximately 90,700 km² (35,000 sq mi). (Full article...)

Protected areas of the Caribbean are significant in a region of particular ecological vulnerability, including the impact of climate change and the impact of tourism.

The University of the West Indies' "Caribbean Protected Areas Gateway" supports informational resources for the 16 Caribbean member states of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States. It forms the regional component of the ACP's Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management program, building on the World Database on Protected Areas. (Full article...)

Protected areas of Slovenia include one national park (Slovene: narodni park), three regional parks (regijski park), several natural parks (krajinski park), and hundreds of natural monuments (naravni spomenik) and monuments of designed nature (spomenik oblikovane narave). They cover about 12.5% of the Slovenian territory. Under the Wild Birds Directive, 26 sites totalling roughly 25% of the nation's land are "Special Protected Areas"; the Natura 2000 proposal would increase the totals to 260 sites and 32% of national territory. (Full article...)

The protected areas of Bhutan are its national parks, nature preserves, and wildlife sanctuaries. Most of these protected areas were first set aside in the 1960s, originally covering most of the northern and southern regions of Bhutan. Today, protected areas cover more than 42% of the kingdom, mostly in the northern regions. Protected areas also line most of Bhutan's international borders with China and India. (Full article...)

Canada's National Parks and National Reserves by provinces and territories

This is a list of protected areas of Saskatchewan. (Full article...)

Canada's National Parks and National Reserves by provinces and territories

This is a list of protected areas of Nunavut. (Full article...)

Selected world maps

• 
  Index map from the International Map of the World (1:1,000,000 scale)
• 
  A plate tectonics map with volcano locations indicated with red circles
• 
  The world map by Gerardus Mercator (1569), the first map in the well-known Mercator projection
• 
  United Nations Human Development Index map by country (2016)
• 
  Time zones of the world
• 
  Mollweide projection of the world
• 
  Only a few of the largest large igneous provinces appear (coloured dark purple) on this geological map, which depicts crustal geologic provinces as seen in seismic refraction data
• 
  1516 map of the world by Martin Waldseemüller
• 
  The Goode homolosine projection is a pseudocylindrical, equal-area, composite map projection used for world maps.

World records

• List of Olympic records in athletics
• List of world records in athletics
• List of junior world records in athletics
• List of world records in masters athletics
• List of world youth bests in athletics
• List of IPC world records in athletics
• List of world records in canoeing
• List of world records in chess
• List of cycling records
• List of world records in track cycling
• List of world records in finswimming
• List of world records in juggling
• List of world records in rowing
• List of world records in speed skating
• List of world records in swimming
• List of IPC world records in swimming
• List of world records in Olympic weightlifting

Topics

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Categories

Category puzzle

Select [►] to view subcategories

World

Administrative divisions

International broadcasting

Continents

Cosmopolitan species

Countries

Global culture

World economy

Global natural environment

Geography

Global governance

Global surveillance

Globalization

Global health

World history

International aircraft

International classification systems

Global issues

World maps

International organizations

Global politics

World population

World records

Regions

International sports

Global studies

World systems theory

World Wars

---

World history

World historians

Geopolitical rivalry

History of globalization

History of international relations

Theories of history

Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

• 

  Commons
  Free media repository

• 

  Wikibooks
  Free textbooks and manuals

• 

  Wikidata
  Free knowledge base

• 

  Wikinews
  Free-content news

• 

  Wikiquote
  Collection of quotations

• 

  Wikisource
  Free-content library

• 

  Wikispecies
  Directory of species

• 

  Wikiversity
  Free learning tools

• 

  Wikivoyage
  Free travel guide

• 

  Wiktionary
  Dictionary and thesaurus

More portals

Discover Wikipedia using portals

• 

  List of all portals

• 

  The arts portal

• 

  Biography portal

• 

  Current events portal

• 

  Geography portal

• 

  History portal

• 

  Mathematics portal

• 

  Science portal

• 

  Society portal

• 

  Technology portal

• 

  Random portal

• 

  WikiProject Portals