text:
Talk:Cultural imperialism

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 23 August 2021 and 3 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Cdmarte.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 19:40, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 2 April 2020 and 20 June 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Stevenzhang4949. Peer reviewers: Xibaowang, Ali.panta.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 18:48, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Refernces and a framework
Articles needs references and a framework--Work permit (talk) 01:18, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

Background
I've given some quotes from references. The section imho could be better if the quotes are paraphrased by an expert in the field--Work permit (talk) 03:56, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

Photos
I threw in a few photos. feel free to remove or substitute.--Work permit (talk) 04:43, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

Rome-Greece
Perhaps it is relevant to mention Rome. Rome conquered Greece but Greece conquered Rome as Horace said. The Romans adopted customs, political and religious beliefs of the Greeks. Also during the reign of the Romans Mediterranean civilisations were strongly influenced by the greco-roman civilisation. As a result men from different cultural backgrounds had Roman or Greek names, like Lucian the writer and Philo of Alexandria. Do you think that this informationis relevant to the article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.166.50.72 (talk) 09:08, 12 October 2011 (UTC)
 * That sounds reasonable, yes. Feel free to add the content if you have a source that backs it up. The source will need to be reliable and it will also need to show that that Rome was related to cultural imperialism. Have a look at Wikipedia's policy of verifiability for more details of how things are sourced at Wikipedia. Thanks —  Mr. Stradivarius ♫ 13:38, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

Proposed Edits to the Page
I was wondering what thoughts there may be about a few proposed edits I have to the page. With these edits, I hope to both address the concerns listed by Wikipedia of bringing the page up to quality standards and appropriate citation, and my own concerns consisting of the wording in the introduction and the adequacy of the theory section. I think it may be useful to break up "theory and debate" into sections of "Theoretical Background" expounding on the work of Edward Said and his theoretical framework employing Foucauldian interpretations of power structure and "Contemporary Debate" explaining how the term has been used in recent material. Also, I was wondering if we could bring this into the realm of WikiProject Anthropology as well as Sociology? Let me know what you think. Jkcory (Jkcory) 6:46, 18 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Those sound like great suggestions. I advise you to be bold and get stuck in! —  Mr. Stradivarius ♫ 14:08, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

strict deffinition VS comprehention
Without an ear to the experts, I believe that the phrase cultural imperialism is not empirical. By this I mean the two words have connotations and definitions that explorations might better serve to enlighten than would the accepted dogma.

cultural, Culture, cultivate, cultivation, Cult...

I believe the social impact of the phrase defies simple definition. So I move that any attempt to define the subject be softened and diversified and moved away from the beginning of the article so that it does not become a framework that could limit a comprehensive exploration of the subject.--Sativarg (talk) 08:31, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Race and Nazis
I have reverted the removal of these sections. The removal comment said "The hate based racial policies of the nazis, culminating in extermination or the "scientific" racism of the late 19th and early 20th century colonial Europe have nothing to do with the post-colonial concept of cultural imperialism". I find it hard to believe that the Nazis didn't try "promoting and imposing a culture, usually of politically powerful nations over less potent societies". There are books that use the term in connection with the Nazis. However, I am not a historian in this area. The sections are poorly cited. There are no pages in the references for instance. Myrvin (talk) 12:00, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

 * I think it's quite straightforward. Cultural imperialism concerns power relations and resulting cultural hegemonies in a post-colonial world. This is how the concept is used in thousands of writings and it is a broadly accepted definition. This definition is formulated in the rest of the article, but then suddenly race and nazis appear without even an attempt of connecting them to the definition and meaning of cultural imperialism. From Big Macs, Coca-Cola, rhetoric of "democracy and human rights" to the ovens and mass graves of Treblinka? It's just irrational, unacademic, unencyclopedic. It makes no sense. It obfuscates the concept, misleads a reader on the meaning of the term. What is it doing in the article? What is the connection? 188.67.117.144 (talk) 15:06, 27 June 2015 (UTC)
 * When someone starts a comment with "I think it's quite straightforward", I get twitchy. Even though the term was thought up in the 60s, there's no reason why historians can't look back before that to find examples of CI in the past. You seem unimpressed by the use of the term in reliable sources that link CI with the Nazis. But, in Wikipedia, that is what matters. If a reliable source says that the Nazis were cultural imperialists, then, for WP, that is enough. You should really have made your comments on this page before removing that much text. Perhaps others have a view on this. Myrvin (talk) 15:38, 27 June 2015 (UTC)
 * This book refers to a text called "German cultural imperialism ... 1938-1945". This  talks about how Nazi beliefs were used to justify CI. Myrvin (talk) 15:45, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

 * It's quite straightforward in the article! Read the theoretical section with Said, Foucault and Spivak. Post-colonialism is a key term for these writers. These are theorists of the post WW2, post-colonial world, in which they see the western imperialism continuing in the form of cultural hegemony in the west's relations with the developing world, helped by power relations that are not balanced nor equal. Nazism was a hate based program of conquer, enslaving and extermination. As it is said in the article the term was once used for stalinist policies in the 1920's, but didn't catch on. It was coined in its accepted, current definition in the 1960's and concerns the power relations of the post-colonial world. If someone has used it for the nazis (although that link is not made in the removed sections) or racism more generally, then that is not the accepted use or common use of the term, as defined in the rest of the article. And in the removed text there is no attempt to form this connection. It reads like unconnected and speculative, misguided OR. With the result that a reader is mislead on the accepted meaning and usage of cultural imperialism. 188.67.117.144 (talk) 15:51, 27 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Now that's not quite the same as saying it is impossible to include racism and Nazism in this article. You are saying that the sections weren't written properly and the cited texts did not support that inclusion. Would you accept its inclusion with better texts such as those I have cited above? User:Myrvin|Myrvin]] (talk) 15:55, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

 * I'm not going to edit war. I know approx. what the term means, but am not going to insist on it. Imbalances of power relations, resulting in the hegemony of the stronger partner, i.e. west and as a result the conceived hegemony of western culture. Hollywood, pop culture, multinational corporations and brands, porn, fashion, the conceived gradual homogenization of cultures, imitation of western cultural trends and idolizing of western cultural icons and western sports in the developing world, using terms like "human rights" to rate cultures hierarchically and to put pressure on (e.g. Uganda and the treatment of homosexuals) or in extreme cases to justify the intervention in (e.g. Libya) developing societies, power relations at institutions like the IMF, UN security council, (even UN declaration of human rights has been seen as cultural imperialism, propagation of western enlightenment values, not universal values), ability to broadcast and spread your message and values, to advertise and market your products, technological capabilities and their impact on power relations (e.g. satellites), the related spread and adoption of technologies and its impact on techno-cultural homogenization of societies, the question whether cultural hegemony is used to advance the interests of western corporations and western financial interests in general etc. etc. It is a 50 year long debate whether cultural imperialism is a good or a bad thing (as described in the article) and in which ways and to what extents, whether there exists moral justification for the undeniable western hegemony (although now waning due to the raise of China and Asia more broadly, paradoxically partly due to adoption of western technological culture). Conservatives have generally been more supportive of western cultural hegemony and leftists more critical (the anti-globalization movement can be seen as movement critical of western cultural imperialism, e.g. in "Empire" by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri). The tradition in cultural anthropology starting with Boas, Benedict and Mead can be seen as critical of western cultural imperialism, although the term was coined and theorized later. It concerns academic debates on cultural relativism, universal values etc. The so called new atheists Dawkins, Harris, Dennett etc. have been seen as cultural imperialist by some in their support of western secularism and in their harsh criticism of islam. There, of course, is no similar debate about the self-evident evils of nazism or the racist discrimination policies of the colonial era. In other words it is a controversial concept and the debate is still open and on-going. Jihadists like Bin Laden have voiced their opposition to western cultural imperialism. They are afraid of the spread of western tastes and styles that threaten to corrupt, in their view, pure and traditional Islam. Just one example, men in Saudi-Arabia and Pakistan consume just as much internet porn as men in western countries. The one-sided flow of information, products, values, styles, content, icons from the hegemonic centre outwards and its impact on the culturally less potent periphery. This approximately is what theories of cultural imperialism have tried to define, describe, debate, criticise etc. over the past five decades. It very much is a term of post WWII, post-colonial world. If you throw in, arbitrarily with little or no connection in my opinion, racism and nazism you obfuscate the concept. Sure, many things can be called cultural imperialism, nazis burning books and destroying modern art for an example, or the Mongols forcing their cultural practices on conquered peoples 700 years ago, or the Soviets on Turkmens, Kazakhs, Chinese on the conquered Tibetans, but I don't think it's desirable. I would stick to the common and usual post-colonial usage of the term. 188.67.117.144 (talk) 17:11, 27 June 2015 (UTC)
 * A great deal of words, apparently setting out your personal opinions. Whether you want to stick to something or other doesn't change the fact that reliable sources have used the term to refer to earlier ages (see ) and the Nazis in particular. If there are reliable sources that say the term should only be used post-1960, then they could be included too. Are you the same person as 87.95.26.167 who did the first deletion? Myrvin (talk) 21:19, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Cultural imperialism. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20140908075201/http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/globcult.htm to http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/globcult.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 20:10, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 1 one external link on Cultural imperialism. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120105154619/http://www.maldura.unipd.it:80/dllags/docentianglo/materiali_oboe_lm/2581_001.pdf to http://www.maldura.unipd.it/dllags/docentianglo/materiali_oboe_lm/2581_001.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 10:20, 3 December 2016 (UTC)

