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Environmental ethics

In environmental philosophy, environmental ethics is an established field of practical philosophy "which reconstructs the essential types of argumentation that can be made for protecting natural entities and the sustainable use of natural resources." The main competing paradigms are anthropocentrism, physiocentrism (called ecocentrism as well), and theocentrism. Environmental ethics exerts influence on a large range of disciplines including environmental law, environmental sociology, ecotheology, ecological economics, ecology and environmental geography.

There are many ethical decisions that human beings make with respect to the environment. These decision raise numerous questions. For example:

 * Should humans continue to clear cut forests for the sake of human consumption?
 * What species or entities ought to be considered for their own sake, independently of its contribution to biodiversity and other extrinsic goods?
 * Why should humans continue to propagate its species, and life itself?
 * Should humans continue to make gasoline-powered vehicles?
 * What environmental obligations do humans need to keep for future generations?
 * Is it right for humans to knowingly cause the extinction of a species for the convenience of humanity?
 * How should humans best use and conserve the space environment to secure and expand life?
 * What role can Planetary Boundaries play in reshaping the human-earth relationship?

The academic field of environmental ethics grew up in response to the works of Rachel Carson and Murray Bookchin and events such as the first Earth Day in 1970, when environmentalists started urging philosophers to consider the philosophical aspects of environmental problems. Two papers published in Science had a crucial impact: Lynn White's "The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis" (March 1967) and Garrett Hardin's "The Tragedy of the Commons" (December 1968). Also influential was Garett Hardin's later essay called "Exploring New Ethics for Survival", as well as an essay by Aldo Leopold in his A Sand County Almanac, called "The Land Ethic", in which Leopold explicitly claimed that the roots of the ecological crisis were philosophical (1949).

The first international academic journals in this field emerged from North America in the late 1970s and early 1980s – the US-based journal Environmental Ethics in 1979 and the Canadian-based journal The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy in 1983. The first British based journal of this kind, Environmental Values, was launched in 1992.

Marshall's categories
Some scholars have tried to categorise the various ways the natural environment is valued. Alan Marshall and Michael Smith are two examples of this, as cited by Peter Vardy in The Puzzle of Ethics. According to Marshall, three general ethical approaches have emerged over the last 40 years: Libertarian Extension, the Ecologic Extension, and Conservation Ethics.

Libertarian extension
Marshall's libertarian extension echoes a civil liberty approach (i.e. a commitment to extending equal rights to all members of a community). In environmentalism, the community is generally thought to consist of non-humans as well as humans.

Andrew Brennan was an advocate of ecologic humanism (eco-humanism), the argument that all ontological entities, animate and inanimate, can be given ethical worth purely on the basis that they exist. The work of Arne Næss and his collaborator Sessions also falls under the libertarian extension, although they preferred the term "deep ecology". Deep ecology is the argument for the intrinsic value or inherent worth of the environment – the view that it is valuable in itself. Their argument falls under both the libertarian extension and the ecologic extension.

Peter Singer's work can be categorized under Marshall's 'libertarian extension'. He reasoned that the "expanding circle of moral worth" should be redrawn to include the rights of non-human animals, and to not do so would be guilty of speciesism. Singer found it difficult to accept the argument from intrinsic worth of a-biotic or "non-sentient" (non-conscious) entities, and concluded in his first edition of "Practical Ethics" that they should not be included in the expanding circle of moral worth. This approach is essentially then, bio-centric. However, in a later edition of Practical Ethics after the work of Næss and Sessions, Singer admits that, although unconvinced by deep ecology, the argument from intrinsic value of non-sentient entities is plausible, but at best problematic. Singer advocated a humanist ethics.

Ecologic extension
Alan Marshall's category of ecologic extension places emphasis not on human rights but on the recognition of the fundamental interdependence of all biological (and some abiological) entities and their essential diversity. Whereas Libertarian Extension can be thought of as flowing from a political reflection of the natural world, ecologic extension is best thought of as a scientific reflection of the natural world. Ecological Extension is roughly the same classification of Smith's eco-holism, and it argues for the intrinsic value inherent in collective ecological entities like ecosystems or the global environment as a whole entity. Holmes Rolston, among others, has taken this approach.

This category might include James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis; the theory that the planet earth alters its geo-physiological structure over time in order to ensure the continuation of an equilibrium of evolving organic and inorganic matter. The planet is characterized as a unified, holistic entity with independent ethical value, compared to which the human race is of no particular significance in the long run.

Conservation ethics
Marshall's category of 'conservation ethics' is an extension of use-value into the non-human biological world. It focuses only on the worth of the environment in terms of its utility or usefulness to humans. It contrasts the intrinsic value ideas of 'deep ecology,' hence is often referred to as 'shallow ecology,' and generally argues for the preservation of the environment on the basis that it has extrinsic value – instrumental to the welfare of human beings. Conservation is therefore a means to an end and purely concerned with mankind and inter-generational considerations. It could be argued that it is this ethic that formed the underlying arguments proposed by Governments at the Kyoto summit in 1997 and three agreements reached in the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.

Humanist theories
Peter Singer advocated the preservation of "world heritage sites", unspoilt parts of the world that acquire a "scarcity value" as they diminish over time. Their preservation is a bequest for future generations as they have been inherited from human's ancestors and should be passed down to future generations so they can have the opportunity to decide whether to enjoy unspoilt countryside or an entirely urban landscape. A good example of a world heritage site would be the tropical rainforest, a very specialist ecosystem that has taken centuries to evolve. Clearing the rainforest for farmland often fails due to soil conditions, and once disturbed, can take thousands of years to regenerate.

Applied theology

The Christian world view sees the universe as created by God, and humankind accountable to God for the use of the resources entrusted to humankind. Ultimate values are seen in the light of being valuable to God. This applies both in breadth of scope – caring for people (Matthew 25) and environmental issues, e.g. environmental health (Deuteronomy 22.8; 23.12-14) – and dynamic motivation, the love of Christ controlling (2 Corinthians 5.14f) and dealing with the underlying spiritual disease of sin, which shows itself in selfishness and thoughtlessness. In many countries this relationship of accountability is symbolised at harvest thanksgiving. (B.T. Adeney : Global Ethics in New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology 1995 Leicester)

Abrahamic religious scholars have used theology to motivate the public. John L. O'Sullivan, who coined the term manifest destiny, and other influential people like him used Abrahamic ideologies to encourage action. These religious scholars, columnists and politicians historically have used these ideas and continue to do so to justify the consumptive tendencies of a young America around the time of the Industrial Revolution. In order to solidify the understanding that God had intended for humankind to use earths natural resources, environmental writers and religious scholars alike proclaimed that humans are separate from nature, on a higher order. Those that may critique this point of view may ask the same question that John Muir asks ironically in a section of his novel A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf, why are there so many dangers in the natural world in the form of poisonous plants, animals and natural disasters, The answer is that those creatures are a result of Adam and Eve's sins in the garden of Eden.

