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Pohnpei

Pohnpei (formerly known as Ponape or Ascension, from Pohnpeian: "upon (pohn) a stone altar (pei)") is an island of the Senyavin Islands which are part of the larger Caroline Islands group. It belongs to Pohnpei State, one of the four states in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Major population centers on Pohnpei include Palikir, the FSM's capital, and Kolonia, the capital of Pohnpei State. Pohnpei is the largest island in the FSM, with an area of 334 km2, and a highest point of 782 m, the most populous with 36,832 people, and the most developed single island in the FSM.

Pohnpei is home to the megaliths and ruined city of Nan Madol, built of artificial islands off the island's eastern shore beginning in the 8th or 9th century. An important archaeological site, it was declared a national historic site in 1985.

Pohnpei contains a wealth of biodiversity. It is one of the wettest places on Earth with annual recorded rainfall exceeding 300 in each year in certain mountainous locations. It is home to the ka tree (Terminalia carolinensis) found only in Pohnpei and Kosrae.

Name
The name Pohnpei comes from the Pohnpeian language, literally meaning "upon a stone altar". It derives from a Proto-Chuukic-Pohnpeic phrase *fawo ni pei of the same meaning. Cognates in other Micronesian languages include Mokilese Pohnpei and Chuukese Fóónupi.

Geography

The highest point of the island is Mount Nanlaud at 772 or 782 metres. Pohnpei is home to several dozen bird species including four endemic species, the Pohnpei lorikeet, the Pohnpei fantail, the Pohnpei flycatcher and the long-billed white-eye. A fifth endemic, the Pohnpei starling, is thought to have recently gone extinct.

The only land reptiles are a few species of lizard. Originally the only mammals were bats. Pigs, rats and dogs were introduced; pigs have become feral. The lagoons are rich in fish, molluscs, turtles and other marine fauna.

Climate
Pohnpei belongs to the tropical rainforest climate zone (Köppen: Af). It is one of the wettest places on Earth with an average annual recorded rainfall of 4775 mm in towns along the coast and about 300 in each year in certain mountainous locations.

History
The natives of Pohnpei, especially the 'older' generations, often refer to events in their past as having occurred, e.g., in "German times" or "before the Spaniards," which identifies the historical periods:

Pre-colonial history
The earliest settlers were probably Lapita culture people from the Southeast Solomon Islands or the Vanuatu archipelago. Pre-colonial history is divided into three eras: Mwehin Kawa or Mwehin Aramas (Period of Building, or Period of Peopling, before c. 1100); Mwehin Sau Deleur (Period of the Lord of Deleur, c. 1100 to c. 1628); and Mwehin Nahnmwarki (Period of the Nahnmwarki, c. 1628 to c. 1885). Pohnpeian legend recounts that the Saudeleur rulers, the first to bring government to Pohnpei, were of foreign origin. The Saudeleur centralized form of absolute rule is characterized in Pohnpeian legend as becoming increasingly oppressive over several generations. Arbitrary and onerous demands, as well as a reputation for offending Pohnpeian deities, sowed resentment among Pohnpeians. The Saudeleur Dynasty ended with the invasion of Isokelekel, another semi-mythical foreigner, who replaced the Saudeleur rule with the more decentralized nahnmwarki system in existence today.

Pohnpeian historic society was highly structured into five tribes, various clans and sub-clans; each tribe headed by two principal chiefs. The tribes were organized on a feudal basis. In theory, "all land belonged to the chiefs, who received regular tribute and whose rule was absolute." Punishments administered by chiefs included death and banishment. Tribal wars included looting, destruction of houses and canoes and killing of prisoners. Pre-Spanish population estimates are deemed unreliable.

Earliest European contacts
Pohnpei's first European visitor was Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra on 14 September 1529 shortly before his death, when trying to find the way back to New Spain. He charted it as San Bartolomé and called this one and the surrounding islands as Los Pintados (literally, "the painted ones" in Spanish) because the natives were frequently tattooed. It was later visited by the navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, commanding the Spanish ship San Jeronimo. on 23 December 1595; his description is brief, he made no attempt to land.

19th-century visitors
There is good documentation about Australian sailor John Henry Rowe, who arrived in his barque John Bull on 10 September 1825, though he did not land as his vessel was chased off by native canoes. The first lengthy description of the island and its inhabitants is presented by the Russian explorer Fyodor Litke, whose ship Senyavin gave the island group of Pohnpei, Ant and Pakin its name. From 14 to 19 January 1828, his boats attempted to land but could not due to the hostility shown by the islanders, but natives then came aboard his ship, "some trading occurred, a short vocabulary was compiled, and a map made." F.H. von Kittlitz, a member of the Litke expedition made a further descriptive account, including the offshore ruins of Nan Madol, and the two reports together provided the first real knowledge of Pohnpei. It is not clear who the next visitors were; however, when Capt. J.H. Eagleston of the barque Peru sighted the island on 3 January 1832, it was already on his charts as "Ascension Island." Riesenberg writes that it is uncertain who first called it Ascension Island, but the name became established until the Spanish period.

Miscreants and missionaries
From this time onward, whaling and trading vessels came in increasing numbers. Very soon a "large colony of beachcombers, escaped convicts, and ship's deserters became established ashore," identified as "chiefly bad characters," according to the log of the Swedish frigate Eugenie. The first missionary to arrive was Father Louis Désiré Maigret, a Roman Catholic priest. He had sailed from Honolulu on the schooner Notre Dame de Paix and began his efforts in December 1837, but he departed on 29 July 1838 for Valparaíso after seven unsuccessful months. In his company were "several Mangarevans and Tahitians," some of whom remained on Pohnpei and left descendants. Ten years later Maigret returned to the Hawaiian kingdom as Bishop of Honolulu. A group of Protestant missionaries from New England established themselves permanently on Pohnpei in 1852. Their letters and journals contain a wealth of information about the island and are preserved at Harvard University.

A drastic population decline occurred after 1854, due to a smallpox epidemic.

During the American Civil War, to counteract the United States blockade of their ports, Confederate States Navy ships hunted Yankee merchant shipping. On 1 April 1865, the CSS Shenandoah surprised four United States whalers at Ascension Island (Pohnpei) and destroyed them all. The local king, Nananierikie, was delighted to receive much of the spoils from this action.

Spanish rule
By 1886 the Spaniards claimed the Caroline Islands which were part of the Manila-based Spanish East Indies and began to exert political authority. They founded the city Santiago de la Ascensión in what today is Kolonia (from Spanish colonia or colony). The Spanish built several government buildings, a fort, a church and a school. Spanish Capuchin friars were also sent from Manila to Pohnpei to preach the Catholic faith. After the 1898 Spanish–American War, the German Empire purchased the Caroline island group from Spain in 1899 together with the Marianas (except Guam) and four years later the Marshall Islands for 17 million goldmark.

German rule and land reform
During the German administration a fundamental change in land ownership was implemented on Pohnpei and throughout the Carolines. Beginning in 1907, the feudal system, in which all land is held in fief, was gradually replaced with the issuance of individual deeds to land. The chief's economic advantages were thus reduced, and only force of tradition granted a first harvest tribute to chiefs.

With land holding, taxes came due and new owners, in lieu of payment, were obliged to work 15 days per year on public projects, such as wharf construction, road building, etc. One such work for taxes engagement sparked the Sokehs Rebellion. It began as an insubordination event during road construction on Sokehs Island, then escalated into the murder of nine people, the subsequent apprehension and trial of 36 Sokehs rebels, the execution of 15 insurgents, and banishment for others to Babelthuap in the German Palau Islands.

The German census of 1911–12 shows 3,190 Pohnpeians, 585 Central Carolinians and 279 Melanesians. Many of the outer islands were resettled (mainly on Sokehs Island) as a consequence of destructive typhoons in their home islands.

A special census conducted in late 1947 shows a total population of 5,628, of which 4,451 were Pohnpeians, and 1,177 were natives of other Pacific islands. By 1963, the population had grown to nearly 10,000.

Japanese rule
With the Treaty of Versailles, Japan as mandatory power assumed control of all German colonial possessions north of the equator, having occupied Pohnpei along with the rest of the Carolines, the Marshalls, the Marianas (except for American-owned Guam) and Kiautschou Bay during World War I. In subsequent years and during World War II the Japanese garrison strength was composed of about 2,000 men of the IJN under Captain Jun Naito and 5,984 IJA men under Lieutenant General Masao Watanabe. However, Pohnpei was bypassed by the United States Navy during the island-hopping amphibious campaigns of 1943–1945.

The island was shelled on several occasions, including by the battleships USS Massachusetts, USS Alabama, and USS Iowa (BB-61), as well as air attacks launched from USS Cowpens. After the war, Japanese nationals were repatriated to Japan by the US Navy.

United States administration, under United Nations oversight
The Federated States of Micronesia achieved independence in 1986 after being administered by the United States under UN auspices since 1947 as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

Demographics
The population of the state in 2010 was approximately 36,196. While the majority of the population consider themselves ethnic Pohnpeians, Pohnpei is more ethnically diverse than any other island in the FSM. This is largely due to more than a century of foreign colonial occupation, bringing in Spanish, German, Japanese, Chamorro, Filipino, US, Australian, other western Europeans, and it being home to the capital of the national government, which employs hundreds of people from the other three FSM States (Yap, Chuuk, Kosrae) having distinct ethnic and cultural origins. The indigenous makeup also includes the multiple regional ethnicities of the outer islands within Pohnpei State, resulting in a mix of Australasian Pacific Islanders and hence making Pohnpei Island the FSM's melting pot.

Languages

The Pohnpeian language (formerly called "Ponapean") and its dialects are the indigenous languages of Pohnpei. The Federated States of Micronesia government also uses Pohnpeian as a regional language. English and Spanish are spoken in the island.

Administrative divisions

The municipalities on the island of Pohnpei are:
 * Kitti, southwest. Includes Ant Atoll
 * Kolonia, north
 * Madolenihmw, east
 * Nett (main island, north/center, formerly including state capital Kolonia on the north coast)
 * Sokehs, northwest. Also includes Pakin Atoll and Palikir, the national capital
 * U, northeast

Transportation

Pohnpei International Airport (IATA code PNI) is located near Kolonia, on a small island named Deketik off the northern coast of the main island.