Image
What would be a good image for this page? Benjamin (talk) 15:13, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

Why are all the examples Western?
Many other empires, countries, and cultures have engaged in cultural imperialism. China has done it to Tibet, the Ottomans did it in the Balkans, Japan did it to the Koreans, just to name a few. It seems like this article was written to demonize Western Civilization. Please be more balanced in describing a worldwide phenomenon. A few links in the bottom of the article mentioning, for example, sinicization, don't balance things out. -- 67.243.145.74 (talk) 09:14, 20 February 2023 (UTC)

 * Not to forget What Arabs did in North Africa and the rest of Africa and Arabization among other places they colonized 197.186.7.31 (talk) 17:51, 30 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Cultural imperialism


text:
Chemical reaction

A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. When chemical reactions occur, the atoms are rearranged and the reaction is accompanied by an energy change as new products are generated. Classically, chemical reactions encompass changes that only involve the positions of electrons in the forming and breaking of chemical bonds between atoms, with no change to the nuclei (no change to the elements present), and can often be described by a chemical equation. Nuclear chemistry is a sub-discipline of chemistry that involves the chemical reactions of unstable and radioactive elements where both electronic and nuclear changes can occur.

The substance (or substances) initially involved in a chemical reaction are called reactants or reagents. Chemical reactions are usually characterized by a chemical change, and they yield one or more products, which usually have properties different from the reactants. Reactions often consist of a sequence of individual sub-steps, the so-called elementary reactions, and the information on the precise course of action is part of the reaction mechanism. Chemical reactions are described with chemical equations, which symbolically present the starting materials, end products, and sometimes intermediate products and reaction conditions.

Chemical reactions happen at a characteristic reaction rate at a given temperature and chemical concentration. Some reactions produce heat and are called exothermic reactions, while others may require heat to enable the reaction to occur, which are called endothermic reactions. Typically, reaction rates increase with increasing temperature because there is more thermal energy available to reach the activation energy necessary for breaking bonds between atoms.

A reaction may be classified as redox in which oxidation and reduction occur or non-redox in which there is no oxidation and reduction occurring. Most simple redox reactions may be classified as a combination, decomposition, or single displacement reaction.

Different chemical reactions are used during chemical synthesis in order to obtain the desired product. In biochemistry, a consecutive series of chemical reactions (where the product of one reaction is the reactant of the next reaction) form metabolic pathways. These reactions are often catalyzed by protein enzymes. Enzymes increase the rates of biochemical reactions, so that metabolic syntheses and decompositions impossible under ordinary conditions can occur at the temperature and concentrations present within a cell.

The general concept of a chemical reaction has been extended to reactions between entities smaller than atoms, including nuclear reactions, radioactive decays and reactions between elementary particles, as described by quantum field theory.

History

Chemical reactions such as combustion in fire, fermentation and the reduction of ores to metals were known since antiquity. Initial theories of transformation of materials were developed by Greek philosophers, such as the Four-Element Theory of Empedocles stating that any substance is composed of the four basic elements – fire, water, air and earth. In the Middle Ages, chemical transformations were studied by alchemists. They attempted, in particular, to convert lead into gold, for which purpose they used reactions of lead and lead-copper alloys with sulfur.

The artificial production of chemical substances already was a central goal for medieval alchemists. Examples include the synthesis of ammonium chloride from organic substances as described in the works (c. 850–950) attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān, or the production of mineral acids such as sulfuric and nitric acids by later alchemists, starting from c. 1300. The production of mineral acids involved the heating of sulfate and nitrate minerals such as copper sulfate, alum and saltpeter. In the 17th century, Johann Rudolph Glauber produced hydrochloric acid and sodium sulfate by reacting sulfuric acid and sodium chloride. With the development of the lead chamber process in 1746 and the Leblanc process, allowing large-scale production of sulfuric acid and sodium carbonate, respectively, chemical reactions became implemented into the industry. Further optimization of sulfuric acid technology resulted in the contact process in the 1880s, and the Haber process was developed in 1909–1910 for ammonia synthesis.

From the 16th century, researchers including Jan Baptist van Helmont, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton tried to establish theories of experimentally observed chemical transformations. The phlogiston theory was proposed in 1667 by Johann Joachim Becher. It postulated the existence of a fire-like element called "phlogiston", which was contained within combustible bodies and released during combustion. This proved to be false in 1785 by Antoine Lavoisier who found the correct explanation of the combustion as a reaction with oxygen from the air.

Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac recognized in 1808 that gases always react in a certain relationship with each other. Based on this idea and the atomic theory of John Dalton, Joseph Proust had developed the law of definite proportions, which later resulted in the concepts of stoichiometry and chemical equations.

Regarding the organic chemistry, it was long believed that compounds obtained from living organisms were too complex to be obtained synthetically. According to the concept of vitalism, organic matter was endowed with a "vital force" and distinguished from inorganic materials. This separation was ended however by the synthesis of urea from inorganic precursors by Friedrich Wöhler in 1828. Other chemists who brought major contributions to organic chemistry include Alexander William Williamson with his synthesis of ethers and Christopher Kelk Ingold, who, among many discoveries, established the mechanisms of substitution reactions.

Characteristics
The general characteristics of chemical reactions are:
 * Evolution of a gas
 * Formation of a precipitate
 * Change in temperature
 * Change in state

Equations

Chemical equations are used to graphically illustrate chemical reactions. They consist of chemical or structural formulas of the reactants on the left and those of the products on the right. They are separated by an arrow (→) which indicates the direction and type of the reaction; the arrow is read as the word "yields". The tip of the arrow points in the direction in which the reaction proceeds. A double arrow pointing in opposite directions is used for equilibrium reactions. Equations should be balanced according to the stoichiometry, the number of atoms of each species should be the same on both sides of the equation. This is achieved by scaling the number of involved molecules (A, B, C and D in a schematic example below) by the appropriate integers a, b, c and d.

 * a A + b B -> c C + d D

More elaborate reactions are represented by reaction schemes, which in addition to starting materials and products show important intermediates or transition states. Also, some relatively minor additions to the reaction can be indicated above the reaction arrow; examples of such additions are water, heat, illumination, a catalyst, etc. Similarly, some minor products can be placed below the arrow, often with a minus sign.

Retrosynthetic analysis can be applied to design a complex synthesis reaction. Here the analysis starts from the products, for example by splitting selected chemical bonds, to arrive at plausible initial reagents. A special arrow (⇒) is used in retro reactions.

Elementary reactions
The elementary reaction is the smallest division into which a chemical reaction can be decomposed, it has no intermediate products. Most experimentally observed reactions are built up from many elementary reactions that occur in parallel or sequentially. The actual sequence of the individual elementary reactions is known as reaction mechanism. An elementary reaction involves a few molecules, usually one or two, because of the low probability for several molecules to meet at a certain time.

The most important elementary reactions are unimolecular and bimolecular reactions. Only one molecule is involved in a unimolecular reaction; it is transformed by isomerization or a dissociation into one or more other molecules. Such reactions require the addition of energy in the form of heat or light. A typical example of a unimolecular reaction is the cis–trans isomerization, in which the cis-form of a compound converts to the trans-form or vice versa.

In a typical dissociation reaction, a bond in a molecule splits (ruptures) resulting in two molecular fragments. The splitting can be homolytic or heterolytic. In the first case, the bond is divided so that each product retains an electron and becomes a neutral radical. In the second case, both electrons of the chemical bond remain with one of the products, resulting in charged ions. Dissociation plays an important role in triggering chain reactions, such as hydrogen–oxygen or polymerization reactions.

 * Dissociation of a molecule AB into fragments A and B
 * Dissociation of a molecule AB into fragments A and B

For bimolecular reactions, two molecules collide and react with each other. Their merger is called chemical synthesis or an addition reaction.