Since the turn of the 20th century, the application of theology in environmentalism diverged into two schools of thought. The first system of understanding holds religion as the basis of environmental stewardship. The second sees the use of theology as a means to rationalize the unmanaged consumptions of natural resources. Lynn White and Calvin DeWitt represent each side of this dichotomy.

John Muir personified nature as an inviting place away from the loudness of urban centers. "For Muir and the growing number of Americans who shared his views, Satan's home had become God's Own Temple." The use of Abrahamic religious allusions assisted Muir and the Sierra Club to create support for some of the first public nature preserves.

Authors like Terry Tempest Williams as well as John Muir build on the idea that "...God can be found wherever you are, especially outside. Family worship was not just relegated to Sunday in a chapel." References like these assist the general public to make a connection between paintings done at the Hudson River School, Ansel Adams' photographs, along with other types of media, and their religion or spirituality. Placing intrinsic value upon nature through theology is a fundamental idea of deep ecology.

Normative ethical theories
Normative ethics is a field in Moral Philosophy that investigates how one ought to act. What is morally right and wrong, and how moral standards are determined. Superficially, this approach may seem intrinsically anthropocentric. However, theoretical frameworks from traditional normative ethical theories are abundant within contemporary environmental ethics.

Consequentialism
Consequentialist theories focus on the consequences of actions, this emphasizes not what is 'right', but rather what is of 'value' and 'good'. Act Utilitarianism, for example, expands this formulation to emphasize that what makes an action right is whether it maximises well-being and reduces pain. Thus, actions that result in greater well-being are considered obligatory and permissible. It has been noted that this is an 'instrumentalist' position towards the environment, and as such not fully adequate to the delicate demands of ecological diversity. Rule-utilitarianism is the view that following certain rules without exception is the surest way to bring about the best consequences. This is an important update to act-utilitarianism because agents do not need to judge about the likely consequences of each act; all they must do is determine whether or not a proposed course of action falls under a specific rule and, if it does, act as the rule specifies.

Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic (1949) tries to avoid this type of instrumentalism by proposing a more holistic approach to the relationship between humans and their 'biotic community', so to create a 'limit' based on the maxim that "a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community; it is wrong when it tends otherwise." Thus, the use of natural resources is permissible as long as it does not disrupt the stability of the ecosystem. Some philosophers have categorised Leopold's views to be within a consequentialist framework, however it is disputed whether this was intentional. Other consequentialist views such as that of Peter Singer tend to emphasis the inclusion of non-human sentient beings into ethical considerations. This view argues that all sentient creates which are by nature able to feel pleasure and pain, are of equal moral consideration for their intrinsic value. Nevertheless, non-sentient beings, such as plants, rivers and ecosystems, are considered to be merely instrumental.

Deontology
Deontological theories state that an action should be based on duties or obligations to what is right, instead of what is good. In strong contrast to consequentialism, this view argues for principles of duty based not on a function of value, but on reasons that make no substantive reference to the consequences of an action. Something of intrinsic value, then, has to be protected not because its goodness would maximise a wider good, but because it is valuable in itself; not as a means towards something, but as an end in itself. Thus, if the natural environment is categorised as intrinsically valuable, any destruction or damage to such would be considered wrong as a whole rather than merely due to a calculated loss of net value. It can be said that this approach is more holistic in principle than one of consequentialist nature, as it fits more adequately with the delicate balance of large ecosystems.

Theories of rights, for example, are generally deontological. That is, within this framework an environmental policy that gives rights to non-human sentient beings, would prioritise the conservation of such in their natural state, rather than in an artificial manner. Consider for example, issues in climate engineering; Ocean fertilisation aims to expand marine algae in order to remove higher levels of CO2. A complication from this approach is that it creates salient disruptions to local ecosystems. Furthermore, an environmental ethical theory based on the rights of marine animals in those ecosystems, would create a protection against this type of intervention. Environmental deontologists such as Paul W. Taylor, for example, have argued for a Kantian approach to issues of this kind. Taylor argues that all living things are 'teleological centres of life' deserving of rights and respect. His view uses a concept of 'universalizability', to argue that one ought to act only on actions which could be rationally willed as a universal law. Val Plumwood has criticised this approach by noting that the universalisation framework, is not necessarily based on 'respect' for the other, as it's based on duty and 'becoming' part of the environment.

Virtue ethics
Virtue ethics states that some character traits should be cultivated, and others avoided. This framework avoids problems of defining what is of intrinsic value, by instead arguing that what is important is to act in accordance with the correct character trait. The Golden mean formulation, for example, states that to be 'generous' (virtue), one should neither be miserly (deficiency) or extravagant (excess). Unlike deontology and consequentialism, theories of virtue focus their formulations on how the individual has to act to live a flourishing life. This presents a 'subjective flexibility' which seems like an adequate position to hold considering the fluctuating demands of sustainability. However, as a consequence, it can also be said that this is an inherently anthropocentric standpoint.

Some Ecofeminist theories such as that of Val Plumwood, have been categorised as a form of virtue ethics. Plumwood argues that a virtue-based ethical framework adapts more fittingly to environmental diversity, as virtues such as 'respect', 'gratitude', and 'sensitivity', are not only suitable to ecological subjectivity but also more applicable to the views of indigenous people. Furthermore, what traits would be considered as part of environmental vices? Ronald Sandler argues that detrimental dispositions to human flourishing such as 'greed', 'intemperance' and 'arrogance', lead to detrimental dispositions to the protection of the environment such as 'apathy', against other species, and 'pessimism' about conservation. Views such as this, create a mutualistic connection between virtuous human flourishing, and environmental flourishing.

Anthropocentrism
Anthropocentrism is the position that humans are the most important or critical element in any given situation; that the human race must always be its own primary concern. Detractors of anthropocentrism argue that the Western tradition biases homo sapiens when considering the environmental ethics of a situation and that humans evaluate their environment or other organisms in terms of the utility for them (see speciesism). Many argue that all environmental studies should include an assessment of the intrinsic value of non-human beings, which would entail a reassessment of humans ecocultural identities. In fact, based on this very assumption, a philosophical article has explored recently the possibility of humans' willing extinction as a gesture toward other beings. The authors refer to the idea as a thought experiment that should not be understood as a call for action.

Baruch Spinoza reasoned that if humans were to look at things objectively, they would discover that everything in the universe has a unique value. Likewise, it is possible that a human-centred or anthropocentric/androcentric ethic is not an accurate depiction of reality, and there is a bigger picture that humans may or may not be able to understand from a human perspective.

Peter Vardy distinguished between two types of anthropocentrism. A strong anthropocentric ethic argues that humans are at the center of reality and it is right for them to be so. Weak anthropocentrism, however, argues that reality can only be interpreted from a human point of view, thus humans have to be at the centre of reality as they see it.

Another point of view has been developed by Bryan Norton, who has become one of the essential actors of environmental ethics by launching environmental pragmatism, now one of its leading trends. Environmental pragmatism refuses to take a stance in disputes between defenders of anthropocentrist and non-anthropocentrist ethics. Instead, Norton distinguishes between strong anthropocentrism and weak-or-extended-anthropocentrism and argues that the former must underestimate the diversity of instrumental values humans may derive from the natural world.