Sport
The FSM is part of the international Olympic movement, originally the work of James Tobin, who now sits on the IOC Executive Board, sending teams to the summer games beginning in 2000 with the Sydney games and continuing every four years to the present with athletes participating in track and field, swimming and weightlifting. The most notable Pohnpeian athlete is marathon runner Elias Rodriguez who ran for the FSM at the Sydney Olympics. Rodriguez finished last in the marathon but was cheered on by tens of thousands of spectators and watched by millions of television viewers as he entered the Olympic stadium for a final lap immediately prior to the closing ceremony which was delayed to allow his finish.

Pohnpei's state football team were coached by the world's youngest national football coach, the Englishman Paul Watson, who led the team on a tour of nearby Guam, winning one match against a local team. The annual Micronesian Futsal Cup has been established on the island, also the work of Watson.

Pohnpei in fiction
Pohnpei (as Ponape) plays a role in several stories of the Cthulhu Mythos by H. P. Lovecraft and others. Its role in "Out of the Aeons", by Lovecraft and Hazel Heald, was inspired by the ruins of Nan Madol (see above), which had already been used as the setting for a lost race story by Abraham Merritt, The Moon Pool, in which the islands are called Nan-Matal.

Pohnpei is a central location in South Sea Adventure (1952), the second of Willard Price's Young Adult Adventure Series books featuring Hal and Roger Hunt.

Pohnpei, or "Ponape" as it is spelled, is stated as the home island of "Mike" on the popular blog Dunce Upon A Time, authored by BC Woods.

Education
Pohnpei State Department of Education operates public schools.

Public high schools:
 * Nanpei Memorial High School a.k.a. Kitti High School
 * Madolenihmw High School
 * Pohnpei Island Central School (former Pacific Island Central School) in Nett

Private schools: Pohnpei Catholic School
 * Calvary Christian Academy in Kolonia
 * Ohwa Christian High School in Madolenihmw
 * Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School in Kolonia
 * Seventh Day Adventist High School in Nett

Post Secondary Education: Lidorkini Museum was located in Kolonia, until its closure in 2012.
 * College of Micronesia-FSM, which has a state campus in each of the four states with its national campus in the capital city of Palikir. The COM-FSM system also includes the Fisheries and Maritime Institute (FMI) on the Yap islands.

Notable residents

 * Debra Daniel – Olympic swimmer
 * Iris Falcam – Librarian and former First Lady of Micronesia
 * Leo Falcam – Former President of Micronesia
 * Kerson Hadley – Olympic swimmer
 * Emelihter Kihleng – Poet
 * Bailey Olter – Former President of Micronesia
 * Elias Rodriguez – Olympic marathon runner
 * Mihter Wendolin – Olympic sprinter

title: Pohnpei


text:
Ponape

Ponape may refer to:
 * Pohnpei, an island in the Federated States of Micronesia
 * Ponape (barque), a German sailing ship

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

title: Ponape


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Białystok

Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area.

Białystok is located in the Białystok Uplands of the Podlachian Plain on the banks of the Biała River, 200 km (124 mi) northeast of Warsaw. It has historically attracted migrants from elsewhere in Poland and beyond, particularly from Central and Eastern Europe. This is facilitated by the nearby border with Belarus also being the eastern border of the European Union, as well as the Schengen Area. The city and its adjacent municipalities constitute Metropolitan Białystok. The city has a warm summer continental climate, characterized by warm summers and long frosty winters. Forests are an important part of Białystok's character and occupy around 1846 ha (18% of the administrative area of the city) which places it as the fifth-most forested city in Poland.

The first settlers arrived in the 14th century. The town grew and received its municipal charter in 1692. Białystok has traditionally been one of the leading centers of academic, cultural, and artistic life in Podlachia, and the most important economic center in northeastern Poland. Białystok was once an important center for light industry, which was the reason for the substantial growth of the city's population. The city continues to reshape itself into a modern middle-sized city. Białystok, in 2010, was on the short-list, but ultimately lost the competition, to become a finalist for European Capital of Culture in 2016.

Etymology
Although nowadays "stok" is translated as "slope", the initial name of the settlement came from the river flowing through it. In old Polish, biały stok was white river (biały - white, stok - stream; river that "slides" down the slope). So inconspicuous today, the Biała River (usually called Białka), flowing through the city center, gave it its name.

Due to changing borders and demographics over the centuries, the city has been known as Беласток (Byelastok?, Biełastok? ), ביאַליסטאָק (Byalistok, Bjalistok), Balstogė, and Белосток (Belostok, Byelostok).

History

Archaeological discoveries show that the first settlements in the area of present-day Białystok occurred during the Stone Age. Tombs of ancient settlers can be found in the district of Dojlidy. In the early Iron Age, people settled in the area producing kurgans, the tombs of the chiefs in the area located in the current village of Rostołty. Since then, the Białystok area has been at the crossroads of cultures. Trade routes linking the Baltic to the Black Sea favored the development of settlements with Yotvingia-Ruthenian-Polish cultural characteristics.

The city of Białystok has existed for five centuries and during this time the fate of the city has been affected by various political and economic forces.

Surviving documents attest that around 1437 a representative of the Raczków family, Jakub Tabutowicz of the coat of arms Łabędź, received from Michael Žygimantaitis, son of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund Kęstutaitis, a wilderness area along the river Biała that marked the beginning of Białystok as a settlement. Thereafter, Białystok was part of Lithuania for 132 years until the Union of Lublin in 1569, when it was given to Poland but remained very close to its border with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until the last partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795. Białystok was administratively part of the Podlaskie Voivodeship, after 1569 also part of the Lesser Poland Province of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland.

From 1547, the settlement was owned by the Wiesiołowski family, which founded the first school. The first brick church and a castle were built between 1617 and 1826. The two-floor castle, designed on a rectangular plan in the Gothic-Renaissance style, was the work of Job Bretfus. Extension of the castle was continued by Krzysztof Wiesiołowski, starost of Tykocin, Grand Marshal of Lithuania since 1635, and husband of Aleksandra Marianna Sobieska. In 1637 he died childless, and as a result, Białystok came under the management of his widow. After her death in 1645 the Wiesiołowski estate, including Białystok, passed to the Crown to cover the costs of maintaining Tykocin Castle. In the years 1645–1659 Białystok was managed by the starosts of Tykocin. In 1661 it was given to Stefan Czarniecki as a reward for his service in the victory over the Swedes during the Deluge. Four years later, it was given as a dowry of his daughter Aleksandra, who married Marshal of the Crown Court Jan Klemens Branicki, thus passing into the hands of the Branicki family. In 1692, Stefan Mikołaj Branicki, the son of Jan Klemens Branicki, obtained city rights for Białystok from King John III Sobieski. He constructed the Branicki Palace on the foundations of the castle of the Wiesiołowski family. In the first half of the eighteenth century the ownership of the city was inherited by Field Crown Hetman Jan Klemens Branicki. It was he who transformed the palace built by his father into a magnificent residence of a great noble, which was frequently visited by Polish kings and poets. In 1745 the first military technical school in Poland was founded in Białystok, and in 1748, one of the oldest theaters in Poland, the Komedialnia, was founded in the city. New schools were established, including a ballet school in connection with the foundation of the theater. In 1749, King Augustus III of Poland extended the city limits. In 1770, under the auspices of Izabella Poniatowska, a midwifery school was founded, based on which the Institute of Obstetrics was established in 1805.

The end of the eighteenth century saw the division of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in three partitions, among Poland's neighboring states. The Kingdom of Prussia subjugated Białystok and the surrounding region during the third partition. The city became the capital of the New East Prussia province in 1795. Napoleon Bonaparte's victory in the War of the Fourth Coalition freed the territory but as a result in the Treaties of Tilsit in 1807 the area was transferred to the Russian Empire, which organized the region into the Belostok Oblast, with the city as the regional center. Schooling and higher learning in Białystok, which was intensively developed in the 18th century, was stopped as a result of partitions. Białystok received city rights the latest from all of Podlasie's cities, but at the end of the 19th century it outgrown all the surrounding cities. The rapid development in the 19th century is related to two historical events: the creation of a customs border between the Russian Empire and the Congress Kingdom of Poland, and the opening in 1862 of the Warsaw Saint Petersburg railway line, connecting Białystok with Warsaw, Grodno, Vilnius and Saint Petersburg. Very convenient communication conditions influenced the development and concentration of Białystok's production plants at that time. Along with the administrative function, Białystok received many economic institutions. In the second half of the 19th century, Białystok grew into a significant center of the textile industry, the largest after Łódź in then-partitioned Poland. Białystok was the largest industrial center between Warsaw and Łódź in the west, Saint Petersburg in the north and Moscow in the east, and was nicknamed "Manchester of the North". After the failed November and January uprisings, Russification policies and anti-Polish repressions intensified, and after 1870 a ban on the use of Polish in public places was introduced. In 1912, a Tsarist prison was built, which also served as a transit prison for Poles deported to Siberia.

At the end of the nineteenth century, as a result of the influx due to Russian discriminatory regulations, the majority of the city's population was Jewish. According to Russian census of 1897, out of the total population of 66,000, Jews constituted 41,900 (so around 63% percent). This heritage can be seen on the Jewish Heritage Trail in Białystok. The Białystok pogrom occurred between 14 and 16 June 1906 in the city. During the pogrom between 81 and 88 Jews were killed by the Russians, and about 80 people were wounded.

The first anarchist groups to attract a significant following of Russian workers or peasants were the anarcho-communist Chernoe-Znamia groups, founded in Białystok in 1903.

During World War I the Bialystok-Grodno District was the administrative division of German-controlled territory of Ober-Ost. It comprised the city, as the capital, and the surrounding Podlaskie region, roughly corresponding to the territory of the earlier Belostok Oblast. At the end of World War I the city became part of the newly independent Second Polish Republic, as the capital of the Białystok Voivodeship (1919–1939). During the 1919–1920 Polish–Soviet War, possession of the city by the Red Army and the Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee occurred during the lead up to the Battle of Warsaw. During the resultant counteroffensive, the city returned to Polish control after the Battle of Białystok.

After the wars and the reestablishment of independent Poland, Polish education in Białystok was restored and the textile industry was revived. A municipal public library was established, sports clubs were founded, including Jagiellonia Białystok, and in the 1930s a drama theater was built.