Another possibility is that only a portion of one molecule is transferred to the other molecule. This type of reaction occurs, for example, in redox and acid-base reactions. In redox reactions, the transferred particle is an electron, whereas in acid-base reactions it is a proton. This type of reaction is also called metathesis.

for example

Chemical equilibrium
Most chemical reactions are reversible; that is, they can and do run in both directions. The forward and reverse reactions are competing with each other and differ in reaction rates. These rates depend on the concentration and therefore change with the time of the reaction: the reverse rate gradually increases and becomes equal to the rate of the forward reaction, establishing the so-called chemical equilibrium. The time to reach equilibrium depends on parameters such as temperature, pressure, and the materials involved, and is determined by the minimum free energy. In equilibrium, the Gibbs free energy of reaction must be zero. The pressure dependence can be explained with the Le Chatelier's principle. For example, an increase in pressure due to decreasing volume causes the reaction to shift to the side with fewer moles of gas.

The reaction yield stabilizes at equilibrium but can be increased by removing the product from the reaction mixture or changed by increasing the temperature or pressure. A change in the concentrations of the reactants does not affect the equilibrium constant but does affect the equilibrium position.

Thermodynamics
Chemical reactions are determined by the laws of thermodynamics. Reactions can proceed by themselves if they are exergonic, that is if they release free energy. The associated free energy change of the reaction is composed of the changes of two different thermodynamic quantities, enthalpy and entropy:

 * $$\Delta G = \Delta H - T \cdot \Delta S$$.
 * $G$: free energy, $H$: enthalpy, $T$: temperature, $S$: entropy, $Δ$: difference (change between original and product)

Reactions can be exothermic, where ΔH is negative and energy is released. Typical examples of exothermic reactions are combustion, precipitation and crystallization, in which ordered solids are formed from disordered gaseous or liquid phases. In contrast, in endothermic reactions, heat is consumed from the environment. This can occur by increasing the entropy of the system, often through the formation of gaseous or dissolved reaction products, which have higher entropy. Since the entropy term in the free-energy change increases with temperature, many endothermic reactions preferably take place at high temperatures. On the contrary, many exothermic reactions such as crystallization occur preferably at lower temperatures. A change in temperature can sometimes reverse the sign of the enthalpy of a reaction, as for the carbon monoxide reduction of molybdenum dioxide:
 * $$\Delta H^o = +21.86 \ \text{kJ at 298 K}$$

This reaction to form carbon dioxide and molybdenum is endothermic at low temperatures, becoming less so with increasing temperature. ΔH° is zero at $1,855 K$, and the reaction becomes exothermic above that temperature.

Changes in temperature can also reverse the direction tendency of a reaction. For example, the water gas shift reaction

is favored by low temperatures, but its reverse is favored by high temperatures. The shift in reaction direction tendency occurs at $1,100 K$.

Reactions can also be characterized by their internal energy change, which takes into account changes in the entropy, volume and chemical potentials. The latter depends, among other things, on the activities of the involved substances.

 * $${d}U = T\cdot {d}S - p\cdot {d}V + \mu\cdot {d}n$$
 * $U$: internal energy, $S$: entropy, $p$: pressure, $μ$: chemical potential, $n$: number of molecules, $d$: small change sign

Kinetics
The speed at which reactions take place is studied by reaction kinetics. The rate depends on various parameters, such as:
 * Reactant concentrations, which usually make the reaction happen at a faster rate if raised through increased collisions per unit of time. Some reactions, however, have rates that are independent of reactant concentrations, due to a limited number of catalytic sites. These are called zero order reactions.
 * Surface area available for contact between the reactants, in particular solid ones in heterogeneous systems. Larger surface areas lead to higher reaction rates.
 * Pressure – increasing the pressure decreases the volume between molecules and therefore increases the frequency of collisions between the molecules.
 * Activation energy, which is defined as the amount of energy required to make the reaction start and carry on spontaneously. Higher activation energy implies that the reactants need more energy to start than a reaction with lower activation energy.
 * Temperature, which hastens reactions if raised, since higher temperature increases the energy of the molecules, creating more collisions per unit of time,
 * The presence or absence of a catalyst. Catalysts are substances that make weak bonds with reactants or intermediates and change the pathway (mechanism) of a reaction which in turn increases the speed of a reaction by lowering the activation energy needed for the reaction to take place. A catalyst is not destroyed or changed during a reaction, so it can be used again.
 * For some reactions, the presence of electromagnetic radiation, most notably ultraviolet light, is needed to promote the breaking of bonds to start the reaction. This is particularly true for reactions involving radicals.

Several theories allow calculating the reaction rates at the molecular level. This field is referred to as reaction dynamics. The rate v of a first-order reaction, which could be the disintegration of a substance A, is given by:

Its integration yields:

Here k is the first-order rate constant, having dimension 1/time, [A](t) is the concentration at a time t and [A]0 is the initial concentration. The rate of a first-order reaction depends only on the concentration and the properties of the involved substance, and the reaction itself can be described with a characteristic half-life. More than one time constant is needed when describing reactions of higher order. The temperature dependence of the rate constant usually follows the Arrhenius equation:

 * $$k = k_0 e^{{-E_a}/{k_{B}T}}$$

where Ea is the activation energy and kB is the Boltzmann constant. One of the simplest models of reaction rate is the collision theory. More realistic models are tailored to a specific problem and include the transition state theory, the calculation of the potential energy surface, the Marcus theory and the Rice–Ramsperger–Kassel–Marcus (RRKM) theory.

Synthesis
In a synthesis reaction, two or more simple substances combine to form a more complex substance. These reactions are in the general form:

Two or more reactants yielding one product is another way to identify a synthesis reaction. One example of a synthesis reaction is the combination of iron and sulfur to form iron(II) sulfide:

Another example is simple hydrogen gas combined with simple oxygen gas to produce a more complex substance, such as water.

Decomposition
A decomposition reaction is when a more complex substance breaks down into its more simple parts. It is thus the opposite of a synthesis reaction and can be written as

One example of a decomposition reaction is the electrolysis of water to make oxygen and hydrogen gas:

Single displacement
In a single displacement reaction, a single uncombined element replaces another in a compound; in other words, one element trades places with another element in a compound These reactions come in the general form of:

One example of a single displacement reaction is when magnesium replaces hydrogen in water to make solid magnesium hydroxide and hydrogen gas:

Double displacement
In a double displacement reaction, the anions and cations of two compounds switch places and form two entirely different compounds. These reactions are in the general form:

For example, when barium chloride (BaCl2) and magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) react, the SO42− anion switches places with the 2Cl− anion, giving the compounds BaSO4 and MgCl2.

Another example of a double displacement reaction is the reaction of lead(II) nitrate with potassium iodide to form lead(II) iodide and potassium nitrate:

Forward and backward reactions
According to Le Chatelier's Principle, reactions may proceed in the forward or reverse direction until they end or reach equilibrium.

Forward reactions
Reactions that proceed in the forward direction to approach equilibrium are often called spontaneous reactions, that is, $$\Delta G$$ is negative, which means that if they occur at constant temperature and pressure, they decrease the Gibbs free energy of the reaction. They do not require much energy to proceed in the forward direction. Most reactions are forward reactions. Examples:
 * Reaction of hydrogen and oxygen to form water.

 * Dissociation of acetic acid in water into acetate ions and hydronium ions.

Backward reactions
Reactions that proceed in the backward direction to approach equilibrium are often called non-spontaneous reactions, that is, $$\Delta G$$ is positive, which means that if they occur at constant temperature and pressure, they increase the Gibbs free energy of the reaction. They require input of energy to proceed in the forward direction. Examples include:
 * Charging a normal DC battery (consisting of electrolytic cells) from an external electrical power source
 * Photosynthesis driven by absorption of electromagnetic radiation usually in the form of sunlight

Combustion
In a combustion reaction, an element or compound reacts with an oxidant, usually oxygen, often producing energy in the form of heat or light. Combustion reactions frequently involve a hydrocarbon. For instance, the combustion of 1 mole (114 g) of octane in oxygen

releases 5500 kJ. A combustion reaction can also result from carbon, magnesium or sulfur reacting with oxygen.

Oxidation and reduction

Redox reactions can be understood in terms of the transfer of electrons from one involved species (reducing agent) to another (oxidizing agent). In this process, the former species is oxidized and the latter is reduced. Though sufficient for many purposes, these descriptions are not precisely correct. Oxidation is better defined as an increase in oxidation state of atoms and reduction as a decrease in oxidation state. In practice, the transfer of electrons will always change the oxidation state, but there are many reactions that are classed as "redox" even though no electron transfer occurs (such as those involving covalent bonds).