A recent view relates anthropocentrism to the future of life. Biotic ethics are based on the human identity as part of gene/protein organic life whose effective purpose is self-propagation. This implies a human purpose to secure and propagate life. Humans are central because only they can secure life beyond the duration of the Sun, possibly for trillions of eons. Biotic ethics values life itself, as embodied in biological structures and processes. Humans are special because they can secure the future of life on cosmological scales. In particular, humans can continue sentient life that enjoys its existence, adding further motivation to propagate life. Humans can secure the future of life, and this future can give human existence a cosmic purpose.

Status of the field
Only after 1990 did the field gain institutional recognition as programs such as Colorado State University, the University of Montana, Bowling Green State University, and the University of North Texas. In 1991, Schumacher College of Dartington, England, was founded and now provides an MSc in Holistic Science.

These programs began to offer a master's degree with a specialty in environmental ethics/philosophy. Beginning in 2005 the Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies at the University of North Texas offered a PhD program with a concentration in environmental ethics/philosophy.

In Germany, the University of Greifswald has recently established an international program in Landscape Ecology & Nature Conservation with a strong focus on environmental ethics. In 2009, the University of Munich and Deutsches Museum founded the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, an international, interdisciplinary center for research and education in the environmental humanities.

Relationship with animal ethics
Differing conceptions of the treatment of and obligations towards animals, particularly those living in the wild, within animal ethics and environmental ethics has been a source of controversy between the two ethical positions; some ethicists have asserted that the two positions are incompatible, while others have argued that these disagreements can be overcome.

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Harry Von Tilzer

Harry Von Tilzer (born Aaron Gumbinsky, also known as Harry Gumm; 8 July 1872 – 10 January 1946) was an American composer, songwriter, publisher and vaudeville performer.

Early life
Von Tilzer was born in Detroit, Michigan. His parents, Sarah (Tilzer) and Jacob Gumbinsky, were Polish Jewish immigrants. Harry ran away and joined a traveling circus at age 14, where he adopted his mother's maiden name as his own, seeking to make it sound even classier by tacking on a "Von." So impressive seemed the transformation that eventually all his brothers changed their last name to match his.

Career
Harry proved successful playing piano and calliope and writing new tunes and incidental music for shows. He continued doing this for burlesque and vaudeville shows for some years, writing many tunes which were not published or which he sold to entertainers for one or two dollars. In 1898, he sold his song "My Old New Hampshire Home" to a publisher for $15, and watched it become a national hit, selling over two million copies of the sheet music. This prompted him to become a professional songwriter.

He was made a partner of the Shapiro Bernstein Publishing Company. His 1900 number "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" became one of the biggest hits of the time. Von Tilzer became one of the best-known Tin Pan Alley songwriters. In 1902, Von Tilzer formed his own publishing company, where he was soon joined by his younger brother Albert Von Tilzer. In 1914, Von Tilzer was a charter member of the performing rights society, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

Harry Von Tilzer's hits included "A Bird in a Gilded Cage," "The Cubanola Glide," "Wait 'Til The Sun Shines Nellie," "Old King Tut," "All Alone," "Mariutch," "The Ragtime Goblin Man," "I Love My Wife, But Oh You Kid!" "They Always Pick On Me," "I Want A Girl (Just Like The Girl That Married Dear Old Dad)" (with lyrics by William Dillon), "And The Green Grass Grew All Around," "On the Old Fall River Line," "Under the Anheuser Bush," and many others.

Death
He died in New York City on January 10, 1946. Lawrence Welk's Teleklew Productions acquired Harry Von Tilzer Music in 1957.

Work on Broadway

 * The Fisher Maiden (1903) – opera – composer
 * The Man From Now (1906) – musical – featured composer
 * The Dairymaids (1907) – musical – featured songwriter
 * Ziegfeld Follies of 1910 (1910) – revue – featured composer for "I'll Get You Yet"
 * Doctor Jazz (1975) – musical – featured songwriter for "I Love It"
 * Tintypes (1980) – revue – featured songwriter

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

title: Harry Von Tilzer


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Albert Von Tilzer

Albert Von Tilzer (born Albert Gumm, March 29, 1878 – October 1, 1956) was an American songwriter, the younger brother of fellow songwriter Harry Von Tilzer. He wrote the music to many hit songs, including, most notably, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".

Early life
He was born Albert Gumm, in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. His parents, Sarah (Tilzer) and Jacob Gumbinsky, were Polish Jewish immigrants. As a young man, he worked briefly at his older brother Harry Von Tilzer's publishing company, and Albert's earliest songs were published by Harry.

Harry had adopted his mother's maiden name, Tilzer, as his own. He sought to make it sound even classier by tacking on the German nobiliary particle "Von". So impressive seemed the transformation that eventually all his brothers (Albert, Will, and Jules) had changed their last name to match his.

Career
Within a few years Albert formed his own firm, The York Publishing Company.

By 1913, Albert had closed The York Publishing Company and joined the firm of his brother Will Von Tilzer.

Albert Von Tilzer was a top Tin Pan Alley tune writer, producing numerous popular music compositions from 1900 continuing through the early 1950s. He collaborated with many lyricists, including Jack Norworth, Lew Brown, and Harry MacPherson. A number of his tunes were performed (and recorded) by jazz bands and continue to be played decades later.

His songs included "The Alcoholic Blues", "Au Revoir But Not Good Bye, Soldier Boy", "Chili Bean", "Dapper Dan", "Don't Take My Darling Boy Away", "Honey Boy", "I May Be Gone for a Long, Long Time", "(I'll Be With You) In Apple Blossom Time", "I'm Glad I'm Married", "I'm the Lonesomest Gal in Town", "I Used to Love You But It's All Over Now", "The Moon Has His Eye On You", "My Cutey's Due at Two-to-Two Today", "My Little Girl", "Oh By Jingo!", "Oh How She Could Yacki-Hacki, Wicki-Wacki, Woo" (interpolated into the show Houp La!, 1916, and recorded by Ida Adams), "Put on Your Slippers and Fill Up Your Pipe, You're Not Going Bye-Bye Tonight", "Put Your Arms Around Me Honey", "Roll Along, Prairie Moon", "Tell Me With Your Eyes", "Wait Till You Get Them Up in the Air, Boys", You Can't Get Away from the Blarney, and hundreds of others.

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was listed as number 8 on the list of Songs of the Century.

Death
He resided in Beverly Hills, California. He died in Los Angeles, California.