With the beginning of World War II, Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Initially Białystok was briefly occupied by Germany, and the German Einsatzgruppe IV entered the city on September 20–21, 1939 to commit crimes against the population. Afterwards, the Germans handed the city over to the Soviet Union, as a result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Under Soviet occupation, it was incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR from 1939 to 1941 as the capital of Belastok Region. Polish people were subject to deportations deep into the USSR (Siberia, Kazakhstan, Far North). Pre-war mayor Seweryn Nowakowski was arrested by the NKVD in October 1939 and probably also deported to the USSR, however his fate remains unknown. The NKVD took over the local prison. The Polish resistance movement was active in the city, which was the seat of one of the six main commands of the Union of Armed Struggle in occupied Poland (alongside Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Toruń and Lwów). Białystok native and future President of Poland in exile Ryszard Kaczorowski was a member of the local Polish resistance and was arrested in the city by the NKVD in 1940. Initially the Soviets sentenced him to death, but eventually he was sentenced to 10 years in forced labor camps and deported to Kolyma, from where he was released in 1942, when he joined the Anders' Army.

In the course of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Białystok was occupied by the German Army on 27 June 1941, during the Battle of Białystok–Minsk, and the city became the capital of Bezirk Białystok, a separate region in German occupied Poland, until 1944. The Great Synagogue was burnt down by Germans on June 27, 1941, with an estimated number of 2,000 Jews inside. From the very beginning, the Nazis pursued a ruthless policy of pillage and removal of the non-German population. The Germans operated a Nazi prison in the city, and a forced labour camp for Jewish men. Since 1943, the Sicherheitspolizei carried out deportations of Poles including teenage boys from the local prison to the Stutthof concentration camp. The 56,000 Jewish residents of the town were confined in a ghetto. On August 15, 1943, the Białystok Ghetto Uprising began, and several hundred Polish Jews and members of the Anti-Fascist Military Organisation (Antyfaszystowska Organizacja Bojowa) started an armed struggle against the German troops who were carrying out the planned liquidation of the ghetto with deportations to the Treblinka extermination camp. Ultimately the ghetto was liquidated, and the vast majority of its remainind 40,000 occupants including men, woman and children, were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, primarily at the Treblinka death camp.

The city fell under the control of the Red Army on 27 July 1944. The Soviets carried out mass arrests of Polish resistance members in the city and region, and imprisoned them in Białystok. On 20 September 1944 the city was transferred back to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s, and the Soviet NKVD and SMERSH continued the persecution of the Polish resistance in the following months. From November 1944 to January 1945, the Russians deported nearly 5,000 Poles from the local prison to the Soviet Union. Later on, the Soviet-appointed communists held political prisoners and other members of the Polish resistance in the local prison, and until 1956, they also carried out burials of executed Polish resistance members there.

After the war, the city became capital of the initial Białystok Voivodeship (1945–1975) of the People's Republic of Poland. After the 1975 administrative reorganization, the city was the capital of the smaller Białystok Voivodeship (1975–1998). Since 1999 it has been the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship, Republic of Poland.

Geography
Białystok is situated in the Białystok Uplands (Wysoczyzna Białostocka) of the Podlaskie Plain (Nizina Północnopodlaska), part of what is known collectively as the Green Lungs of Poland. It is situated 197 km by road northeast of Warsaw. It is the biggest Polish city close to Belarus and Lithuania. The Biała River, a left tributary of the Supraśl River, passes through the city. The landscape of the Białystok Upland is diverse, with high moraine hills and kame in excess of 200 m above sea level. Vast areas of outwash, a glacial plain formed of sediments deposited by meltwater at the terminus of a glacier, are covered by forests.

The highest point of the city lies at a height of 175 m on the Pietrasze Forest. The lowest point lies at a height of 118 m on the river valley of the Biała. A characteristic element of the relief of the city area are clear depressions in the surface of the moraine plateau, which are used by the rivers Biała, Horodnianka, and Czaplinianka.

Forests are an important part of the city character, they currently occupy approximately 1846 ha (18% of the administrative area of the city) which places it as the fifth most "wooded" city in Poland; behind Katowice (38%), Bydgoszcz (30%), Toruń (22.9%) and Gdańsk (17.6%).

There are a total of 9 parks in the city (on municipal plots), of which 5 are historic parks with a total area of about 59.06 ha, entered into the municipal register of monuments, and 4 are city parks with an area of about 21.68 ha.

Part of Knyszyn Forest is preserved within the city limits by two nature reserves—a total area of 105 ha. The Zwierzyniecki Forest Nature Reserve (Rezerwat przyrody Las Zwierzyniecki), which is contained within the city limits, is a fragment, 33.48 ha, of the riparian forest with a dominant assemblage of oak and hornbeam. The Antoniuk Nature Reserve (Rezerwat Przyrody Antoniuk) is a 70.07 ha park in the city that preserves the natural state of a forest fragment characteristic of the Białystok Upland, with a dominant mixed forest of hazel and spruce.

The 40 ha of forests lying in the vicinity of the Dojlidy Ponds are administered by the Białystok Central Sports and Recreation Center(Białostocki Ośrodek Sportu i Rekreacji – BOSiR). The Dojlidy Ponds recreation area includes a public beach, walking trails, birdwatching and fishing.

Climate
The city has a warm-summer humid continental or hemiboreal climate (Dfb) according to the Köppen climate classification system under the 0 °C isotherm for the average temperature of the coldest month, or an oceanic climate (Cfb) if the -3 °C isotherm is used. The city would have been classified as being in the Dfb zone regardless of the accepted isotherm for climatological normals as recent as 1981–2010, but as a consequence of climate change, the winters have warmed up so that the climate in the city may be classified as oceanic. Białystok is one of the coldest cities in Poland by annual temperature and one with the climate having the most continental characteristics, as is the case for much of north-eastern Poland, with the mean yearly temperature of 7.7 °C and the length of the growing season amounting to 205 days, shorter than elsewhere in Poland.

While winters are rather mild compared to other cities on the similar latitude, such as Samara, Barnaul, or Edmonton, they are colder than in Western Europe (in cities like Bremen and Dublin). Winters usually have little sunshine, with weather patterns changing from those influenced by the low-pressure systems generated by the Icelandic Low (when the weather is often cloudy, cool, damp, rainy and/or snowy) to the occasional intrusions of cold air masses from Siberia or the Arctic (Siberian High), which, due to the city's northeasterly location, are more frequent than in other parts of Poland. Winters thus tend to be several degrees colder than elsewhere in Poland. Freezing conditions below -20 °C are possible in winter but are rare. Snow cover is present on the ground for more than half of winter. Summers tend to be warm, sunny and pleasant and are occasionally hot, but they are still a little cooler than in most of Poland. More rain falls in summer months than in any other period of the year.

The centre of Białystok, as most urban areas, experiences the urban heat island effect, therefore for most of the time, the city is warmer than the surrounding countryside. The temperatures in the city centre are, on average, 2.3 C-change higher than in the surrounding villages, with greater differences at night and during the warmer half of the year, particularly in spring.

Urban layout
Białystok is roughly circular, centered around the Central market square and Branicki Palace. Originally, the city's territory was about 50 hectares. Originally, Białystok was located at the intersection of two local roads and had two most important monuments: a church (with the current brick church from 1626) with an accompanying market square and a Gothic castle owned by the noble Wiesiołowski family, the former owners of the town. The current layout of the market square is the result of an urban design carried out by two members of the noble Branicki family, Stefan Mikołaj and his son Jan Klemens. The project which was aimed at rebuilding the layout of the city was initiated by Stefan Mikołaj Branicki at the end of the 17th and early 18th centuries. He established a new market (Nowy Rynek) (part of the western side of Kosciuszki Square with the town hall, located on the western side of Sienkiewicza Street). The route leading towards Suraż was moved to a new location (today's Suraska Street) forming straight road section ending in the southern corner of the market square and creating a new viewing corridor. This design decision made it possible to erect new buildings so that the old part of the settlement and the Jewish quarter were no longer visible. The second viewing corridor was created by shifting the existing route leading towards Choroszcz to the northern corner of the market square.

The communication system serving the entire city was made of streets radiating out from the central market square. An inventory plan made by Becker in 1799 was needed by the Prussian authorities in connection with the negotiations on the acquisition of Białystok for a royal residence. The plan is of fundamental importance as it shows the development of the city in the first period of its creation. The area of the city did not exceed 1.5 km2, and the population was approx. 3.5 thousand. The entire urban area was closed with 6 loose-fitting gates and buildings situated on regular plots. Compact buildings were found only in the market square, the frontages of which were 1- 2-storey buildings with brick front elevations. Choroska and Zamkowa Streets were built up with only brick houses. The city was dominated by the palace complex, which, together with the park, covered an area equal to the city's investment areas. The residence palace was designed on a European scale and created new development opportunities for Białystok.

After the First World War, the first attempts were made to organize the city, which had so far developed without plans - between the palace grounds and arable land. At the request of the Association of Polish Cities, in the years 1938-1939 a general urban concept of the city was created by Ignacy Tłoczek. The plan called for the creation of new communication routes, relieve the center, demolish the Chanajki district, create a housing estate and connect with it the unique green areas around the city with new tree plantings. The Second World War prevented the comprehensive implementation of this plan. As a result of war damage, many buildings partially or completely destroyed, especially at the city center. The reconstruction of the town began with the restoration of the activity of textile factories. It was conditioned by the desire to improve the economic situation of the city as quickly as possible.

The average height of buildings in the city is not high. The center is dominated by buildings not exceeding 25 meters in height, and the outskirts of the city are mainly occupied by low-rise single-family houses. Taller buildings dominate in two residential districts. They are the districts of Piasta (located to the south of the city center) and the Dziesięciny estate (located to the northwest of the city center). Dominants in Białystok are located mainly in the center and they are also there located two most important city icons: the Church of St. Roch and the Parish Church, which are on one axis. Each of the districts also has its dominant, which is usually a church or an Orthodox church. The most important space in the city is Kościuszko Square - the main square in the shape of a triangle. The space is delimited by two axes, one is part of the axis connecting the two largest churches, and the other runs towards the west of the Center district along Suraska Street and ends at Młynowa Street. An important spatial arrangement in Białystok is the Branicki Palace complex. The baroque layout of the palace complex is symmetrically shaped according to one compositional axis with a coherent garden layout.