In the following redox reaction, hazardous sodium metal reacts with toxic chlorine gas to form the ionic compound sodium chloride, or common table salt:

In the reaction, sodium metal goes from an oxidation state of 0 (a pure element) to +1: in other words, the sodium lost one electron and is said to have been oxidized. On the other hand, the chlorine gas goes from an oxidation of 0 (also a pure element) to −1: the chlorine gains one electron and is said to have been reduced. Because the chlorine is the one reduced, it is considered the electron acceptor, or in other words, induces oxidation in the sodium – thus the chlorine gas is considered the oxidizing agent. Conversely, the sodium is oxidized or is the electron donor, and thus induces a reduction in the other species and is considered the reducing agent.

Which of the involved reactants would be a reducing or oxidizing agent can be predicted from the electronegativity of their elements. Elements with low electronegativities, such as most metals, easily donate electrons and oxidize – they are reducing agents. On the contrary, many oxides or ions with high oxidation numbers of their non-oxygen atoms, such as, , , , or , can gain one or two extra electrons and are strong oxidizing agents.

For some main-group elements the number of electrons donated or accepted in a redox reaction can be predicted from the electron configuration of the reactant element. Elements try to reach the low-energy noble gas configuration, and therefore alkali metals and halogens will donate and accept one electron, respectively. Noble gases themselves are chemically inactive.

The overall redox reaction can be balanced by combining the oxidation and reduction half-reactions multiplied by coefficients such that the number of electrons lost in the oxidation equals the number of electrons gained in the reduction.

An important class of redox reactions are the electrolytic electrochemical reactions, where electrons from the power supply at the negative electrode are used as the reducing agent and electron withdrawal at the positive electrode as the oxidizing agent. These reactions are particularly important for the production of chemical elements, such as chlorine or aluminium. The reverse process, in which electrons are released in redox reactions and chemical energy is converted to electrical energy, is possible and used in batteries.

Complexation
In complexation reactions, several ligands react with a metal atom to form a coordination complex. This is achieved by providing lone pairs of the ligand into empty orbitals of the metal atom and forming dipolar bonds. The ligands are Lewis bases, they can be both ions and neutral molecules, such as carbon monoxide, ammonia or water. The number of ligands that react with a central metal atom can be found using the 18-electron rule, saying that the valence shells of a transition metal will collectively accommodate 18 electrons, whereas the symmetry of the resulting complex can be predicted with the crystal field theory and ligand field theory. Complexation reactions also include ligand exchange, in which one or more ligands are replaced by another, and redox processes which change the oxidation state of the central metal atom.

Acid–base reactions
In the Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, an acid–base reaction involves a transfer of protons (H+) from one species (the acid) to another (the base). When a proton is removed from an acid, the resulting species is termed that acid's conjugate base. When the proton is accepted by a base, the resulting species is termed that base's conjugate acid. In other words, acids act as proton donors and bases act as proton acceptors according to the following equation:

The reverse reaction is possible, and thus the acid/base and conjugated base/acid are always in equilibrium. The equilibrium is determined by the acid and base dissociation constants (Ka and Kb) of the involved substances. A special case of the acid-base reaction is the neutralization where an acid and a base, taken at the exact same amounts, form a neutral salt.

Acid-base reactions can have different definitions depending on the acid-base concept employed. Some of the most common are:
 * Arrhenius definition: Acids dissociate in water releasing H3O+ ions; bases dissociate in water releasing OH− ions.
 * Brønsted–Lowry definition: Acids are proton (H+) donors, bases are proton acceptors; this includes the Arrhenius definition.
 * Lewis definition: Acids are electron-pair acceptors, and bases are electron-pair donors; this includes the Brønsted-Lowry definition.

Precipitation
Precipitation is the formation of a solid in a solution or inside another solid during a chemical reaction. It usually takes place when the concentration of dissolved ions exceeds the solubility limit and forms an insoluble salt. This process can be assisted by adding a precipitating agent or by the removal of the solvent. Rapid precipitation results in an amorphous or microcrystalline residue and a slow process can yield single crystals. The latter can also be obtained by recrystallization from microcrystalline salts.

Solid-state reactions
Reactions can take place between two solids. However, because of the relatively small diffusion rates in solids, the corresponding chemical reactions are very slow in comparison to liquid and gas phase reactions. They are accelerated by increasing the reaction temperature and finely dividing the reactant to increase the contacting surface area.

Reactions at the solid/gas interface
The reaction can take place at the solid|gas interface, surfaces at very low pressure such as ultra-high vacuum. Via scanning tunneling microscopy, it is possible to observe reactions at the solid|gas interface in real space, if the time scale of the reaction is in the correct range. Reactions at the solid|gas interface are in some cases related to catalysis.

Photochemical reactions
In photochemical reactions, atoms and molecules absorb energy (photons) of the illumination light and convert it into an excited state. They can then release this energy by breaking chemical bonds, thereby producing radicals. Photochemical reactions include hydrogen–oxygen reactions, radical polymerization, chain reactions and rearrangement reactions.

Many important processes involve photochemistry. The premier example is photosynthesis, in which most plants use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose, disposing of oxygen as a side-product. Humans rely on photochemistry for the formation of vitamin D, and vision is initiated by a photochemical reaction of rhodopsin. In fireflies, an enzyme in the abdomen catalyzes a reaction that results in bioluminescence. Many significant photochemical reactions, such as ozone formation, occur in the Earth atmosphere and constitute atmospheric chemistry.

Catalysis

In catalysis, the reaction does not proceed directly, but through a reaction with a third substance known as catalyst. Although the catalyst takes part in the reaction, forming weak bonds with reactants or intermediates, it is returned to its original state by the end of the reaction and so is not consumed. However, it can be inhibited, deactivated or destroyed by secondary processes. Catalysts can be used in a different phase (heterogeneous) or in the same phase (homogeneous) as the reactants. In heterogeneous catalysis, typical secondary processes include coking where the catalyst becomes covered by polymeric side products. Additionally, heterogeneous catalysts can dissolve into the solution in a solid-liquid system or evaporate in a solid–gas system. Catalysts can only speed up the reaction – chemicals that slow down the reaction are called inhibitors. Substances that increase the activity of catalysts are called promoters, and substances that deactivate catalysts are called catalytic poisons. With a catalyst, a reaction that is kinetically inhibited by high activation energy can take place in the circumvention of this activation energy.

Heterogeneous catalysts are usually solids, powdered in order to maximize their surface area. Of particular importance in heterogeneous catalysis are the platinum group metals and other transition metals, which are used in hydrogenations, catalytic reforming and in the synthesis of commodity chemicals such as nitric acid and ammonia. Acids are an example of a homogeneous catalyst, they increase the nucleophilicity of carbonyls, allowing a reaction that would not otherwise proceed with electrophiles. The advantage of homogeneous catalysts is the ease of mixing them with the reactants, but they may also be difficult to separate from the products. Therefore, heterogeneous catalysts are preferred in many industrial processes.

Reactions in organic chemistry
In organic chemistry, in addition to oxidation, reduction or acid-base reactions, a number of other reactions can take place which involves covalent bonds between carbon atoms or carbon and heteroatoms (such as oxygen, nitrogen, halogens, etc.). Many specific reactions in organic chemistry are name reactions designated after their discoverers.

One of the most industrially important reactions is the cracking of heavy hydrocarbons at oil refineries to create smaller, simpler molecules. This process is used to manufacture gasoline. Specific types of organic reactions may be grouped by their reaction mechanisms (particularly substitution, addition and elimination) or by the types of products they produce (for example, methylation, polymerisation and halogenation).

Substitution
In a substitution reaction, a functional group in a particular chemical compound is replaced by another group. These reactions can be distinguished by the type of substituting species into a nucleophilic, electrophilic or radical substitution.

In the first type, a nucleophile, an atom or molecule with an excess of electrons and thus a negative charge or partial charge, replaces another atom or part of the "substrate" molecule. The electron pair from the nucleophile attacks the substrate forming a new bond, while the leaving group departs with an electron pair. The nucleophile may be electrically neutral or negatively charged, whereas the substrate is typically neutral or positively charged. Examples of nucleophiles are hydroxide ion, alkoxides, amines and halides. This type of reaction is found mainly in aliphatic hydrocarbons, and rarely in aromatic hydrocarbon. The latter have high electron density and enter nucleophilic aromatic substitution only with very strong electron withdrawing groups. Nucleophilic substitution can take place by two different mechanisms, SN1 and SN2. In their names, S stands for substitution, N for nucleophilic, and the number represents the kinetic order of the reaction, unimolecular or bimolecular.

The SN1 reaction proceeds in two steps. First, the leaving group is eliminated creating a carbocation. This is followed by a rapid reaction with the nucleophile.