Work on Broadway

 * The School Girl (1904) – musical; featured songwriter for "Lonesome"
 * Ziegfeld Follies of 1908 (1908) – revue; featured composer for "You Will Have to Sing an Irish Song", "Nothing Ever Troubles Me (Nothing Ever Ever Ever Hardly Ever Troubles Me)", and "Since Mother Was a Girl"
 * The Happiest Night of His Life (1911) – play; composer
 * Honey Girl (1920) – musical; composer
 * The Gingham Girl (1922) – musical; composer
 * Adrienne (1923) – musical; composer
 * Three Doors (1925) – play; producer
 * Burlesque (1927) – play; featured songwriter
 * Diamonds – featured songwriter

title: Albert Von Tilzer


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User:Geoffrey~enwiki

I'm Geoffrey Thomas, an MIT student (class of 2010). I joined Wikipedia on 20 January 2003, and have been increasingly inactive in high school and college.

I also have previously worked on Wikibooks.

Contact
My MIT username is geofft; see my website for more contact info.

 * AIM: geoffreyerffoeg
 * IRC: geofft on Freenode

title: User:Geoffrey~enwiki


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Napier, New Zealand

Napier (Ahuriri) is a city on the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Hawke's Bay region. It is a beachside city with a seaport, known for its sunny climate, esplanade lined with Norfolk pines, and extensive Art Deco architecture. Napier is sometimes referred to as the "Nice of the Pacific", although that is largely outdated and a more common nickname is 'The Art Deco Capital of the world'.

The population of Napier is about About 18 km south of Napier is the inland city of Hastings. These two neighbouring cities are often called "The Bay Cities" or "The Twin Cities" of New Zealand, with the two cities and the surrounding towns of Havelock North and Clive having a combined population of (0+0+0+0). The City of Napier has a land area of 106 km2 and a population density of 540.0 per square kilometre.

Napier is the nexus of the largest wool centre in the Southern Hemisphere, and it has the primary export seaport for northeastern New Zealand – which is the largest producer of apples, pears, and stone fruit in New Zealand. The Hawke's Bay wine region is now the second largest in New Zealand after Marlborough, and grapes grown around Hastings and Napier are sent through the Port of Napier for export. Large amounts of sheep's wool, frozen meat, wood pulp, and timber also pass through Napier annually for export. Smaller amounts of these materials are shipped via road and railway to the large metropolitan areas of New Zealand itself, such as Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton.

Napier is a popular tourist city, with a unique concentration of 1930s Art Deco, and to a lesser extent Spanish Mission, architecture, built after much of the city was razed in the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake. It also has one of the most photographed tourist attractions in the country, a statue of the figure in local Ngāti Kahungunu mythology, Pania, on Marine Parade, Pania of the Reef. Thousands of people flock to Napier every February for the Tremains Art Deco Weekend event, a celebration of its Art Deco heritage and history. Other notable tourist events attracting many outsiders to the region annually include F.A.W.C! Food and Wine Classic events, and the Mission Estate Concert at Mission Estate Winery in the suburb of Taradale.

Māori history
Napier has well-documented Māori history. When the Ngāti Kahungunu party of Taraia reached the district many centuries ago, the Whatumamoa, Rangitane, Ngāti Awa and elements of the Ngāti Tara iwi lived in the nearby areas of Petane, Te Whanganui-a-Orotu and Waiohiki. Ngāti Kahungunu later became the dominant force from Poverty Bay to Wellington. Chief Te Ahuriri cut a channel from the lagoon to the sea at Ahuriri because the Westshore entrance had become blocked, threatening cultivations surrounding the lagoon and the fishing villages on the islands in the lagoon. The rivers were continually feeding freshwater into the area. Ngāti Kahungunu were one of the first Māori tribes that European settlers had contact with.

European settlers history
Captain James Cook and his crew were the first Europeans to see the future site of Napier when they sailed down the east coast in October 1769. He commented: "On each side of this bluff head is a low, narrow sand or stone beach, between these beaches and the mainland is a pretty large lake of salt water I suppose." He said the harbour entrance was at the Westshore end of the shingle beach.

After 1830, the site was visited and later settled by European traders, whalers and missionaries. By the 1850s, farmers and hotel-keepers arrived.

The Crown purchased the Ahuriri block (including the site of Napier) in 1851. In 1854 Alfred Domett, a future Prime Minister of New Zealand, was appointed as the Commissioner of Crown Lands and the resident magistrate at the village of Ahuriri. It was decided to place a planned town here, its streets and avenues were laid out, and the new town named for Sir Charles Napier, a military leader during the "Battle of Meeanee" fought in the country of Sindh, in the Indian subcontinent. Domett named many streets in Napier to commemorate the colonial era of the British Indian Empire.

Development was generally confined to the hills and to the port area of Ahuriri. In the early years, Napier covered almost exclusively an oblong group of hills (the Scinde Island) which was nearly entirely surrounded by the ocean, but from which ran out two single spits, one to the north and one to the south. There was a swamp between the now Hastings Street and Wellesley Road, and the sea extended to Clive Square.

Napier was designated as a borough in 1874, but the development of the surrounding marshlands and reclamation proceeded slowly. Napier was the administrative centre for the Hawke's Bay Province from 1858 until the abolition of New Zealand's provincial governments in 1876.

20th century
On 3 February 1931, most of Napier and nearby Hastings were levelled by an earthquake. The collapse of buildings and the ensuing fires killed 256 people. Some 4000 hectares of today's Napier were undersea before the earthquake raised it above sea level. The earthquake uplifted an area of 1500 km2 with a maximum of 2.7 m of uplift. In Hastings, about 1 m of ground subsidence occurred.

The centre of Napier, destroyed by the earthquake, was rebuilt in the Art Deco style popular in the 1930s. Although a few Art Deco buildings were replaced with contemporary structures in the 1960s to 1980s, most of the centre remained intact for long enough to become recognised as architecturally important, and it has been protected and restored since the 1990s. Napier and the area of South Beach, Miami, Florida, are considered to be the two best-preserved Art Deco towns (with the town of Miami Beach, Florida, being mostly decorated in the somewhat later Streamline Moderne style of Art Deco). Beginning in 2007, Napier was nominated as a World Heritage Site with UNESCO. This is the first cultural site in New Zealand to be so nominated. It was denied World Heritage status in 2011 as it did not meet the appropriate criteria. Still, the report of the application acknowledged the Art Deco heritage as "first and foremost of outstanding value to all New Zealanders".

In January 1945, the GS U-862 entered and departed from the port of Napier undetected. This event became the basis of a widely circulated postwar tall tale that the captain of this U-boat, Heinrich Timm, had led crewmen ashore near Napier to milk cows to supplement their meagre rations.

Modern history
Napier was the scene of an armed attack by cannabis dealer Jan Molenaar on three police officers searching his home in May 2009. He killed one officer, and wounded two others and a civilian. He continued to fire shots from his house, which police besieged, until he committed suicide 40 hours later.

On 9 November 2020, a local state of emergency was declared in Napier after the region received 237 mm of rainfall across 24 hours – the most daily rainfall in the city since 1963 and the second most since records began. The event caused widespread flooding, slips, power cuts and evacuations.