Throughout the years it expanded to include nearby villages: In the mid-eighteenth century Bojary which was located on the right bank of the Biala River was incorporated to it. On May 10, 1919, in accordance with the decision of the Sejm, Bialostoczek, Horodniany, Zwierzyniec-Letnisko, Starosielce, Słoboda (which was founded at the end of the 17th century, between the current Pogodna and Świerkowa Streets), Ogrodniki, Pieczurki, Wysoki Stoczek were incorporated also, as well as two mill villages Marczuk and Antoniuk. By the onset of World War II the city's territory amounted to 40 km2. The reconstruction of the city following the end of World War II and establishment of the People's Republic of Poland saw further expansion: the villages Bacieczki, Bacieczki Kolonia, Korycin and part of the village Klepacze, Krupniki, Fasty, Zaścianki and Zawady were incorporated into the city. The 70s saw another wave of expansion with the villages of Bagnówka, area of Zakłady Silikatowe, areas of state forests, Dojlidy ponds and the orthodox cemetery at Dojlidy. At the onset of the millennium, in 2002, the village Zawady was included in the city's limits and at the last enlargement, in 2006, the villages Dojlidy Górne, Zagórki and Kolonia Halickie were incorporated and the city reached its current territory of 102 km2.

Districts

The city of Białystok is divided into 29 administrative units, known in Polish as osiedla. The first 27 of these were created on October 25, 2004. The 28th, Dojlidy Górne, was created by on October 23, 2006, out of three settlements which had been incorporated into the city: Dojlidy Górne, Kolonia Halickie, and Zagórki. A new district called Bagnówka was created at the beginning of 2021.

The center of the city, Osiedle Centrum, surrounds Lipowa Street, the main street of the city. Lipowa Street extends from Rynek Kościuszki (the corner of Spółdzielcza Street) to Plac Niepodległości im. Romana Dmowskiego (the corner of Krakowska Street). Over the centuries the name of this street has taken on a number of different names; Choroska, Nowolipie, Lipowa, Józef Piłsudski, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, once again, to return, after the end of World War II, to its original name – Lipowa Street. The city covers 10213 ha of which 3210 ha is agricultural land, 4889 ha is urbanized areas, 85 ha is surface waters and 65 ha is wasteland. The composition of the districts vary from residential near the city center, with a combination of multi-story apartment buildings and individual houses on small parcels, to industrial and agricultural at the city edges.

Metropolitan Białystok
Metropolitan Białystok was designated by the Voivodeship of the Regulation No. 52/05 of 16 May 2005 to help develop the region economically. In 2006, the metropolitan area population was 450,254 inhabitants. The municipalities adjacent to Białystok are slowly losing their agricultural character, becoming residential suburban neighborhoods with single-family housing and small businesses.

Demographics
In June 2020, the population of the city was 296,958. Among the cities of Poland, Białystok is second in terms of population density, tenth in population, and thirteenth in area. Historically, Białystok has been a destination for internal and foreign immigration, especially from Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to the Polish minority, there was formerly a Jewish majority in Białystok. The Jewish share in the population of Białystok grew from 22.4% (761) in 1765 to 66.6% (6,000) in 1808 and 76% (47,783) in 1895. According to the Russian census of 1897, out of the total population of 66,000, Jews constituted 41,900 (around 63% percent). According to the German census of 1916, Jews comprised about 72% of the inhabitants (no less than 40,000). The demographic situation changed due to the influx of Polish repatriants, intelligentsia and civil servants, and the enlargement of the city after the World War I. According to the 1931 census, the population of Białystok totalled 91,101: 45.5% (41,493) Roman Catholics, 43% (39,165) Jews (by religion), and 8.2% (7,502) Eastern Orthodox believers.

In 1936, Białystok had a population of 99,722, of whom: 50.9% (50,758) were Poles, 42.6% (42,482) Jews, 2.1% (2,094) Germans and 0.4% (359) Russians; 46.6% (45,474) adhered to the Catholic religion, 43% (42,880) to Judaism, 8.2% (8,177) to Eastern Orthodoxy and 2.9% (2,892) to Evangelicalism. World War II changed all of this: in 1939, around 107,000 people lived in Białystok, but by 1946, the population had dropped to 56,759, with much less ethnic diversity than it had had previously, due primarily to the murder of its large Jewish population. Currently the city's population is 97% Polish, 2.5% Belarusian and 0.5% of a number of minorities including Russians, Lithuanians, and Ukrainians. Most of the modern-day population growth is based on internal migration within Poland and urbanization of surrounding areas.

City government
Białystok, like other major cities in Poland, is a city county (Miasto na prawach powiatu). The Legislative power in the city is vested in the unicameral Białystok City Council (Rada Miasta), which has 28 members. Council members are elected directly every four years, one of whom is the mayor, or President of Białystok (prezydent). Like most legislative bodies, the City Council divides itself into committees which have the oversight of various functions of the city government. Bills passed by a simple majority are sent to the mayor, who may sign them into law. If the mayor vetoes a bill, the Council has 30 days to override the veto by a two-thirds majority vote. The current President of Białystok, elected for his first term in 2006, is Tadeusz Truskolaski won the elections as the Civic Platform's candidate, however, he has no official connection with the party. In the first round of the elections he received 49% of the votes (42,889 votes altogether). In the later runoff he defeated his rival candidate Marek Kozlowski from Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość), receiving 67% of the votes cast (53,018 votes).

For the 2010–2011 fiscal year the city received revenue (taxes levied + investments) of 1,409,565,525 zł, expended 1,676,459,102 zł leaving a budget deficit of 266,893,577 zł. The deficit was covered by short-term borrowing of 166,893,577 zł and the issuance of 100 million zł in municipal bonds.

Other levels of governmental representation

It is also the seat of government for the Podlaskie Voivodeship. The city is represented by several members of both houses of the Polish Parliament (Sejm and Senat) from the Białystok constituency. Białystok is represented by the Podlaskie and Warmian-Masurian constituency of the European Parliament.

International relations
There are nine consulates in Białystok, a Consulate General of Belarus and Honorary Consulates of Romania, Finland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Luxembourg and Malta. The City of Białystok is a member of several organizations such as Union of Polish Metropolises (Unia Metropolii Polskich), Euroregion Niemen, Polish Green Lungs Foundation, and Eurocities.

Białystok is twinned with:

 * Eindhoven, Netherlands
 * 🇱🇹 Kaunas, Lithuania
 * 🇺🇸 Milwaukee, United States
 * 🇫🇷 Dijon, France
 * 🇮🇱 Yehud, Israel
 * Jelgava, Latvia
 * 🇮🇹 Mazara del Vallo, Italy
 * 🇿🇲 Lusaka, Zambia
 * 🇹🇷 Bornova, Turkey
 * 🇨🇳 Chongzuo, China
 * 🇲🇹 Sliema, Malta
 * 🇧🇬 Dobrich, Bulgaria
 * 🇪🇹 Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

Former twin towns:

 * 🇷🇺 Irkutsk, Russia
 * 🇷🇺 Kaliningrad, Russia
 * 🇷🇺 Pskov, Russia
 * 🇷🇺 Tomsk, Russia

On 3 March 2022, Białystok ended its partnership with the Russian cities of Irkutsk, Kaliningrad, Pskov and Tomsk, and also with the Belarusian city of Grodno as a reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Eastern Partnership cities:

 * 🇺🇦 Lutsk, Ukraine
 * Gori, Georgia
 * 🇲🇩 Bălți, Moldova
 * 🇦🇲 Gyumri, Armenia
 * 🇦🇿 Sumgait, Azerbaijan

Former partnership:
 * 🇧🇾 Grodno, Belarus

Military units
The construction of the Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway which passed through the city and was the strategic nerve of the Russian Empire, resulted in the rising of the military importance of the city: In 1879, construction of the barracks of the Włodzimierski Infantry Regiment began (currently it is the area of the Voivodeship hospital between Wojskowa, Skłodowskiej-Curie and Wołodyjowskiego Streets). In 1884, barracks of the Kazan Infantry Regiment were established at Traugutta Street in Wygoda. In 1887, barracks of the Mariampole Dragon Regiment were erected at 100 Bema Street. In 1890, the barracks of Kharkov Uhlans Regiment were built at Kawaleryjska Street.

Throughout the interwar period and the existence of the Second Polish Republic, the city enjoyed the presence of the 42nd Infantry Regiment (barracks at Wygoda), 10th Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment (Kawaleryjska Street) and the 14th Horse Artillery Squadron (14 Dywizjon Artylerii Konnej) (Bema Street), the command of the Podlaska Cavalry Brigade and spare center (Skladowej-Curie Street, then Piwna), units of the Armed Forces of the Second Polish Republic.

The 18th Reconnaissance Regiment (18 Pułk Rozpoznawczy) of the Polish Land Forces is based in Białystok. The heritage of the unit was the former 18th Territorial Defense Battalion (18 Białostocka Brygada Obrony Terytorialnej) and prior to that the former 18th Mechanized Brigade. December 31, 2001, as a result of the restructuring of the Armed Forces, 18th Mechanized Brigade (18 Brygada Zmechanizowana) was disbanded and in its place created the 18th Territorial Defense Battalion (18 Białostocka Brygada Obrony Terytorialnej).

The Cavalry Brigade "Białystok" (BK "Białystok") of the Polish Army of the Second Republic was formed in February 1929. On April 1, 1937, BK "Białystok" was renamed the Podlaska Cavalry Brigade(Podlaska Brygada Kawalerii). Its headquarters was located in Białystok and operated as part of Independent Operational Group Narew. It was formed from the Cavalry Brigade "Białystok", which existed between February 1929, and March 30, 1937. After the Soviet invasion of Poland, remnants of the Brigade fought both Wehrmacht and Red Army troops, capitulating on October 6, 1939.

During December 1993 an order of the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces created the 18th Mechanized Brigade (18 Brygada Zmechanizowana) at the garrison in Białystok. The unit was formed from the 3rd Mechanized Regiment (3 Pułk Zmechanizowany) and was subordinated to the commander of the 1st Warsaw Mechanized Division (1 Warszawskiej Dywizji Zmechanizowanej im. Tadeusza Kościuszki). On December 31, 2001, as a result of the restructuring of the Armed Forces, the 18th Mechanized Brigade was disbanded and in its place was created the 18th Territorial Defense Battalion.