In the SN2 mechanisms, the nucleophile forms a transition state with the attacked molecule, and only then the leaving group is cleaved. These two mechanisms differ in the stereochemistry of the products. SN1 leads to the non-stereospecific addition and does not result in a chiral center, but rather in a set of geometric isomers (cis/trans). In contrast, a reversal (Walden inversion) of the previously existing stereochemistry is observed in the SN2 mechanism.

Electrophilic substitution is the counterpart of the nucleophilic substitution in that the attacking atom or molecule, an electrophile, has low electron density and thus a positive charge. Typical electrophiles are the carbon atom of carbonyl groups, carbocations or sulfur or nitronium cations. This reaction takes place almost exclusively in aromatic hydrocarbons, where it is called electrophilic aromatic substitution. The electrophile attack results in the so-called σ-complex, a transition state in which the aromatic system is abolished. Then, the leaving group, usually a proton, is split off and the aromaticity is restored. An alternative to aromatic substitution is electrophilic aliphatic substitution. It is similar to the nucleophilic aliphatic substitution and also has two major types, SE1 and SE2

In the third type of substitution reaction, radical substitution, the attacking particle is a radical. This process usually takes the form of a chain reaction, for example in the reaction of alkanes with halogens. In the first step, light or heat disintegrates the halogen-containing molecules producing radicals. Then the reaction proceeds as an avalanche until two radicals meet and recombine.
 * Reactions during the chain reaction of radical substitution
 * Reactions during the chain reaction of radical substitution
 * Reactions during the chain reaction of radical substitution

Addition and elimination
The addition and its counterpart, the elimination, are reactions that change the number of substituents on the carbon atom, and form or cleave multiple bonds. Double and triple bonds can be produced by eliminating a suitable leaving group. Similar to the nucleophilic substitution, there are several possible reaction mechanisms that are named after the respective reaction order. In the E1 mechanism, the leaving group is ejected first, forming a carbocation. The next step, the formation of the double bond, takes place with the elimination of a proton (deprotonation). The leaving order is reversed in the E1cb mechanism, that is the proton is split off first. This mechanism requires the participation of a base. Because of the similar conditions, both reactions in the E1 or E1cb elimination always compete with the SN1 substitution.

The E2 mechanism also requires a base, but there the attack of the base and the elimination of the leaving group proceed simultaneously and produce no ionic intermediate. In contrast to the E1 eliminations, different stereochemical configurations are possible for the reaction product in the E2 mechanism, because the attack of the base preferentially occurs in the anti-position with respect to the leaving group. Because of the similar conditions and reagents, the E2 elimination is always in competition with the SN2-substitution.

The counterpart of elimination is an addition where double or triple bonds are converted into single bonds. Similar to substitution reactions, there are several types of additions distinguished by the type of the attacking particle. For example, in the electrophilic addition of hydrogen bromide, an electrophile (proton) attacks the double bond forming a carbocation, which then reacts with the nucleophile (bromine). The carbocation can be formed on either side of the double bond depending on the groups attached to its ends, and the preferred configuration can be predicted with the Markovnikov's rule. This rule states that "In the heterolytic addition of a polar molecule to an alkene or alkyne, the more electronegative (nucleophilic) atom (or part) of the polar molecule becomes attached to the carbon atom bearing the smaller number of hydrogen atoms."

If the addition of a functional group takes place at the less substituted carbon atom of the double bond, then the electrophilic substitution with acids is not possible. In this case, one has to use the hydroboration–oxidation reaction, wherein the first step, the boron atom acts as electrophile and adds to the less substituted carbon atom. In the second step, the nucleophilic hydroperoxide or halogen anion attacks the boron atom.

While the addition to the electron-rich alkenes and alkynes is mainly electrophilic, the nucleophilic addition plays an important role in the carbon-heteroatom multiple bonds, and especially its most important representative, the carbonyl group. This process is often associated with elimination so that after the reaction the carbonyl group is present again. It is, therefore, called an addition-elimination reaction and may occur in carboxylic acid derivatives such as chlorides, esters or anhydrides. This reaction is often catalyzed by acids or bases, where the acids increase the electrophilicity of the carbonyl group by binding to the oxygen atom, whereas the bases enhance the nucleophilicity of the attacking nucleophile.

Nucleophilic addition of a carbanion or another nucleophile to the double bond of an alpha, beta-unsaturated carbonyl compound can proceed via the Michael reaction, which belongs to the larger class of conjugate additions. This is one of the most useful methods for the mild formation of C–C bonds.

Some additions which can not be executed with nucleophiles and electrophiles can be succeeded with free radicals. As with the free-radical substitution, the radical addition proceeds as a chain reaction, and such reactions are the basis of the free-radical polymerization.

Other organic reaction mechanisms

In a rearrangement reaction, the carbon skeleton of a molecule is rearranged to give a structural isomer of the original molecule. These include hydride shift reactions such as the Wagner-Meerwein rearrangement, where a hydrogen, alkyl or aryl group migrates from one carbon to a neighboring carbon. Most rearrangements are associated with the breaking and formation of new carbon-carbon bonds. Other examples are sigmatropic reaction such as the Cope rearrangement.

Cyclic rearrangements include cycloadditions and, more generally, pericyclic reactions, wherein two or more double bond-containing molecules form a cyclic molecule. An important example of cycloaddition reaction is the Diels–Alder reaction (the so-called [4+2] cycloaddition) between a conjugated diene and a substituted alkene to form a substituted cyclohexene system.

Whether a certain cycloaddition would proceed depends on the electronic orbitals of the participating species, as only orbitals with the same sign of wave function will overlap and interact constructively to form new bonds. Cycloaddition is usually assisted by light or heat. These perturbations result in a different arrangement of electrons in the excited state of the involved molecules and therefore in different effects. For example, the [4+2] Diels-Alder reactions can be assisted by heat whereas the [2+2] cycloaddition is selectively induced by light. Because of the orbital character, the potential for developing stereoisomeric products upon cycloaddition is limited, as described by the Woodward–Hoffmann rules.

Biochemical reactions
Biochemical reactions are mainly controlled by complex proteins called enzymes, which are usually specialized to catalyze only a single, specific reaction. The reaction takes place in the active site, a small part of the enzyme which is usually found in a cleft or pocket lined by amino acid residues, and the rest of the enzyme is used mainly for stabilization. The catalytic action of enzymes relies on several mechanisms including the molecular shape ("induced fit"), bond strain, proximity and orientation of molecules relative to the enzyme, proton donation or withdrawal (acid/base catalysis), electrostatic interactions and many others.

The biochemical reactions that occur in living organisms are collectively known as metabolism. Among the most important of its mechanisms is the anabolism, in which different DNA and enzyme-controlled processes result in the production of large molecules such as proteins and carbohydrates from smaller units. Bioenergetics studies the sources of energy for such reactions. Important energy sources are glucose and oxygen, which can be produced by plants via photosynthesis or assimilated from food and air, respectively. All organisms use this energy to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which can then be used to energize other reactions. Decomposition of organic material by fungi, bacteria and other micro-organisms is also within the scope of biochemistry.

Applications
Chemical reactions are central to chemical engineering, where they are used for the synthesis of new compounds from natural raw materials such as petroleum, mineral ores, and oxygen in air. It is essential to make the reaction as efficient as possible, maximizing the yield and minimizing the number of reagents, energy inputs and waste. Catalysts are especially helpful for reducing the energy required for the reaction and increasing its reaction rate.

Some specific reactions have their niche applications. For example, the thermite reaction is used to generate light and heat in pyrotechnics and welding. Although it is less controllable than the more conventional oxy-fuel welding, arc welding and flash welding, it requires much less equipment and is still used to mend rails, especially in remote areas.