On 14 February 2023, floods caused by Cyclone Gabrielle destroyed bridges over the Tutaekuri River, and damaged a major regional electrical substation at Redclyffe, which cut power to much of northern Hawke's Bay including its telecommunication infrastructure. Flooding also caused extensive property damage to Esk Valley, Taradale and Meeanee, as well as loss of crops, livestock and several human lives.

Geography and climate

The city is on Napier Hill and the surrounding Heretaunga Plains at the southeastern edge of Hawke Bay, a large semi-circular bay that dominates the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The coastline of the city was substantially altered by a large earthquake in 1931. About two thirds of Napier's land area is rural.

The topography puts Napier in danger from a tsunami, as the centre of the commercial city is near sea level – should the sea ever crest Marine Parade, the sea would run through to Ahuriri. Furthermore, by virtue of its pre-1931 existence, the bulk of Napier is susceptible to soil liquefaction, the risk classed as Very High for the main urban area excluding the hill.

Under the Köppen climate classification, Napier has an oceanic climate (Cfb). The climate is warm and relatively dry, resulting from its location on the east coast of the North Island. Most of New Zealand's weather patterns cross the country from the west, and the city lies in the rain shadow of the North Island Volcanic Plateau and surrounding ranges such as the Kaweka Range.

Suburbs
Suburbs of Napier include:

 * Ahuriri Ward:
 * Ahuriri
 * Bay View
 * Napier Port
 * Bluff Hill
 * Hospital Hill
 * Onekawa (north part)
 * Pandora
 * Westshore

 * Nelson Park Ward:
 * Awatoto (north part)
 * Maraenui
 * Marewa (south part)
 * Napier CBD
 * Napier South
 * Onekawa (south part)
 * Pirimai (south part)

 * Onekawa-Tamatea Ward:
 * Marewa (north part)
 * Onekawa (rest)
 * Onekawa Central
 * Onekawa West
 * Pirimai (north part)
 * Tamatea
 * Tamatea North
 * Tamatea South

 * Taradale Ward:
 * Awatoto (south part)
 * Greenmeadows
 * Jervoistown
 * Lagoon Farm
 * Meeanee
 * Orutu Park
 * Poraiti
 * Taradale
 * Taradale North
 * Taradale South
 * Te Awa

Demographics
The Napier urban area, as defined by Statistics New Zealand, is coterminous with the Napier City territorial authority and covers 105.05 km2. It had an estimated population of as of  with a population density of  people per km2.

Napier City had a population of 64,695 in the 2023 New Zealand census, an increase of 2,454 people (3.9%) since the 2018 census, and an increase of 7,455 people (13.0%) since the 2013 census. There were 26,919 dwellings. The median age was 42.0 years (compared with 38.1 years nationally). There were 11,910 people (18.4%) aged under 15 years, 11,118 (17.2%) aged 15 to 29, 27,993 (43.3%) aged 30 to 64, and 13,680 (21.1%) aged 65 or older.

Ethnicities were 79.0% European/Pākehā, 24.2% Māori, 4.2% Pasifika, 6.5% Asian, 1.0% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders, and 1.3% other. People may identify with more than one ethnicity.

Napier City had a population of 62,241 at the 2018 New Zealand census. There were 23,670 households, comprising 29,766 males and 32,478 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.92 males per female.

The percentage of people born overseas was 16.3, compared with 27.1% nationally.

Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 52.3% had no religion, 34.3% were Christian, 2.6% had Māori religious beliefs, 0.6% were Hindu, 0.3% were Muslim, 0.7% were Buddhist and 2.0% had other religions.

Of those at least 15 years old, 8,622 (17.3%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 10,116 (20.3%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $28,900, compared with $31,800 nationally. 6,660 people (13.3%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 23,535 (47.1%) people were employed full-time, 7,422 (14.9%) were part-time, and 1,755 (3.5%) were unemployed.

Tourism and architecture

Napier's major tourist attraction is its architecture, which draws Art Deco and architecture enthusiasts from around the world. The rebuilding period after the 1931 earthquake coincided with the short-lived and rapidly changing Art Deco era and the Great Depression, when little "mainstreet" development was being undertaken elsewhere. As a result, Napier's architecture is strikingly different from any other city; the other notable Art Deco city, Miami Beach, has Streamline Moderne Art Deco. The whole centre of Napier was rebuilt simultaneously.

Other tourist attractions in Napier include MTG Hawke's Bay (the museum, art gallery and theatre) which features information on both the 1931 earthquake and Napier's redesign as an Art Deco city, the National Aquarium, the Napier Prison, the Soundshell and the Pania of the Reef statue. The Pania statue on Marine Parade is regarded in Napier in much the same way that the Little Mermaid statue is regarded in Copenhagen. In October 2005, the statue was stolen, but it was recovered a week later, largely unharmed. Marineland was a tourist attraction from 1965 until it closed in 2009.

The National Aquarium is one of the foremost aquariums in New Zealand. The historic Napier Prison is the oldest prison in New Zealand and visitors can learn about the history of prisons as well as witness the path of the 1931 earthquake. It is the only place in Napier where some of the earthquake damage has been left in place. Tourists flock to Napier in February for Art Deco weekend. In 2018, the festival celebrated its 30th year, attracting an estimated 45,000 people. The Mission Estate Winery Concert in the Napier suburb of Greenmeadows which has featured Chris De Burgh, Olivia Newton-John, Eric Clapton, Kenny Rogers, Ray Charles, Rod Stewart, Sting performing with the NZ Symphony Orchestra, Shirley Bassey, Beach Boys, Doobie Brothers, Tom Jones, and in 2013 Barry Gibb with Carol King.

Attractions nearby include the Cape Kidnappers Gannet Colony and many vineyards bordering Taradale, Hastings City, and north of Napier around Bay View and the Esk Valley.

Many people use Napier as a gateway to Hawke's Bay, flying in to Hawke's Bay Airport at Westshore from Wellington City, Auckland and Christchurch. Tourists also enter Napier by State Highway 2 along the coast and State Highway 5 from Taupō. The rail line in and out of Hawke's Bay had a passenger service until 2001.

Culture and entertainment

Napier markets itself as the Art Deco Capital. The Hawke's Bay wine region is important to Napier's economy, with over 70 wineries located in the area. The region featured in Wine Enthusiast Magazine as one of the 10 Best Wine Travel Destinations in 2015. The region is New Zealand's largest apple, pear and stone fruit producer. The Port of Napier and rail network provides quick export of these goods.

A large attraction is the Art Deco building designs. Marine Parade is one of Napier's most famous highlights – a tree-lined ocean boulevard with fountains, gardens, mini golf, statues and spas. The National Aquarium is at the south end of Marine Parade. The historic Napier Prison is located off the northern end of Marine Parade. Recent redevelopments of Marine Parade have seen the addition of shaded picnic areas and playgrounds. Napier's theatre scene includes productions put on by the Napier Operatic Society, based at the Tabard Theatre and putting on musicals at the Napier Municipal Theatre, another notable example of Art Deco architecture. There are high street and boutique stores as well as antique shops, art galleries, and studios of potters, wood turners and craftsman.