Economy
In the nineteenth century, Białystok was an important center for light industry, which was the reason for the substantial growth of the city's population. The tradition continued with many garment factories established in the twentieth century, such as Fasty in the district of Bacieczki. However, after the fall of communism in 1989 many of these factories faced severe problems and subsequently closed down.

The unemployment rate for November 2020 in Białystok was 6.8%. The 2009 average household had a monthly per capita income of 1018.77 zł and monthly per capita expenses of 823.56 zł

The city has a number of nearby border crossings. The border with Belarus is only 50 km away, the nearest border crossings are located in; Bobrowniki (road crossing located about 50 km from the city limits), Kuźnica Białostocka (road and rail crossing located 60 km from the city limits), Siemianówka (railway – freight traffic), Połowce (road) and Czeremcha (railway). Since the border with Belarus is also the eastern border of the European Union, as well as the Schengen Area the city is a center for trade in mainly from the east.

The leading industries in the city's economy are food processing (production of meat products, fruit and vegetable products, the production of spirits, the production of frozen food, grain processing), electrical engineering (production tools and equipment for machine tools, production of electric heaters, manufacture and production mixers household appliances). There is also a developed machine industry (electronics, machinery and metal), plastic processing (production of household appliances), textiles (textiles and upholstery, manufacture of underwear, clothing accessories, footwear and backpacks), Wood (production plywood and furniture) building materials.

Some major employers who are based in Białystok include:
 * Dojlidy Brewery in the district of Dojlidy produces the second most popular beer in Poland, Żubr.
 * Polmos Białystok, the biggest vodka manufacturer in Poland, is located in the city district of Starosielce. The company produces Absolwent and Żubrówka (bison grass vodka) – both major exports abroad.
 * Standard Motor Products Poland Ltd. headquartered in Białystok began manufacturing ignition coils for original equipment manufacturers 30 years ago.
 * "Supon" Białystok is the leading Polish producer of fire fighting equipment.
 * SavaPol, Sp.z o.o. is a manufacturer of stationary and mobile concrete mixing equipment based in Białystok.
 * Biazet S.A. is a large manufacture of household appliances, including vacuum cleaners, coffee makers, and LED lighting located in Białystok.
 * Agnella, a major Polish producer of carpets and similar products is in Białystok, located in the district of Białostoczek.
 * Rosti Poland Sp. z o.o., has provided for more than 60 years precision injection molded products for some of the world's leading brands.
 * Biaglass Huta Szkla Białystok Sp. z o.o., established in 1929, produces mouth blown glass lampshades and related products. Biaglass belongs to elite group of Glass Works in Europe, where 100% of the lighting glass is mouth-blown.
 * Chłodnia Białystok S.A (Cold Store Białystok S.A.), established in 1952, is one of the largest Polish producers of frozen vegetables, fruits and ready-to-heat meals.
 * Podlaskie Zakłady Zbożowe S.A. was established on 1 July 2000 as a result of privatizing The Regional Establishment of Corn and Milling Industry 'PZZ' in Białystok. It is one of the leading firms in Podlaskie Voivodeship in the department of preservation and processing of grain with elevators in Białystok, Grajewo and Suwałki.

Innovations
In order to increase the attractiveness of the city of Białystok for investments based on modern technologies, the Białystok Science and Technology Park was opened in 2014, which is to initiate the development of infrastructure conducive to increasing innovation among local and regional enterprises.

Amongst companies based in the Park are the Institute of Innovative Technologies EMAG, the Department of Prevention of Metabolic Diseases Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and a biometric photographs company PhotoAid.

Public utilities
In 2015, the length of the active water supply network in Białystok was 540.7 km. Compared to 2010, this length increased by 72.6 km, and compared to the previous year by 13.3 km. At the end of 2015, there were 20,508 residential buildings in the city connected to the water supply system. In the years 2010 - 2015, this number was constantly increasing. For comparison, at the end of 2010, there were 18,654 residential buildings connected to the water supply network, 19,307 at the end of 2012, and 20,171 at the end of 2014.

Culture and tourism
Białystok is one of the largest cultural centers in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. The attractions include performing arts groups, art museums, historical museums, walking tours of architectural/cultural aspects and a wide variety of parks and green spaces. Białystok in 2010 was on the short-list, but ultimately lost the competition, to become a finalist for European Capital of Culture in 2016.

Performing arts
The city has a number of performing arts facilities including:

The Białystok Puppet Theatre (Bialostocki Teatr Lalek), established in 1953, is one of the oldest Polish puppet theaters. The facility is located at Kalinowskiego 1 in Białystok. The repertoire includes performances for both children and puppet adaptations of world literature for adults. Because of the high artistic level of productions, the theater has been recognized as one of the best puppetry arts centers in Poland.

The Aleksandra Węgierki Drama Theatre, housed in a building designed by Jarosław Girina, was built in the years 1933–1938.

The Podlaskie Opera and Philharmonic – European Art Centre in Białystok is the largest institute of arts in Northeastern Poland and the most modern cultural center in this region of Europe. In its amphitheatre every year at the end of June Halfway Festival takes place.

Museums
There are a number of museums in the city including:

The Historical Museum in Białystok (Muzeum Historyczne w Białymstoku) is part of the Podlaskie Museum. The facility has a rich collection of archival materials and iconography illustrating the history of Białystok and Podlasie, and a number of middle-class cultural relics, especially in the field of craft utility. There are also the Numismatic Cabinet of the collection of 16 000 coins, medals and securities. The museum is in possession of the only collections in the country memorabilia connected with the Tatar settlement in the Polish–Lithuanian–Belarusian region.

The Army Museum in Białystok (Muzeum Wojska w Białymstoku) was established in September 1968 as a branch of the Podlaskie Museum to house the research and collections of many people connected with the military history of north-eastern Poland.

The Ludwik Zamenhof Centre (Centrum im. Ludwika Zamenhofa w Białymstoku) has a permanent exhibition, "Bialystok of Young Ludwik Zamenhof", and various temporary exhibitions, concerts, film projections, and theatre performances. The Centre has a branch of Lukasz Gornicki's Podlaska Library dedicated to the Esperanto language.

The Sybir Memorial Museum (Muzeum Pamięci Sybiru) is a historical museum opened in 2021 and dedicated to the memory of Poles as well as people from other nationalities who were the victims of forced deportations to Siberia perpetrated by Russia and the Soviet Union.

The Alfons Karny Sculpture Museum contains a collection of sculptures by Białystok native Alfons Karny.

Parks and green spaces
Around 32% of the city is occupied by parks, squares and forest preserves which creates a unique and healthy climate. The green spaces include:

Branicki Palace (Pałac Branickich) is a historical edifice and 9.7 ha park in Białystok. It was developed on the site of an earlier building in the first half of the eighteenth century by Jan Klemens Branicki, wealthy Polish Crown Hetman (highest military leader of Poland), into a residence suitable for a man whose ambition was to be elected king of Poland. The palace complex with gardens, pavillons, sculptures, outbuildings and other structures and the city with churches, city hall and monastery, all built almost at the same time according to French models was the reason why the city was known in the eighteenth century as Versailles of Podlaskie (wersal podlaski).

Planty is a 14.94 ha park created between 1930 and 1938, under the auspices of the then voivode Marian Zyndram-Kościałkowski in the areas adjacent to Branicki Palace. The modernist composition of the park was designed by Stanislav Gralla.

Architecture
The various historically driven changes have had a very significant influence on the architectural space of the city. Most other Polish cities have suffered similarly, but the processes in Białystok, have had a particularly intense course. Numerous historic works of architecture no longer exist, while many others have been rebuilt to their original configuration. Very few historic buildings of the city have been preserved – the sights are merely an echo of the old historical shape of Białystok.

Main sights include:
 * Townhall, built in 18th century in Baroque style
 * Branicki Palace, built in 18th century in Baroque style
 * Other palaces: Branicki Guest Palace, Lubomirski Palace, Hasbach Palace, Nowik Palace
 * Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicholas, built in 1843–1846 in Neoclassicist style
 * Białystok railway station, built in 1861 in Neoclassicist style
 * Catholic Cathedral, dating back to 16th century, rebuilt in 1900–1905 in Gothic Revival style
 * St. Adalbert Church, built in 1909–1912 in Romanesque Revial style, former Lutheran, today Roman-Catholic
 * St. Roch Church, built in 1927–46, Expressionist
 * Aleksandr Węgierki Drama Theatre, built in 1938, modernist
 * Socialist realist building of the University of Białystok (former regional headquarters of the Polish United Workers' Party)
 * Church of the Resurrection, built in 1991–1996 in Neo-Baroque style as a copy of destroyed Basilian Church and Monastery in Berezwecz
 * Opera and Philharmonic, built in 2006–2012, Postmodern style
 * Daughters of Charity Monastery
 * Former Arsenal
 * Former Masonic Lodge

Sports

The city has both professional and amateur sports teams, and a number of venues where they are based. Jagiellonia Białystok is a Polish football club, based in Białystok, in the Ekstraklasa (Poland's top division) that plays at the Białystok City Stadium. Jagiellonia Białystok won the Polish Cup and Super Cup in 2010. A new 22,500-seat stadium was completed at the beginning of 2015. There is also a futsal team Słoneczny Stok Jagiellonia Białystok, which plays in the Futsal Ekstraklasa, Poland's top division (as of 2022–23).

Podlasie Białystok is one of the top athletics clubs in Poland, multiple times Polish Team Champions, most recently in 2022.

Lowlanders Białystok is an American football club, that plays in the Polish American Football League (Polska Liga Futbolu Amerykańskiego) PLFA I Conference. The Lowlanders were the champions of the PLFA II Conference in 2010 with a perfect season (8 wins in eight meetings). Because of the win, they were advanced to the upper conference (PLFA I) in 2011.

Other notable clubs include men's football team Hetman Białystok (with additional boxing and contract bridge sections), basketball club Żubry Białystok, and football club Włókniarz Białystok with both men's and women's sections, however, all of the aforementioned teams play in the lower leagues as of 2022–23.

Media

Białystok has a wide variety of media outlets serving the city and surrounding region. There are two locally published daily newspapers, Gazeta Współczesna (36.3% market share) and Kurier Poranny (20.3% market share). In addition two national papers have local bureaus. There are a number of national and locally produced television and radio channels available both over-the-air from the nearby RTCN Białystok (Krynice) Mast, the seventh highest structure in Poland, in addition to transmitter sites within the city. TVP Białystok is one of the locally produced, regional branches of the TVP, Poland's public television broadcaster. There is also a cable television system available within the city. The city has two campus radio stations; Radiosupeł at the Medical University of Białystok and Radio Akadera at Białystok Technical University.