Monitoring
Mechanisms of monitoring chemical reactions depend strongly on the reaction rate. Relatively slow processes can be analyzed in situ for the concentrations and identities of the individual ingredients. Important tools of real-time analysis are the measurement of pH and analysis of optical absorption (color) and emission spectra. A less accessible but rather efficient method is the introduction of a radioactive isotope into the reaction and monitoring how it changes over time and where it moves to; this method is often used to analyze the redistribution of substances in the human body. Faster reactions are usually studied with ultrafast laser spectroscopy where utilization of femtosecond lasers allows short-lived transition states to be monitored at a time scaled down to a few femtoseconds.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Chemical reaction


text:
Charleston

Charleston most commonly refers to:

 * Charleston, South Carolina, the largest city in the state.
 * Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital and largest city.
 * Charleston (dance)

Charleston may also refer to:

Australia

 * Charleston, South Australia

Canada

 * Charleston, Newfoundland and Labrador
 * Charleston, Nova Scotia

New Zealand

 * Charleston, New Zealand

United Kingdom

 * Charleston Farmhouse, Sussex, artists' house open to the public
 * Charleston, Angus, near Dundee, Scotland
 * Charleston, Dundee, Scotland
 * Charleston, Paisley, Scotland

United States

 * Charleston, Arizona
 * Charleston, Arkansas
 * Charleston, Illinois
 * Charleston, Iowa
 * Charleston, Kansas
 * Charleston, Kentucky
 * Charleston, Maine
 * Charleston, Mississippi
 * Charleston, Missouri
 * Charleston, Nevada
 * Charleston, New Jersey
 * Charleston, New York
 * Charleston, Staten Island, in New York City, New York
 * Charleston, North Carolina
 * Charleston, Oklahoma
 * Charleston, Oregon
 * Charleston, Tennessee
 * Charleston, Utah
 * Charleston, Vermont
 * Charleston County, South Carolina
 * Charleston Township, Coles County, Illinois
 * Charleston Township, Kalamazoo County, Michigan
 * Charleston Township, Tioga County, Pennsylvania
 * Mount Charleston, Nevada, Clark County, a town
 * Mount Charleston, Nevada, a mountain
 * North Charleston, South Carolina
 * South Charleston, Ohio
 * South Charleston, West Virginia
 * West Charleston, Ohio

Naval history

 * USS Charleston, several US Navy ships
 * Charleston, later Texan schooner Zavala

Railway stations

 * Charleston station (West Virginia), US
 * North Charleston station, South Carolina, US

Education

 * Charleston Collegiate School, South Carolina
 * Charleston High School (disambiguation)
 * College of Charleston, in South Carolina
 * Charleston Cougars, the school's athletic program
 * University of Charleston, West Virginia
 * Charleston Golden Eagles, the school's athletic program
 * Charleston Academy, Inverness, Scotland

Music

 * "Charleston" (1923 song)
 * "Charleston", a song by Brendan James
 * Charleston (Den Harrow song)
 * "Charleston", a song by Sons of Bill
 * "Charleston", a track on the 1979 Mike Oldfield album Platinum

Other uses

 * Charleston (name)
 * Charleston (novel),by John Jakes, 2002
 * Charleston, a 1981 novel by Alexandra Ripley
 * Charleston (1974 film), Italy
 * Charleston (1977 film), Italy
 * Charleston Open, a tennis tournament, Charleston, South Carolina
 * Charleston, a procedure in mahjong
 * Charleston, a model of the Citroën 2CV car
 * Charleston, restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland

title: Charleston


text:
Talk:Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping Wastes and Other Matter

Surely there must be something other at "marine dumping" than a redirection here? When did it start? What was its causes? Who did it? Has it stopped due to the cenvention in this article? What consequences has it had? --Anders Törlind

See talk:Convention on Biological Diversity for an answer. --Pinkunicorn


text:
Talk:Convention on Biological Diversity

Article evaluation for Evaluate Wikipedia Exercise
This article is missing a thorough explanation of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets that the Convention focuses on in its work. The Targets are only mentioned briefly in this article and it would be extremely beneficial to list them explicitly and describe them in detail. As well, an explanation of what projects or initiatives being done within the Convention to address each of these targets poses relevant. Antonia.macris (talk) 23:31, 12 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Aichi Biodiversity Targets are now included in the Nagoya Convention article, and I have created redirects there. They could do with more fleshing out, but at least it's a start. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 08:47, 17 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Later... Changed my mind, after further reading. They do belong in this article. I've restructured the whole article and made them a bit more prominent, and they could be the subject of a new article if someone feels so inclined, but I don't have time at the moment. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 11:36, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

(Notice to new editors here: it's great that you're contributing to this article. But please note two things: 1) New posts go at the bottom of each talk page, and please sign every post using four keyboard tildes like this:. This adds your username and a datestamp to every post and helps us work out who said what, and when. Thanks Nick Moyes (talk) 12:40, 17 September 2020 (UTC) )

 * Hi . I'm not new, and I know that. I only commented up here as an on-topic response to the comment above (and signed both of my comments) - although I think that editor is not active any more anyway. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 13:08, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

Sharing the benefits of biodiversity with developing nations
Your article simply ignores the discussion on biopiracy and the fact that the Convention calls for the sharing of the results of research and development of products that derive from communities that bare the traditional knowledge of the use of this biodiversity. Pharmaceutic companies are supposed to pay for the use of indigenous knowledge, an area in which developed nations fail to meet their commitments with the Convention. These commitments are made clear in articles 15 and 19 of the Convention:

Article 15. Access to Genetic Resources

1. Recognizing the sovereign rights of States over their natural resources, the authority to determine access to genetic resources rests with the national governments and is subject to national legislation. (...)

7. Each Contracting Party shall take legislative, administrative or policy measures, as appropriate, and in accordance with Articles 16 and 19 and, where necessary, through the financial mechanism established by Articles 20 and 21 with the aim of sharing in a fair and equitable way the results of research and development and the benefits arising from the commercial and other utilization of genetic resources with the Contracting Party providing such resources. Such sharing shall be upon mutually agreed terms.

Article 19. Handling of Biotechnology and Distribution of its Benefits

1. Each Contracting Party shall take legislative, administrative or policy measures, as appropriate, to provide for the effective participation in biotechnological research activities by those Contracting Parties, especially developing countries, which provide the genetic resources for such research, and where feasible in such Contracting Parties.

-- André Bueno — Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.140.128.234 (talk • contribs) 11 May 2007 (UTC)

List of Parties
The actual list of Parties needs to be updated. The official list is available on the at http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=UNTSONLINE&tabid=2&mtdsg_no=XXVII-8&chapter=27&lang=en. (Written by 69.90.183.226 previously, unsigned)
 * I removed Andorra and Somalia (and for the time being Iraq) from the list of parties, as per both http://www.cbd.int/convention/parties/list/ and the source you posted. According to the page's edit history, someone added those because of a CIA factbook link. Can we get that source linked, and which source should be trusted? I would assume treaties.un.org would be the first source to go to in this case. That one mostly agrees with my cbd.int link, but the dates differ a little, probably because they measure slightly different things, like one lists dates of ratification and one when they turn into effect or something. Lejman (talk) 21:30, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Wonderful page. I was hoping Wiki would have information showing that Canada missed its 2020 targets - but there does not appear to be a progress report. If someone wants to add that, here are three links. In the first, the government of Canada tells you where to find the targets - and in the 2nd link, we see the targets expressed - and an explanation that we promised to conserve at least 17% of terrestrial areas & inland waters. The third link shows that by the end of 2019, we're only at 12.1%. The 2nd link is clear in stating "Canada is making progress but at an insufficient rate to achieve the 17% terrestrial target . . ." SabaBPC (talk) 15:11, 22 January 2021 (UTC)

https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/corporate/international-affairs/partnerships-organizations/biological-diversity-convention.html

https://biodivcanada.chm-cbd.net/canada-target-1

https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/conserved-areas.html

Redirect
Again a strange redirect. What is the definition of biodiversity/biological diversity? What threatens it? Who or what benefits from it? Are all theese redirect pages stubs for something more ambitious? --Anders Törlind

The redirect is there because of the abbreviation listed on the page of the agreement. If someone wants to write about "biodiversity", the redirect should of course be changed to a link on the page. I did it that way from the start on Whaling. The same goes for Marine Dumping. Note that if someone wants to write about that as a concept, they should use Marine dumping. The reason I want the redirects in the first place is that the CIA World Factbook uses them on its country pages, and I make them links when I get there. Using the long names there would be a pain. --Pinkunicorn

Awlrighty! I figured there was something going on there :-) Too bad i can only supply the questions on the subjects...Oh, well, one can't know everything.I think. --Anders Törlind

Nagoya Protocol
When the press release is removed, what is remaining in Nagoya Protocol should probably be merged here. Unless some details not in the press release are provided, it's just an adjunct to the Convention. — Arthur Rubin (talk) 10:56, 23 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Close request; Nagoya Protocol was deleted as a copyright violation. — Arthur Rubin  (talk) 02:58, 25 March 2011 (UTC)
 * A new wp article might be created and be allowed to maintain if it doesn't plagiarize.  99.181.155.158 (talk) 04:41, 22 April 2011 (UTC)
 * It still should likely be a section of this article, but we can discuss that when/if it's created, either as a separate article, or as a section here. — Arthur Rubin  (talk) 08:21, 22 April 2011 (UTC)
 * What are the interlinkages between convention on biodiversity and Food And Agricultural Organization(FAO) Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture?I could find just that the Nagoya protocol that is a part of CBD does not cover resources covered by the FAO treaty on Plant Genetic Resources Kartikay021 (talk) 03:18, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 4 one external links on Convention on Biological Diversity. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20160201212158/https://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/docs/nbc/NPark-booklet-final-4sep.pdf to http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/docs/nbc/NPark-booklet-final-4sep.pdf
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20160202103052/https://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=122&Itemid=124 to http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=122&Itemid=124
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20160201060015/http://www.millenniumassessment.org/proxy/document.354.aspx to http://www.millenniumassessment.org/proxy/document.354.aspx
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20160202103052/https://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=122&Itemid=124 to http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=122&Itemid=124

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 08:24, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

Meeting of the Parties
Brief information about the steps forward of each meeting would be useful rather than only an indication about when they took place. Rrobotto (talk) 13:53, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Convention on Biological Diversity. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141006120510/http://www.liveto.com/cop12/floor/index.html to http://www.liveto.com/cop12/floor/index.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 18:17, 12 August 2017 (UTC)

International bodies established
I just did a small copy-edit of this section. However, I am really wondering whether the write-up on the outcomes of SBSTTA-13 as well as the name of the current Chair of that body are really necessary. This is not consistent with the narrative on the other CBD bodies. But then, I didn't want to just go ahead and take it out without getting some consensus.