The marina and waterfront in Ahuriri is a sea-tourism attraction. Swimming and family activities are popular in Pandora Pond – a salt water inlet by the inner harbour in Ahuriri – or on the beaches and playgrounds of Marine Parade, Westshore and Ahuriri. The several rivers that flow through the region are used for water activities, such as jet boating, jet skiing, rowing, kayaking, fishing, whitebaiting and swimming.

Development of the region's cycleways and walkways has included dedicated cycle lanes being established on urban streets in the Napier-Hastings urban areas, as well as a large variety of off-road pathways, which are often used as mixed use pathways for cyclists and pedestrians, such as the paths that stretch from Bay View to Clifton. The Hawke's Bay Trails contain nearly 200 km of cycleways that meander through and around the cities, and link the Napier-Hastings urban areas with surrounding suburbs and the local district.

The annual model aircraft show 'Warbirds over Awatoto' takes place on the outskirts of Napier. The 2013 gathering attracted 48 pilots and 120 planes.

Economy
The largest industry in Napier and its environs is processing/manufacturing, the major products being food, textiles, wood, metal products and machinery/equipment. Other significant industries for the region include property/business services, rural production/rural services and retail.

Napier was once home to one of New Zealand's largest smoking tobacco plants. On 9 September 2005 British American Tobacco announced it would close the Rothmans factory, due to diminished demand. Production has moved to Australia. The Art Deco-style factory had been producing up to 2.2 billion cigarettes a year for the New Zealand and Pacific Island markets. In March 1999, 19 people lost their jobs there because "fewer people are smoking".

Local
Napier has been governed by Napier City Council since 1950.

Local government reform was mooted in the late 1990s and a referendum was held in 1999 proposing an amalgamation of the Hastings District Council with the Napier City Council. Although supported by approximately two-thirds of Hastings voters, Napier voters rejected the proposal by a similar number and the proposal was defeated.

The National Government amended the Local Government Act in 2012 to determine a reorganisation proposal by a majority vote over the entire proposed area, rather than a majority over each existing area, as was previously the case. Yet another change was to allow private submissions to the commission to trigger the process, whereas previously only local councils themselves could request a change in structure or boundary. The legislative restrictions on councils using public funds to support or challenge a final proposal did not apply to private lobby groups or individuals, however.

After a lengthy and divisive regional campaign to restructure local government in Hawke's Bay, in 2015 the Local Government Commission put forward a final reorganisation proposal to amalgamate Napier City Council with Wairoa District Council, Hastings District Council and Central Hawke's Bay District Council to form a proposed 'Hawke's Bay Council'. A postal ballot was established to maximise voter returns, and the vote closed on 15 September 2015. An interim count was available later that day, that saw the proposal defeated across the region by about 66%. In Napier, the proposal was rejected by 84% of voters.

National
The city is part of the general electorate and the  Māori electorate. In the 2023 general election, Napier was won by Katie Nimon of the National Party and Ikaroa-Rāwhiti by Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, of the Labour Party.

Sport
McLean Park is the main sporting venue in Hawke's Bay. The main sports played at the venue are cricket and rugby union. It was used to host matches during the 1987 Rugby World Cup, the 2011 Rugby World Cup and the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

The city is home to the professional basketball team Hawke's Bay Hawks, which plays in the National Basketball League. It plays its home games in the Pettigrew Green Arena.

Meeanee Speedway is a motorcycle speedway venue, located in Meeanee, on Sandy Road. The track races various types of cars, in addition to motorcycle speedway. It opened in 1961 and is the home of Hawkes Bay Speedway Club. It has held important speedway events, including qualifying rounds of the Speedway World Championship and finals of the New Zealand Solo Championship.

Air
Hawke's Bay Airport is the main airport in the Hawke's Bay region and has domestic flight services. It is jointly owned by the government, Napier City Council, and Hastings District Council, and is operated by Hawke's Bay Airport Ltd. The airport is located in the Napier suburb of Westshore. Air New Zealand provides frequent direct flights to and from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Sunair serves Tauranga, Gisborne and Wairoa. Jetstar, a Qantas subsidiary, served Auckland from 2015 to 2019 and Sounds Air used to operate direct flights to Blenheim daily. Smaller charter companies also operate, including Air Napier to Gisborne. The airport was historically referred to as Napier Airport, and its IATA code reflects that: NPE. It is situated on land that was formerly the Ahuriri Lagoon, an area that was raised above sea level by the 1931 Napier earthquake. The airport is located approximately 22 km north of Hastings Aerodrome, a smaller airport located close to Hastings that caters mainly for flight training and general aviation.

Pathways
The Hawke's Bay region has extensive cycleways and footpaths that originally began as the 'Rotary Pathways' between Napier and Hastings, and is now known as the 'Hawke's Bay Trails'. The network of pathways links the urban areas of Napier and Hastings, as well as many of the other outlying suburbs of the two cities. Some of the cycleways include dedicated cycling lanes on roads within the city, as well as separate dedicated pathways on roadsides and through parks and other areas, many of which are mixed use pathways for cyclists and pedestrians, such as the paths that stretch from Bay View to Clifton. The Hawke's Bay Trails contain over 200 km of cycleways that meander through and around the Napier-Hastings twin cities. The Napier Rotary Pathway creates a loop that encompasses the city from Esk River, to Westshore, Napier Central, Awatoto, Taradale, Poraiti, and looping back to the Esk Valley. This rotary also has several links to the Hastings Rotary Pathway.

Roads
State Highway 2 is the principal state highway serving Napier, connecting it to Wairoa and Gisborne to the north, and, via Dannevirke, to Wellington, Masterton and Palmerston North to the south. Between Napier and Hastings, SH 2 follows the Hawke's Bay Expressway, also known as the Napier-Hastings Expressway, which provides a direct and efficient link between the two cities. Although the Hawke's Bay Expressway bypasses Napier itself, it has connections to many of Napier's arterial roads that lead to the city centre and the Port (such as the junctions at Kennedy Road, Taradale Road, Prebensen Drive and Meeanee Quay) and also intersects with the access road to Hawke's Bay Airport.

State Highway 5, known as the Napier-Taupo Road, begins at a junction on SH 2 just north of the Napier suburb of Bay View, and connects Napier and the Hawke's Bay region to Taupō and the central North Island. It is also the main route used for traffic travelling from Napier-Hastings to Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua and Tauranga, as it is quicker than the route through Gisborne taken by SH 2.

State Highway 50 connects Napier to the southwestern Hawke's Bay, going through many small settlements. It also connects Napier to many of Hawke's Bay's wineries, of which the region is well known for. It makes up part of the Hawke's Bay Wine Trail.

State Highway 51 is an alternative connection between Napier and Hastings, and largely follows the original route of SH 2 between the two cities prior to the completion of the Hawke's Bay Expressway, and SH 2 being shifted to run along it. While the original route followed Meeanee Quay through the suburbs of Westshore and Ahuriri before bridging across the Pandora Pond area of the Napier Inner Harbour marina, the SH 51 route follows Taradale Road instead, meeting up with the original SH 2 route at the southern base of Napier Hill at Hyderabad Road. The route then moves onto Georges Drive, where it borders the southern and western edges of the Napier city centre. It meets up with Marine Parade south of the CBD, and then follows the coast south from Napier through Clive to Hastings.