Religion
In the early 1900s, Białystok was reputed to have the largest concentration of Jews of all the cities in the world. In 1931, 40,000 Jews lived in the city, nearly half the city's inhabitants. The city is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Białystok. Pope John Paul II on 5 June 1991, during a visit to Białystok, announced the establishment of the Archdiocese of Białystok which ended the period of the temporary church administration of the portion of the Archdiocese of Vilnius that had, after World War II, remained within the Polish borders. The city is also the seat of the Białystok-Gdansk Diocese of the Autocephalous Polish Orthodox Church. Białystok is the largest concentration of Orthodox believers in Poland. In Białystok, the following Protestant churches exist: a Lutheran parish, two Pentecostal churches, Baptist church, a congregation of the Church of God in Christ and a Seventh Day Adventist church.

Białystok is home to more than two thousand Muslims (mainly Tatars). There is an Islamic Centre, a House of Prayer, and various organisations. There is a magazine issued – "Pamięć i trwanie" ("Memory and persistence").

The city is the site of the Divine Mercy Sanctuary with the main relics of Michał Sopoćko.

Transport

The city is and has been for centuries, the main hub of transportation for the Podlaskie Voivodeship and the entire northeastern section of Poland. It is a major city on the European Union roadways (Via Baltica) and railways (Rail Baltica) to the Baltic Republics and Finland. It is also a main gateway of trade with Belarus due to its proximity to the border and its current and longstanding relationship with Grodno, Belarus.

A traffic management system has been operating in Białystok since 2015. At 120 intersections, traffic lights are coordinated in such a way that cars and buses covered the route as quickly as possible. Special cameras record traffic, travel time. Drivers receive this information on 19 boards set among others at the intersections on Wasilkowska Street, Antoniuk-Fabryczny Street and Kleeberga Street.

Railways
Passenger trains connect from Suwałki, Grodno and Lithuania to Warsaw and the rest of the European passenger network. Passenger services are provided by two rail service providers, PKP Intercity that provides intercity passengers trains (express, intercity, eurocity, hotel and TLK) and Polregio that operates only regional passenger trains financed by the voivodeship. Passenger trains are mostly run using electrical multiple units (on electrified lines) or rail buses.

Buses
There is an extensive bus network that covers the entire city by three bus services, but no tram or subway exists. The three bus operators (KPKM, KPK and KZK) are owned by the city and each shares approximately a third of the lines and the bus fleet.

Roads and highways
The National Roads (Droga krajowa) running through Białystok: The expressways (Droga ekspresowa) near Białystok: The Voivodeship roads (Droga wojewódzka) running through Białystok::
 * / : Budzisko (Lithuania–Poland border) – Białystok – Warsaw – Wrocław – Kudowa-Zdrój (Czech–Polish border)
 * : Rzeszów – Lublin – Bielsk Podlaski – Białystok – Kuźnica (Belarus–Poland border)
 * : Gołdap (Poland–Russia border)-Ełk-Białystok-Bobrowniki (Belarus–Poland border)
 * / : Białystok – Warsaw – Wrocław
 * (projected): Rzeszów – Lublin – Bielsk Podlaski – Białystok – Kuźnica (Belarus–Polish border)
 * : Trasa Niepodległości (Narodowych Sił Zbrojnych Street, Niepodległości Avenue, Padarewskiego Avenue)
 * : Tysiąclecia Państwa Polskiego Avenue (aleja Tysiąclecia Państwa Polskiego)
 * : Porosły - Białystok - Supraśl - Krynki
 * : Białystok - Wysokie Mazowieckie

In Białystok Country (powiat białostocki) there are also Poviat roads (Droga powiatowa) which connect Białystok with other towns in the area:

Bicycle
By 2020, there were already over 158 km of bicycle paths in Białystok. The municipal bicycle renting system is called BiKeR and was opened in 2014. The system initially based on 30 stations equipped with 300 bikes. The city has four public bicycle repair stations, in which one can fix their private bikes. The stations are located in places where the highest traffic of city bikes was observed.

Airports
A civil airport, Białystok-Krywlany Airport, lies within the city limits, but does not provide regularly scheduled service. There were plans in 2011 to build a new regional airport, Białystok-Saniki Airport, that would have provided flights within Europe.

Education

Higher education in the city can be traced back to the second half of the eighteenth century when the ownership of the city was inherited by Field Crown Hetman Jan Klemens Branicki. As a patron of the arts and sciences, Branicki encouraged numerous artists and scientists to settle in Białystok to take advantage of Branicki's patronage. In 1745 Branicki established Poland's first military college, the School of Civil and Military Engineering, in the city.

Since the fall of communism many privately funded institutions of higher educations have been founded and their number is still increasing. Currently Białystok is home to one principal public university (University of Białystok) and two other public specialist universities (Białystok Technical University and Medical University of Białystok ). Some institutions, such as Musical Academy in Białystok, are branches of their parent institutions in other cities, usually in Warsaw.

Notable residents

Over the centuries, a number of people from Białystok have been prominent in the fields of science, language, politics, religion, sports, visual arts and performing arts. This environment was created in the mid-eighteenth century by the patronage of Jan Klemens Branicki for the arts and sciences. These include Ryszard Kaczorowski, last émigré President of the Republic of Poland, L. L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto, Albert Sabin, co-developer of the polio vaccine, Izabella Scorupco, actress, Max Weber, painter. Tomasz Bagiński illustrator, animator and director Oscar nominee in 2002 for The Cathedral.

title: Białystok


text:
575

Year 575 (DLXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 575 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Europe

 * The Franks under Sigibert I pursue his half brother Chilperic I, and conquer the cities Poitiers and Tournai. While he is proclaimed new king of Neustria by the nobles, Sigibert is assassinated at Vitry-en-Artois (Northern Gaul) by hirelings of Fredegund.
 * Childebert II succeeds his father Sigibert I as king of Austrasia. His mother Brunhilda becomes regent and seeks protection from Guntram, king of Burgundy. He adopts Childebert as his own son and heir. A group of Frankish aristocrats rule Austrasia.
 * The Visigoths under King Liuvigild invade the Suebian Kingdom (Northern Spain). Intermarriage between Goths and non-Goths is allowed in the Visigothic Kingdom (approximate date).

Britain

 * The Convention of Druim Cett: Irish kings discuss the relationship between them and King Áedán mac Gabráin of Dál Riata. The Irish colony (now western Scotland) is confirmed, and rights to tax and levy are agreed to between the rulers.
 * The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia is divided into the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and perhaps the eastern part of the Cambridgeshire Fens (approximate date).

Asia Minor

 * Byzantine–Sassanid War: A Byzantine army under command of Maurice drives the Persians from Cappodocia (modern Turkey), and strengthens the Byzantine position in Caucasian Albania.
 * Alexander of Tralles, Greek physician, writes "Libri duodecim de re Medica" (approximate date).

Asia

 * Tardu succeeds his father Istämi, as governor (yabgu) of the Western Turkic Khaganate (Central Asia).

Religion

 * Zhiyi, Chinese monk, travels to Mount Tiantai for intensive study and practice. He works with a group of disciples on the Indian meditation of śamatha and vipaśyanā.
 * June 2 – Pope Benedict I succeeds Pope John III as the 62nd pope.

Births

 * Al-Khansa, Arabic poet (d. 645)
 * Heraclius, emperor of the Byzantine Empire (approximate date)
 * Wen Yanbo, chancellor of the Tang dynasty (d. 637)

Deaths

 * August 2 – Ahudemmeh, Syriac Orthodox Grand Metropolitan of the East.
 * Áed mac Echach, king of Connacht (Ireland)
 * Cerbonius, bishop of Populonia (Central Italy)
 * Istämi, ruler (yabgu) of the Western Turkic Khaganate
 * Sigebert I, king of Austrasia (approximate date)

title: 575


text:
Talk:Ecology movement

Merge
Consider merging with Green movement and Environmental movement. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 19:57, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * The Green movement is a political movement and the environment movement is a social movement. The article seems to be about the environmental movement. The term "ecology movement" is rarely used. I would suggest that the ecology movement is about a social movement by ecologists and conservationists. Alan Liefting 09:00, 31 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I am becoming convinced that the origianl author did not know the difference between ecology and environment. The two words are often confused. Alan Liefting 21:59, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Don't Merge: Ecology is a specific scientific field (although it can be broken down into factions like ecofeminism, social ecology, deep ecology...) that principally uses biology to study the relationship between living organisms and their environments. Environmentalism is a lot more general, and encompasses physical science, but more social science, and usually is only concerned with studing the anthropogenic impact of humans on the earth. Almost anyone can be part of the environmental movement, while to be a Green you might need a specific political affiliation, and to be an ecologist you need some undestanding of the field of ecology. Although there may be some overlap, it would be like merging the DLC with the GOP, just because they are both largely neo-liberal. --Howrealisreal 13:00, 31 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Ecofeminism, social ecology and deep ecology are all a subset of environmentalism rather than ecology. They rely on ecology to formulate the ideas however. Alan Liefting 21:45, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Ecological science and 'ecology movement'
Using the same word for a social movement and for a scientific field is inherently confusing. While many ecological scientists are active environmentalists (not all by any means), most work carefully to maintain the distinction. One agenda -- the social movement -- is explicitly and appropriately value-driven and result-oriented. The other -- the science -- can't be either of these and remain legitimate. Good scientific research is critical for effective support of most environmental agendas (not all; some are really matters of pure faith), and so it is not in the interest of environmentalists to further this confusion. The confusing usage, at this point, permeates general rhetoric, but recognizing this doesn't make it less confusing. I'd strongly prefer that the relevant social, political, economic agendas -- all value-driven, appropriately -- be placed under some heading (environmentalism seems the obvious one) that doesn't use the word 'ecology'. That may never happen, but I will at least do edits, as here, that point out the confounding of these areas. 24.195.103.62 03:48, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Ecology movement is sometimes used to mean the environmental movement. Alan Liefting 21:45, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Ecology was a term that now means Environment
I have stumbled across a book called Ecology in the 20th Century by Anna Bramwell published in 1989. It is all about what we now call environmentalism yet the word never occurs in the book. Does anyone have info on how the usage of the words "environmental" and "environmentalism" have changed in the past 30 odd years? Alan Liefting 21:45, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
 * The term Ecology movement seem confusing to me also. Is it similar enough to deep ecology or "New Ecology. If so the best name might be the "Deep Ecology Movement which has been around for some time. KAM 10:36, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Merge
I vote for a merge with "Environmental Movement." This article is substantially similar to that one and these don't seem to be different in any way. As said before on this talk page, ecology does not equal environment, and somebody seems to have gotten confused. Be bold. Merge, or, yeah, just delete it, there's nothing here that isn't there. Envirocorrector 19:11, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ecology movement


text:
Dr. Mario

Dr. Mario is a 1990 puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Famicom, and Game Boy. It was produced by Gunpei Yokoi and designed by Takahiro Harada. The soundtrack was composed by Hirokazu Tanaka.