One thing that could be done would be to actually have tables— one listing the Chairs (and their tenure) and another the outcomes of all SBSTTA meetings. – BroVic (talk) 09:12, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
 * - a belated response, and I think that by the time I got here it has changed a bit, but I agree about trying to keep current Chair here. Similarly "most recent meetings" and suchlike, IMO, unless in an article which is very actively and continually edited. These kinds of things are apt to be forgotten and get stale - better to refer to the website. I've just removed references to two recent meetings and left a more general description, and added a citation. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 04:02, 18 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Thank you! — BroVic (talk) 06:53, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

Suggestions for improvement
Myself and a colleagues looked at this article as part of this project. Here are suggestions for improvement (which we currently don't have time to implement ourselves):
 * The article doesn't refer to marine, fisheries, whaling or anything specific to oceans or coasts (but it should).
 * The UN is currently negotiating a new global treaty to managed marine biodiversity under the Law of the Sea. https://www.un.org/bbnj/ . So maybe we should refer this article to the one dealing with marine biodiversity naming this new treaty. There is nothing on Wikipedia that I could find dealing with this new treaty, It should be part of Law of the Sea or a separate new article.
 * The article doesn't refer to specific biomes or ecotopes - just refers to biodiversity. We could add a link to an article on marine biodiversity eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_life   but also the new marine biodiversity treaty under the LoS. A new section on this in the LoS article and even a new article dealing with this new treaty.  (added reference to the CBD technical note mapping the linkages between Agenda 2030 (all 17 SDGs) and the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets.) EMsmile (talk) 10:19, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

Convention on biodiversity conservation
Convention on biodiversity conservation 2402:3A80:1E1C:13C9:C897:C1EF:11F0:6442 (talk) 16:21, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

 * The name of the convention is "Convention on Biological Diversity" https://www.cbd.int/convention/ ASRASR (talk) 14:36, 19 November 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Convention on Biological Diversity


text:
Casiquiare canal

The Casiquiare river is a distributary of the upper Orinoco flowing southward into the Rio Negro, in Venezuela, South America. As such, it forms a unique natural canal between the Orinoco and Amazon river systems. It is the world's largest river of the kind that links two major river systems, a so-called bifurcation. The area forms a water divide, more dramatically at regional flood stage.

Etymology
The name Casiquiare, first used in that form by Manuel Román, likely derives from the Ye'kuana language name of the river, Kashishiwadi.

Discovery
The first European to describe it was Spanish Jesuit missionary and explorer Cristóbal Diatristán de Acuña in 1639.

In 1744 a Jesuit priest named Manuel Román, while ascending the Orinoco River in the region of La Esmeralda, met some Portuguese slave-traders from the settlements on the Rio Negro. The Portuguese insisted they were not in Spanish territory but on a tributary of the Amazon; they invited Román back with them to prove their claim. He accompanied them on their return, by way of the Casiquiare canal, and afterwards retraced his route to the Orinoco. Along the way, he made first contact with the Ye'kuana people, whom he enlisted to help in his journey. Charles Marie de La Condamine, seven months later, was able to give to the Académie française an account of Father Román's voyage, and thus confirm the existence of this waterway, first reported by Father Acuña in 1639.

Little credence was given to Román's statement until it was verified, in 1756, by the Spanish Boundary-line Commission of José Yturriaga and Solano. In 1800 German scientist Alexander von Humboldt and French botanist Aimé Bonpland explored the river. During a 1924–25 expedition, Alexander H. Rice Jr. of Harvard University traveled up the Orinoco, traversed the Casiquiare canal, and descended the Rio Negro to the Amazon at Manaus. It was the first expedition to use aerial photography and shortwave radio for mapping of the region. In 1968 the Casiquiare was navigated by an SRN6 hovercraft during a National Geographic expedition.

Geography
The origin of the Casiquiare, at the River Orinoco, is 9 mi below the mission of La Esmeralda at 3.13847°N, -65.87847°W, and about 123 m above sea level. Its mouth at the Rio Negro, an affluent of the Amazon River, is near the town of San Carlos and is 91 m above sea level.

The general course is south-west, and its length, including windings, is about 200 mi. Its width, at its bifurcation with the Orinoco, is approximately 300 ft, with a current towards the Rio Negro of 0.75 mph. However, as it gains in volume from the very numerous tributary streams, large and small, that it receives en route, its velocity increases, and in the wet season reaches 5 mph, even 8 mph in certain stretches. It broadens considerably as it approaches its mouth, where it is about 1750 ft wide. The volume of water the Casiquiare captures from the Orinoco is small in comparison to what it accumulates in its course. Nevertheless, the geological processes are ongoing, and evidence points to a slow and gradual increase in the size of Casiquiare. It is likely that stream capture is in progress, i.e. what currently is the uppermost Orinoco basin, including Cunucunuma River, eventually will be entirely diverted by the Casiquiare into the Amazon basin.

In flood time, it is said to have a second connection with the Rio Negro by a branch, which it throws off to the westward, called the Itinivini, which leaves it at a point about 50 mi above its mouth. In the dry season, it has shallows, and is obstructed by sandbanks, a few rapids and granite rocks. Its shores are densely wooded, and the soil more fertile than that along the Rio Negro. The general slope of the plains through which the canal runs is south-west, but those of the Rio Negro slope south-east.

The Casiquiare is not a sluggish canal on a flat tableland, but a great, rapid river which, if its upper waters had not found contact with the Orinoco, perhaps by cutting back, would belong entirely to the Negro branch of the Amazon.

To the west of the Casiquiare, there is a much shorter and easier portage between the Orinoco and Amazon basins, called the isthmus of Pimichin, which is reached by ascending the Temi branch of the Atabapo River, an affluent of the Orinoco. Although the Temi is somewhat obstructed, it is believed that it could easily be made navigable for small craft. The isthmus is 10 mi across, with undulating ground, nowhere over 50 ft high, with swamps and marshes. In the early 20th century, it was much used for the transit of large canoes, which were hauled across it from the Temi River and reached the Rio Negro by a little stream called the Pimichin.

Hydrographic divide
The Casiquiare canal – Orinoco River hydrographic divide is a representation of the hydrographic water divide that delineates the separation between the Orinoco Basin and the Amazon Basin. (The Orinoco Basin flows west–north–northeast into the Caribbean; the Amazon Basin flows east into the western Atlantic in the extreme northeast of Brazil.)

Essentially the river divide is a west-flowing, upriver section of Venezuela's Orinoco River with an outflow to the south into the Amazon Basin. This named outflow is the Casiquiare canal, which, as it heads downstream (southerly), picks up speed and also accumulates water volume.

The greatest manifestation of the divide is during floods. During flood stage, the Casiquiare's main outflow point into the Rio Negro is supplemented by an overflow that is a second, and more minor, entry river bifurcation into the Rio Negro and upstream from its major, common low-water entry confluence with the Rio Negro. At flood, the river becomes an area flow source, far more than a narrow confined river.

The Casiquiare canal connects the upper Orinoco, 9 mi below the mission of Esmeraldas, with the Rio Negro affluent of the Amazon River near the town of San Carlos.