Buses
Go Bus operates 9 Go Bay routes in Napier, with funding from Regional Council. Bee Cards replaced goBay cards in August 2020.

Rail
The Palmerston North–Gisborne Line runs through Napier. The southern portion of the line between Napier and Palmerston North was built between 1872 and 1891, and the northern portion between Napier and Gisborne from 1912 to 1942. The line from Gisborne enters Napier via the coast, making its way through the city, before eventually turning inland towards Hastings, and onwards to Woodville (where the Wairarapa Line branches off) and Palmerston North.

The Napier Port Branch, formerly known as the Ahuriri Branch, is a 2 km railway branch line off the Palmerston North-Gisborne Line that serves the Port of Napier. Napier Railway Station was the main railway station in Napier and an intermediate stop on the Palmerston North-Gisborne Line. It opened on 12 October 1874, when the station and the first section of the line between Napier and Hastings was opened. The line through the Manawatū Gorge to Palmerston North and hence to Wellington was opened on 9 March 1891. The line north of Napier to Gisborne was opened on 3 August 1942, with passenger services from 7 September. Napier was the terminus for both Gisborne and Wellington goods trains, though some passenger trains ran straight through.

The original Napier station building was on the corner of Station Street and Millar Street, close to the centre of Napier. The facilities on the site increased to include the passenger station plus a goods yard, locomotive depot, workshop and a way and works branch. The line was on a curve and difficult to work, and the site was limited by level crossings at each end and with no room for expansion.

Hence, in a two-year programme to 1991, most functions followed the Way and Works to Pandora Point, at the start of the Ahuriri Branch, leaving only a new InterCity coach and train terminal on the city site, fronting Munroe Street. The old station was closed on 6 October 1990, and was replaced by a new station on 9 June 1991. The existing station and three-story administrative block built in the late 1950s and early 1960s were demolished and some three hectares of land was available for retail development.

A marshalling yard, freight terminal, locomotive depot and other facilities were established at Pandora Point, with a triangle provided to turn trains and giving direct access north and south from the port branch. The Ahuriri yard was closed. The old main line north to Gisborne was realigned to the east to allow a new link road to the Tamatea area of Napier, and railways land was redeveloped as an industrial subdivision. On 7 October 2001 the Bay Express from Wellington to Napier was cancelled and passenger services on the line ceased.

Health
Napier Hospital opened on what is now Hospital Hill in 1880. During the 1990s, hospital services in the Hawke's Bay were rationalised, culminating in Napier Hospital closing in 1998 and most services transferred to Hastings Hospital (now Hawke's Bay Fallen Soldiers' Memorial Hospital).

In addition to the services provided by Hawke's Bay Hospital, the Hawke's Bay District Health Board operates a 24-hour urgent care and outpatient clinic located in central Napier.

Energy
Town gas supply to Napier began in January 1876 following the completion of the Napier gas works on the corner of Wellesley Road and Sale Street. The Napier Borough Council established its first gas street lights in 1879.

The Napier Municipal Electricity Department (MED) established the city's first public supply in September 1913, using town gas and later diesel engines for generation and supplied consumers with 230/460 volts DC. Street lighting switched to electricity in 1915. Conversion to the now-standard 230/400 volts AC began in 1925 with the commissioning of a 400 kW Fullager diesel generator, ahead of the arrival of grid power from Mangahao in 1927 and from Waikaremoana in 1929. The Fullager generator remained in service as a peaking plant until it was decommissioned in 1970. Taradale and rural areas around the city were supplied by the Hawke's Bay Electric Power Board, formed in 1924.

Natural gas arrived in Napier and Hastings in 1983, with the completion of the high-pressure pipeline from Kapuni gas field in Taranaki via Palmerston North to the cities. Town gas consumers were converted to natural gas over the next five years, culminating in the Napier gas works closing on 21 March 1988.

In 1991, the MED merged with the Electric Power Board, later renamed Hawke's Bay Power. The 1998 electricity sector reforms saw the retail base sold to Contact Energy, with the remaining lines business renamed Hawke's Bay Networks and later Unison Networks.

In February 2004, the city and wider Hawke's Bay region lost natural gas supply for six days after a flood washed away a bridge near Ashhurst supporting the high-pressure pipeline to the region.

Water supply and sanitation
Napier's reticulated water supply is drawn from the Heretaunga Plains artesian aquifer below the city through seven bores. The city's water demand averages 27500 m3 per day, with demand in summer peaking at 39400 m3 per day.

The city's wastewater plant is at Awatoto, and treated wastewater is discharged into Hawke Bay via a 1.5 km outfall pipe. The Awatoto wastewater plant and outfall were opened in 1973, replacing the previous outfall at Perfume Point in Ahuriri. The wastewater plant was initially a comminutor station and was upgraded in 1991 with milliscreens and in 2014 with biological trickling filters.

Schools and higher education
Napier has five state secondary schools: Napier Boys' High School, Napier Girls' High School, William Colenso College, Tamatea High School and Taradale High School. Other secondary schools include Sacred Heart College and St Joseph's Māori Girls' College, both state integrated Catholic girls' schools, and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Ara Hou, a Māori language immersion school.

The Eastern Institute of Technology in Taradale is the main tertiary education provider for Napier and the Hawke's Bay.

Media
The Hastings-based Hawke's Bay Today is the main daily newspaper serving Napier. The newspaper was established in 1999 following the merger of the Napier-based The Daily Telegraph with the Hastings-based Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune.

The city's main television and FM radio transmitter is the Mount Erin transmitter atop Kohinurākau, 28 km south-southwest of central Napier. Television arrived in the city in 1962 with the commissioning of a private translator relaying Wellington's WNTV1 (now part of TVNZ 1). Official coverage came in 1966 with the commissioning of the Mount Erin transmitter.