It is a falling block puzzle game, in which the player's objective is to destroy the viruses populating the on-screen playing field by using colored vitamin capsules that are automatically tossed into the field by Dr. Mario. The player manipulates the falling capsules, to align the same colors, which destroys viruses. The player progresses through the game by eliminating all the viruses on the screen in each level.

Dr. Mario was a commercial success, with more than 10 million copies sold worldwide across all platforms. It received generally positive reviews, appearing on several lists of "Best Nintendo Games of All Time". It has been ported, remade, or had a sequel on every Nintendo home console since the NES, and on most portable consoles, including a re-release in 2004 on the Game Boy Advance in the Classic NES Series. It was modified into minigames in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames!, Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day!, and Brain Age: Concentration Training. Dr. Luigi is a spin-off for Wii U, released in 2013 as part of the Year of Luigi celebration.

Gameplay
Dr. Mario is a falling block tile-matching video game. Mario assumes the role of a doctor, tossing two-colored medical capsules into a medicine bottle representing the playing field. This area is populated by viruses of three colors — red, yellow, and blue — which stay in their starting positions until removed. In a style similar to Tetris, the player manipulates each capsule as it vertically falls, able to move it left or right and rotate it 90 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise. When matching colors of capsule halves and viruses touch sequentially 4-in-a-row, they disappear. Any remaining half or whole capsules which are not supported will fall to the bottom of the playing field or until hitting another supported object, and any new 4-in-a-row alignments also disappear. The main objective is to eliminate all viruses from the playing field, finishing each level. A game over occurs if capsules fill the playing field in a way that obstructs the bottle's narrow neck. After each 5th level is completed on Medium or High difficulty, up to level 20, a cutscene shows the virus trio sitting on a tree as music plays and an object flies across the screen.

The options screen configures the starting level, game speed, and music. The player chooses a starting level between 0 and 20 that determines the number of viruses to clear, and one of three speeds of the falling capsules. The player's score is based on the elimination of viruses and the chosen game speed, with bonus points for clearing more than 1 in a single line.

Dr. Mario offers a multiplayer gaming mode in which two players compete in separate playing fields. Each player's goal is to clear the private playing field of viruses first. Eliminating multiple viruses or initiating chain reactions can add capsules to the opponent's playing field. A player wins a single game upon eliminating all the viruses or upon the other player's bottle filling. The first player to win three games wins overall.

Development
Dr. Mario was produced by Gunpei Yokoi, creator of the Game Boy and Game & Watch handheld systems. Takahiro Harada, producer of the Metroid series, was its designer. Its music was composed by Hirokazu Tanaka, and has been re-used and arranged such as in the Super Smash Bros. series.

Re-releases
Dr. Mario spawned several remakes and ports that were released on various Nintendo consoles. The original version's multiplayer portion was ported to two Nintendo arcade systems: the Nintendo VS. System (as Vs. Dr. Mario) and the PlayChoice-10. Vs. Dr. Mario was first shown at Nintendo's Seventh Annual Distributor Meeting in San Diego, and both versions were released simultaneously in August 1990.

An enhanced remake of Dr. Mario was paired with Tetris in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System compilation game Tetris & Dr. Mario, released on 30 December 1994. This was re-released in Japan on 30 March 1997, as a downloadable game for the Super Famicom's Satellaview peripheral, with the name Dr. Mario BS Version. It was re-released again in Japan for the Super Famicom's and Game Boy's downloadable Nintendo Power cartridges.

The NES version was ported twice to the Game Boy Advance: first in 2004 as one of thirty games in the Classic NES Series (Famicom Mini Series in Japan), then bundled with a version of the Puzzle League series in 2005 as Dr. Mario & Puzzle League, with updated graphics and new music. Nintendo Puzzle Collection and the Nintendo GameCube Preview Disc, both released in 2003 for the GameCube, can copy the NES version of Dr. Mario to the Game Boy Advance using the Nintendo GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable. The NES version was released on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2014 and was one of the launch games for Nintendo Switch Online on September 19, 2018. The original Game Boy version was re-released on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in 2011 and 2012, and on the Nintendo Switch Online service on March 12, 2024.

Sales
In Japan, 2.08 million copies were sold for the Game Boy, 1.53 million for the Famicom, and 248,045 for the Game Boy Advance, for a total of 3,858,045 cartridges sold in Japan. In North America, 2.5 million copies were sold within six weeks of release. Worldwide, 5.34 million copies were sold for the Game Boy and 4.85 million for the Nintendo Entertainment System, for a total of 0 cartridges sold worldwide across all platforms.

Contemporary reviews
Dr. Mario received generally positive reviews, although some parents were critical of the premise of medicine in a children's game.

The Game Boy version received positive reviews from Joystick and Zero magazines, the latter comparing it favorably with Tetris and Connect Four while stating it is "easy to play and impossible to master". ACE criticized the uninspiring graphics, repetitive play, and "plagiarism" while comparing it unfavorably with Tetris and Connect Four.

GamePro reviewed the Tetris & Dr. Mario compilation very positively. They praised the Mixed Match mode and the SNES enhanced graphics and sounds, and concluded "Sharp controls and absorbing action are what make these two classics even better as a pair than they were alone." Next Generation, in contrast, said the compilation was only significant as the SNES debut of Tetris, summarizing that "Yeah, it's great, but chances are you own a copy of one or both of these games already." They did, however, praise Nintendo for having the "cojones" to package its Tetris-inspired game with Tetris.

Retrospective reception
Allgame praised the NES version, stating that on its release, "when puzzle games were flooding the market, Dr. Mario stands out as one of the best, combining a smooth learning curve, playful graphics and memorable tunes" and "fundamental concepts may be simple, but the addictive gameplay becomes progressively more complex as the speed increases and additional viruses are added."

Dr. Mario was rated the 134th best game on a Nintendo system in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list, the 7th best Mario game of all time on ScrewAttack's Top 10, and the 51st best NES game of all time by IGN. IGN also rated the soundtrack, composed by Hirokazu Tanaka, as seventh in its list of the top ten greatest 8-bit soundtracks. GamesRadar ranked it the 13th best NES game ever made, calling it "one of the most celebrated of the [puzzle] genre". Game Informer's Ben Reeves called it the seventh best Game Boy game. In 2019, PC Magazine included Dr. Mario on their "The 10 Best Game Boy Games".

The Game Boy Advance re-release in the Classic NES series is rated 66/100 on Metacritic based on 10 reviews. Most reviews pointed out the game's addictiveness and praise the addition of wireless multiplayer, but some questioned the relevance of the standalone re-release. Eurogamer said the game was "still as playable, addictive, and maddening as it was back in 1990" but criticized Nintendo for re-releasing classic games as standalone games in the Classic NES Series instead of as a compilation, like Atari's Atari Anthology or Midway's Midway Arcade Treasures. Craig Harris of IGN sarcastically expressed unease over the game's use of medicine. He enjoyed the addictive gameplay, but criticized the black-and-white manual which made it difficult to understand the colored gameplay mechanics. 1UP.com noted that the game's "color-matching action is more engrossing than Mario Bros.' turtle-punching platform hopping", but strongly questioned whether this re-release is worth its sale price by itself when a version of Dr. Mario was included in another Game Boy Advance game, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames!.

Legacy
After the commercial success of Dr. Mario, Nintendo released several follow-up games. Dr. Mario 64, released in 2001 for the Nintendo 64, features Wario and several Wario Land 3 characters, and offers numerous game modes, including a story-focused single-player mode. The game supports simultaneous multiplayer for up to four players. Dr. Mario 64 was subsequently released in Japan in Nintendo Puzzle Collection for the GameCube. Dr. Mario Online Rx, released in 2008 on WiiWare, offers online multiplayer via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Dr. Mario Express, released in 2009 for the Nintendo DSi, does not support multiplayer gameplay. Dr. Luigi was released in 2013 with Luigi as a playable character, all the modes in Dr. Mario Online Rx, and a new mode with L-shaped capsules. The latest installment, Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure, was released in 2015 and introduced power-ups to the series. Dr. Mario World is a mobile game.

Various games in the Super Smash Bros. series have remixed musical tracks from Dr. Mario, or Dr. Mario as an unlockable playable character.

Dr. Wario replaces Mario with Wario, as an unlockable minigame in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames!. A simplified version of Dr. Mario is in Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day! as the "Virus Buster" minigame, using the touch screen to drag the capsules around the playing field.

The viruses are enemies in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. They change colors when attacked, and are all defeated when they are all the same color.

In 2018 the Classic Tetris World Championship featured a Dr. Mario championship as a 'side event.'

title: Dr. Mario


text:
Environmental finance

Environmental finance is a field within finance that employs market-based environmental policy instruments to improve the ecological impact of investment strategies. The primary objective of environmental finance is to regress the negative impacts of climate change through pricing and trading schemes. The field of environmental finance was established in response to the poor management of economic crises by government bodies globally. Environmental finance aims to reallocate a businesses resources to improve the sustainability of investments whilst also retaining profit margins.

History
In 1992, Richard L. Sandor proposed a new course outlining emission markets at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, that would later be known as the course, Environmental Finance. Sandor anticipated a social shift in perspectives on the effects of global warming and wanted to be on the frontier of new research.