The simplest description (besides the entire area-floodplain) of the water divide is a "south-bank Orinoco River strip" at the exit point of the Orinoco, also the origin of the Casiquiare canal. However, during the Orinoco's flood stage, that single, simply defined "origin of the canal" is turned into a region, and an entire strip along the southern bank of the Orinoco River.

title: Casiquiare canal


text:
Talk:Colossus computer

Colossus priority comments
A question about priority for Colossus in certain respects has been discussed at Talk:Bletchley Park. I include this pointer for its relevance to this article. ww 14:28, 22 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * I placed the following comment there: I reproduce it here as it's much more germane here:

 * A later note. After reviewing Colossus material in great detail (to far more depth than we have in our article), I would not describe Colossus as "programmable", at least in anything like the sense we now think of the word.
 * For one, there was no program, in the sense of an algorithm, with transfers of control, especially conditional transfers. The commonly-reported line about Colossus having some conditional testing is true only in a very limited sense; at the end of each pass of the tape loop, it could compare the contents of counters with pre-set values (in switches), and would print or not print the totals in the counters if they exceeded the preset values.
 * All Colossus could do, really, was read paper tape, perform certain plug-selected binary operations on one or more of the bits of each frame read from the tape (usually only 2 channels out of 5 were looked at), and depending on the output of that binary function, increment counters. That's all. It was really incredibly specialized to the job of doing statistical analyses on the key/cipher stream of the Tunny cipher.
 * The novelty of Colossus lies in the technology, more than the architecture: it was certainly the first large-scale electronic digital device, and thereby had a great influence on post-WWII computer development in the UK (since many of the leading lights in that field, such as Newman and Turing, were intimately associated with Colossus). Noel (talk) 04:11, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * You massively understate the significance of Colossus. Chris Shore, Director, Endpoint AI Ecosystem, Arm (as of 2022) in a talk he gave at the Centre for Computing History, points out that Colossus was significant to computing in a number of ways, that you seem not to be aware of. It was the first to use shift registers. A single clock was used to synchronize the entire machine; it used massively parallel processing; it used interrupts to prevent printer overload; it had a paper tape reader (up to 10k cps); it used systolic arrays, which were only independently 'discovered' in 1973; it had a clock speed of 5kHz; it could simultaneously carry out 100 boolean operations on each bit in the input stream, representing 2.5 MBops. (See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2tMcMQqSbA at 41:46). The whole talk is very interesting.Earnulf Gery (talk) 13:18, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

Mark I and Mark II
One of our "to-do" items is to describe the difference between Mk I and Mk II. Here are the results of some work I've done on this topic. The General Report on Tunny says (pp. 329) that:

 * "Colossus 2 possessed from the first, quintuple testing, a generous switch panel (including not-not), a versatile plug-panel, spanning, a double bedstead, and a greatly increased simplicity of operation."

and

 * "The chief modifications introduced later were the rectangling gadgets, devices to reduce the effect of doubtful cipher letters, and devices to make wheel-breaking easier."

A few words about these:

 * "quintuple testing" - This refers to the 5-deep shift register through which past values of the (electronically simulated) rotors were passed, so that each character read from the tape could be tested against 5 characters of the key-stream at once, speeding up runs by a factor of 5. ("Colossus remembers characters of the wheel opposite places on the tape 1,2,3,4, back; in particular characters of Psi' {the Psi wheels after the variable stepping control - JNC} not of Psi . ... Thus when Colossus is examining a particular place on Z {the cipher-text - JNC}, it has available for comparison: (i) on the multiply tested wheel, the present character and the characters 1,2,3,4, back. ... (ii) on Z, and on all other wheels, only the present character." - General Report on Tunny, pp. 345) This feature had associated controls as well - "undesignated keys are used in multiple testing wherein five successive positions are tested at once and the wheel-patterns stepped five notches each time; in such cases these keys must be thrown down and other plugging done on the jack control board to provide for five positions stepping" (Special Fish Report, pp. 111).

 * "not-not" - This refers, I believe, the the provision of two levels of negation in the boolean logical network which produced pulse outputs to the counters, to allow "OR" logical testing as well as "AND". The Special Fish Report says (pp. 111) that it was possible to count (i.e. test for) conditions such as "((character EQUALS value1) OR (character EQUALS value2)" by use of the logical expression "NOT ((character NOT EQUALS value1) AND (character NOT EQUALS value2)".

 * "a versatile plug-panel"
 * I believe this refers, in part, to the ability to set the Chi wheel patterns at a panel on the front of Colossus. In the Mark I, these patterns had to be set using jumpers on a panel in the back of the machine, which was particularly inconvenient when the Colossus was used for "wheel-breaking"; the Mark II included a much more convenient panel on the front for setting wheel patterns. One of these patterns was hard wired to have a single 1 bit, and the rest all 0, for use in "rectangling" (a particular cryptanalytic technique used in "wheel-breaking"). ("On wheel-breaking Colossi there is the inestimable boon of a panel on the front of the machine, carrying an ordinary Chi trigger and a special pattern Chi trigger: in place of U-shaped pins, easily inserted plugs are used: they are so much easier that they are often used for setting. Each of the 5 Chi wheels has its ordinary and special patterns adjacent and each is controlled by a 3-way switch whose positions are: down - ordinary and special patterns in; normal - all out; up - single cross in the last position of the ordinary pattern." - General Report on Tunny'', pp. 335)
 * There were other pluggable operations available as well, some of which were duplicated by switches (e.g. the logical operations, and selection of counters, in the point above) - "Colossus has a jack board for plugs, to be used in controlling it; and also a key board. The key board may be used instead of the plugs for most runs and is more convenient, or in conjunction with the plugs." (Special Fish Report Page, pp. 108). However, without detailed operation manuals for the Mark I and Mark II Colossi (which probably never existed), I doubt it will ever be possible to say for sure.

 * "spanning" - "permit the selection of a stretch or span of tape for study, eliminating all before and after the counting" (Special Fish Report Page, pp. 108); i.e. for a given tape, the counters would only be enable for specified stretches of the tape. This was used when parts were known to be garbled, or (even worse) had characters missing (which would have thrown the key-stream and encrypted data out of synch). It was apparently also used for cases in which the stepping of the Psi wheels depended on the data ("introduced originally for P5 limitation" - General Report on Tunny, pp. 329).

 * "a double bedstead" - "positions for two tapes, but only one runs at once" (Special Fish Report Page, pp. 108); i.e. two paper tape transports, so that the operator could be mounting a tape on one, while the other was doing a run.

 * "a greatly increased simplicity of operation" - I don't know whether there were additional features that were being thought of here, or just the combined effects of all of the above.

 * "rectangling gadgets" - These are explained in the General Report on Tunny, on pp. 349-351, but they are so arcane (and deeply linked to the fine details of the cryptanalytic techniques used to break wheels) that I don't really fully understand them. Suffice it to say that they make minor changes in how counts are computed and printed.

 * "devices to reduce the effect of doubtful cipher letters" - This refers to the "not-99" feature, described in the General Report on Tunny on pp. 343-344: "used to inhibit counting at doubtful letters of cipher replaced by Z {ciphertext - JNC} = 9. Such 9's rarely occur singly. Genuine 9's usually do occur singly. It is therefore only imposed at a 9 adjacent to another 9".

 * "devices to make wheel-breaking easier." Not sure what this is (other than the rectangling stuff); it might refer to the ability to set the Chi wheel patterns from the front of the machine (referred to above). I'll look into this some more in a bit.

Anyway, this is probably way too much detail to put into the article; in particular, some of it is really specific to the arcane details of breaking Fish, and is simply not suitable for the article. Hopefully we can draw on this to see what we do want to put in, though.

Do we just want to describe it as "improvements to increase the speed and ease of use"? Noel (talk) 02:04, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * Nice research! I'll try and add some comments when I'm less tired, but I think this is once instance of a general question: we're going to have to work out how much "Colossus arcana" is appropriate for this article, what belongs in spin-off articles, and what can be left in the literature. Hmm...sleep needed...;-) — Matt Crypto 18:17, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

An early computer
"The Colossus machines were early computing devices". I'd say they were more than just computing devices, and were computers even if not Turing-complete.

Turing confusion
It is an important and common mistake to attribute Colossus to Turing and think that it was for aiding decryption of Enigma messages. I agree that it does not sit easily in the lead, but if not there, where? I am going to revert the edit until we have a consensus.--TedColes (talk) 17:12, 5 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Perhaps the very last sentence of the lede might be the appropriate place to clear up a misconception. Or maybe before the reconstruction mention:
 * Definition/description
 * Design credit
 * Usage and legacy
 * Misconception
 * Reconstruction
 * Something like that. --jpgordon𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇 17:21, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

On this day proposal
I am considering submitting the following as a suggestion as an entry for the Selected anniversaries the Main Page for 5 February.

On 5 February 1944 – Colossus the world’s first large-scale programmable digital electronic computer became operational at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park.

The supporting reference is

TedColes (talk) 17:47, 7 January 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Colossus computer