Prior to this in 1990, Sandor had been involved with the passing of the Clean Air Act Amendment for the Chicago Board of Trade, which aimed to reduce high sulfur dioxide levels following WW2. Inspired by the theory of social cost, Sandor focused on cap-and-trade strategies such as emission trading schemes and more flexible mechanisms including taxes and subsidies to manage environmental crisis. The implementation of cap-and-trade mechanisms was a contributing factor to the success of the Clean Air Act Amendment. Following the Clean Air Act in 1990, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development approached the Chicago Board of Trade in 1991, to enquire about how the market-based instruments used to combat high atmospheric sulfur dioxide concentrations could be applied to the increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Sandor created a framework consisting of four characteristics which could be used to describe the carbon market:

 * Standardisation
 * Unit Trading
 * Price Basis
 * Delivery

In 1997 the Kyoto Protocol was enacted and later enforced in 2005 by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Included nations agreed to focus on reducing global greenhouse gas emissions through the market-based mechanism of emissions trading. Reductions averaged approximately 5% by 2012 which equates to almost 30% in reduction of total emissions. Some nations made significant progress under the Kyoto protocol, however as it only became law in 2005, nations such as the United States and China reported increased emissions, substantially offsetting progress made by other regions. In 1999, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index was introduced to evaluate the ecological and social impact of stocks so shareholders could invest more sustainably. The index acts as an incentive for firms to improve their environmental footprint to attract more shareholders.

Later in 2000, the United Nations introduced the Millennium Development Goal scheme which sought to promote a sustainable framework for large multinational corporations and countries to follow to improve the environmental impact of financial investments. This framework facilitated the development of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal scheme in 2015, which aimed to increase funding environmentally responsible investments in developing nations. Funding was targeted to improve areas such as primary education, gender equality, maternal health, and nutrition, with the overall goal of creating beneficial national relationships to decrease the ecological footprint of developing economies . Implementation of these frameworks has promoted greater participation and accountability of corporate environmental sustainability, with over 230 of the largest global firms reporting their sustainability metrics to the United Nations.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has had a detailed history in providing infrastructure to improve the environmental effects of financial investments. In 2004, the institute provided training on responsible environmental credit budgeting and management for Eastern European nations. Following the Global Financial Crisis beginning in 2007, the UNEP provided substantial support for future sustainable investment choices for economies such as Greece which were impacted severely. The Portfolio Decarbonisation Coalition established in 2014 is a significantly notable initiative in the history of environmental finance as it aims to establish an economy that is not dependent on investments with large carbon footprints. This goal is achieved through large-scale stakeholder reinvestment and securing long-term, responsible, investment commitments. Most recently, the UNEP has recommended OECD nations to align investment strategies alongside the objectives of the Paris Agreement, to improve long-term investments with significant ecological effects.

In 2008 the Climate Change Act enacted by the UK Government established a framework to limit greenhouse gasses and carbon emissions through a budgeting scheme, which motivated firms and businesses to reduce their carbon output for a financial reward. Specifically, by 2050 it seeks to reduce carbon emissions by 80% compared to levels in 1980. The Act seeks to achieve this goal by reviewing carbon budgeting schemes such emission trading credits, every 5 years to continually reassess and recalibrate relevant policies. The cost of reaching the 2050 goal has been estimated at approximately 1.5% of GDP, although the positive environmental impact of reducing carbon footprint and increased in investment into the renewable energy sector will offset this cost. A further implicated cost in the pursuit of the Act is a predicted £100 increase in annual household energy costs, however this price increase is set to be outweighed by an improved energy efficiency which will decrease fuel costs.

The 2010 cap and trade scheme introduced in the metropolitan regions of Tokyo was mandatory for businesses heavily dependent on fuel and electricity, who accounted for almost 20% of total carbon emissions in the area. The scheme aimed to reduce emissions by 17% by the end of 2019.

In 2011 the Clean Energy Act was enacted by the Australian Government. The act introduced the Carbon Tax which aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emission by charging large firms for their carbon tonnage. The Clean Energy Act facilitated the transition to an emissions trading scheme in 2014 . The scheme also aims to fulfill the Australian Government's obligations in respect to the Kyoto Protocol and the Climate Change Convention. Additionally, the Act seeks to reduce emissions in a manner that will foster economic growth through increased market competition and investment into renewable energy sources. The Australian National Registry of Emissions Units regulates and monitors the use of emission credits utilised by the Act. Firms must enroll in the registry to buy and sell credits to compensate for their relevant reduction or over-consumption of carbon emissions.

The Republic of Korea's 2015 emission trading scheme aims to reduce carbon emissions by 37% by 2030. It strives to achieve this through allocating a quota of carbon emission to the largest carbon emitting businesses, resetting at the beginning of the schemes 3 separate phases.

In 2017 the National Mitigation Plan was passed by the Irish Government which aimed to regress climate change by decreasing emission levels through revised investment strategies and frameworks for power generation, agriculture, and transport The plan involves 106 separate guidelines for short and long term climate change mitigation.

The European Union Emission Trading Scheme concluding at the end of 2020 is the longest single global carbon pricing scheme, which has been improved over its three 5-year phases. Current improvements include a centralised emission credit trading system, auctioning of credits, addressing a broader range of green house gasses and the introduction of a European-wide credit cap instead of national caps.

Strategies
Societal shifts from fossil fuels to renewable energy caused by an increased awareness of climate change has made government bodies and firms re-evaluate investment strategies to avoid irreparable ecological damage. Shifts away from fossil fuels also increase demand into alternate energy sources which requires revised investment strategies.

The initial stage to mitigate climate change through financial tools involves ecological and economic forecasting to model future impacts of current investment methodologies on the environment. This allows for an approximate estimation of future environments; however, the impacts of continued harmful business trends need to be observed under a non-linear perspective.

Cap-and-trade mechanisms limit the total amount of emissions a particular region or country can emit. Firms are issued with tradeable permits which they can buy or sell. This acts as a financial incentive to reduce emissions and as a disincentive to exceed emission caps.

In 2005, the European Union Emission Trading Scheme was established and is now the largest emission trading scheme globally. In 2013, the Québec Cap-and-trade scheme was established and is currently the primary mitigation strategy for the area.

Direct foreign investment into developing nations provide more efficient and sustainable energy sources.

In 2006, the Clean Development Mechanism was formed under the Kyoto Protocol, providing solar power and new technologies to developing nations. Countries who invest into developing nations can receive emission reduction credits as a reward.

Removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide has been proposed as a solution to mitigate climate change, by increasing tree densities to absorb carbon dioxide. Other methods involve new technologies which are still in research development stages.

Research in environmental finance has sought how to strategically invest in clean technologies. When paired with international legislation, such as the case of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, environmentally based investments have stimulated emerging industries and reduced the consequences of climate change. The international collaboration would ultimately lead to the changes that repaired the hole in the ozone layer.

Impact
The European Union Emission Trading Scheme from 2008-2012 was responsible for a 7% reduction in emissions for the states within the scheme. In 2013, allowances were reviewed to accommodate for new emission reduction targets. The new annual recommended target was a reduction of 1.72%. It is estimated that reducing the amount of quoted credits was restricted more tightly, emissions could have been reduced by a total of 25%. Nations such as Romania, Poland and Sweden experienced significant revenue, benefiting from selling credits. Despite successfully reducing emissions, the European Union Emission Trading Scheme has been critiqued for its lack of flexibility to accommodate to major shifts in the economic landscape and reassess currents contexts to provide a revised cap on trading credits, potentially undermining the original objective of the scheme.

The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme of 2008 was modelled to increase annual household energy expenditure to 0.8% and increase fuel prices by approximately 6%. The price of agricultural products such as beef and dairy were modelled to decrease by almost 1%. Price increases in carbon intensive sectors such as foresting and mining were also expected, incentivising a shift towards renewable energy system and improved investment strategies with a less harmful environmental impact.

In 2016, the Québec Cap-and-trade scheme was responsible for an 11% reduction in emissions compared to 1990 emission levels . Due to the associated increased energy costs, fuel prices rose 2-3 cents per litre over the duration of the cap and trade scheme.

In 2014, the Clean Development Mechanism was responsible for a 1% reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions. The Clean Development Mechanism has been responsible for removing 7 billion tons of greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere through the efforts of almost 8000 individual projects. Despite this success, as the economies of developing nations participating in Clean Development Mechanisms improves, the financial payout to the country supplying such infrastructure increases at a greater rate than economic growth, thus leading to an unoptimised and counterproductive system.

title: Environmental finance


text:
User:T.Rob

Hi fellow Wikipedians! I have been watching E! TV's Saturday Night Live re-runs with my teenage kids and they noticed (several times) that Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. We looked him up on Google and the next thing you know, we were here on Wikipedia and I got hooked. I immediately dashed off an email to tell the Firesign Theatre fans about this place. Hopefully, all the Fireheads will join up and educate the world about the 4 or 5 crazy guys.

title: User:T.Rob


text:
214

Year 214 (CCXIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Messalla and Suetrius (or, less frequently, year 967 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 214 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Roman Empire

 * The kingdom of Osroene becomes a province of the Roman Empire.
 * Caracalla's victories in Germany ensure his popularity within the Roman army.
 * The defences of Rhaetia are reinforced, in the form of an uninterrupted stone wall.

Korea

 * The Korean kingdom of Baekje attacks the Mohe tribes.
 * Gusu becomes king of Baekje.

China

 * Battle of Xiaoyao Ford: General Zhang Liao under the command of Cao Cao beats back Sun Quan at Hefei.
 * Liu Bei takes Yi Province from his clansman Liu Zhang, forming the later basis for Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period.
 * Pang Tong dies in the hands of the enemy in an ambush at the Valley of the Fallen Phoenix.

Births

 * May 10 – Claudius Gothicus, Roman emperor (d. 270)
 * September 9 – Aurelian, Roman emperor (d. 275)
 * Cao Gan, Chinese prince and son of Cao Cao (d. 261)
 * Diophantus, Greek mathematician (approximate date)
 * Musa al-Mubarraqa, Arab imam (Twelver Shia) (d. 296)
 * Yang Huiyu, Chinese empress dowager (d. 278)

Deaths

 * Chogo of Baekje, Korean ruler
 * Fu Shou, Chinese empress of the Han Dynasty
 * Kuai Yue (or Yidu), Chinese politician and adviser
 * Pang Tong, Chinese politician and adviser (b. 179)
 * Peng Yang (or Yongnian), Chinese official (b. 178)
 * Sun Qian, Chinese diplomat, general and politician
 * Xun You, Chinese statesman and adviser (b. 157)

title: 214