Notable people

 * Sir Ian Axford – space scientist
 * Mike Boon – comedian
 * Adele Broadbent (born 1968), children's author
 * Sir Ashley Bloomfield – Chief Executive of the Ministry of Health and the country's Director-General of Health, born in Napier
 * Frank Livingstone Combs – Teacher and author, born in Napier
 * Thomas Allan Napier Corson – businessman and local politician, born in Napier
 * Jamie Curry – YouTube Personality
 * Archibald George William Dunningham – one of the founders of modern librarianship in New Zealand
 * Spencer Gollan – sportsman and racehorse owner
 * Debbie Harwood – singer with When The Cat's Away
 * Paul Henare – basketball player for the New Zealand Breakers and the Tall Blacks
 * Alfred Hindmarsh – politician
 * Chris Jackson – former New Zealand international and Napier City Rovers association football player
 * Anna Kavan, British novelist, lived in Napier in 1942–43
 * Phil Lamason – WWII pilot – born in Napier
 * Simon Mannering – New Zealand Warriors rugby league player and captain
 * Paratene Matchitt – artist
 * Stuart Nash – politician
 * Dean Parker – writer and political commentator (born in Napier)
 * Nyree Dawn Porter – actress
 * John Psathas – composer
 * Major General Sir Andrew Hamilton Russell KCB, KCMG – born in Napier
 * Renée – feminist writer, playwright, novelist and short story writer
 * Darren Smith – field hockey player
 * Anna Elizabeth Jerome Spencer- Educator
 * Percy Storkey – soldier and Victoria Cross winner
 * Chris Tremain – politician
 * Kel Tremain – rugby player
 * Shane Young – Mixed Martial Arts fighter

Sister cities
Napier City Council recognises three sister city relationships:

 * Lianyungang, Jiangsu, China
 * Tomakomai, Japan
 * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

title: Napier, New Zealand


text:
John McPhee

John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American writer. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the fourth occasion in 1999 for Annals of the Former World (a collection of five books, including two of his previous Pulitzer finalists). In 2008, he received the George Polk Career Award for his "indelible mark on American journalism during his nearly half-century career". Since 1974, McPhee has been the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University.

Background
McPhee has lived in Princeton, New Jersey, for most of his life. He was born in Princeton, the son of the Princeton University athletic department's physician, Dr. Harry McPhee. He was educated at Princeton High School, then spent a postgraduate year at Deerfield Academy, before graduating from Princeton University in 1953 with a senior thesis titled "Skimmer Burns", and spending a year at Magdalene College, Cambridge. McPhee was a member of University Cottage Club while he was a student at Princeton.

While at Princeton, McPhee went to New York once or twice a week to appear as the juvenile panelist on the radio and television quiz program Twenty Questions. One of his roommates at Princeton was 1951 Heisman Trophy winner Dick Kazmaier.

Twice married, McPhee is the father of four daughters from his first marriage to Pryde Brown: the novelists Jenny McPhee and Martha McPhee, photographer Laura McPhee, and architecture historian Sarah McPhee.

Writing career
McPhee's writing career began at Time magazine, and led to a long association with the weekly magazine The New Yorker from 1963 to the present. Many of his thirty-one books include material originally written for The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1965.

Unlike Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson, who helped kick-start the "new journalism" of the 1960s, McPhee produced a gentler, more literary style of writing that more thoroughly incorporated techniques from fiction. McPhee avoided the streams of consciousness styles of Wolfe and Thompson, but used detailed description of characters and vivid language to make his writing lively and personal, even when it focused on obscure or difficult topics. He is highly regarded by fellow writers for the quality, quantity, and diversity of his literary output.

Reflecting his personal interests, McPhee's subjects are highly eclectic. He has written pieces on lifting-body development (The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed), the psyche and experience of a nuclear engineer (The Curve of Binding Energy), a New Jersey wilderness area (The Pine Barrens), the United States Merchant Marine (Looking for a Ship), farmers' markets (Giving Good Weight), the movement of coal across America ("Coal Train" in Uncommon Carriers), the shifting flow of the Mississippi River ("Atchafalaya" in The Control of Nature), geology (in several books), as well as a short book entirely on the subject of oranges. One of his most widely read books, Coming into the Country, is about the three faces of Alaska: the urban, the rural, and the Alaskan wilderness.

McPhee has profiled a number of famous people, including conservationist David Brower in Encounters with the Archdruid, and the young Bill Bradley, whom McPhee followed closely during Bradley's four-year basketball career at Princeton University.

Teaching
McPhee has been a nonfiction writing instructor at Princeton University since 1974, having taught generations of aspiring undergraduate writers as the Ferris Professor of Journalism. Many of McPhee's students have achieved their own distinction for writing:
 * David Remnick, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and editor-in-chief of The New Yorker since 1998
 * Richard Stengel, former managing editor of Time magazine
 * Jim Kelly, former managing editor of Time magazine
 * Robert Wright, former senior editor at The New Republic and columnist for Time, Slate and the New York Times, and author of award-winning books
 * Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and other books
 * Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone and other books about infectious disease epidemics and bioterrorism
 * Peter Hessler, contributor to The New Yorker and author of three books about China
 * Timothy Ferriss, entrepreneur and author of The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Body
 * Joel Achenbach, writer for the Washington Post and author of seven books
 * Jennifer Weiner, best-selling author of Good In Bed, In Her Shoes, and other novels

Awards and honors
McPhee has received many literary honors, including the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, awarded for Annals of the Former World. In 1978 McPhee received a LittD from Bates College, in 2009 he received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Yale University, and in 2012 he received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Amherst College.

 * Pulitzer Prize (1999) for Annals of the Former World
 * Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1977)
 * Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1993)
 * Finalist, National Book Award (science) for The Curve of Binding Energy
 * Nominated, National Book Award (science), for Encounters with the Archdruid
 * Wallace Stegner Award (2011) for "sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the West through literature, art, history, lore, or an understanding of the West".
 * National Book Critics Circle Award Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award (2017)

title: John McPhee


text:
1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake

The 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, also known as the Napier earthquake, occurred in New Zealand at 10:47 am on 3 February, killing 256, injuring thousands and devastating the Hawke's Bay region. It remains New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster. Centred 15 km north of Napier, it lasted for two and a half minutes and had a magnitude of 7.8 (7.7 ). There were 525 aftershocks recorded in the following two weeks, with 597 being recorded by the end of February. The main shock could be felt in much of New Zealand, with reliable reports coming in from as far south as Timaru, on the east coast of the South Island.

Tectonic setting
New Zealand lies along the boundary between the Indo-Australian Plate and Pacific Plates. In the South Island most of the relative displacement between these plates is taken up along a single dextral (right lateral) strike-slip fault with a major reverse component, the Alpine Fault. In the North Island the displacement is mainly taken up along the Hikurangi Subduction Zone, although the remaining dextral strike-slip component of the relative plate motion is accommodated by the North Island Fault System (NIFS).

The earthquake is thought to have occurred on one of the larger thrust faults within the accretionary wedge, at between ca. 5 km depth and ca. 20–25 km depth (which is the approximate depth of subducted Pacific plate at that location).

Damage and effects
Nearly all buildings in the central areas of Napier and Hastings were levelled (The Dominion noted that "Napier as a town has been wiped off the map"). At the time, the Hawke's Bay New Zealand's most damaging earthquake to buildings since European settlement began around 1840.

The local landscape changed dramatically, with the coastal areas around Napier being lifted by around two metres. The most noticeable land change was the uplifting of some 40 km2 of sea-bed to become dry land. This included Ahuriri Lagoon, which was lifted more than 2.7 metres and resulted in draining 9000 acre of the lagoon. Today, this area is the location of Hawke's Bay Airport, housing and industrial developments and farmland.

The material damage of the earthquake was estimated at $.

Fires
Within minutes fires broke out in a few chemist shops in Hastings Street, Napier. The fire brigade almost had the first fire under control when the second broke out in a shop at the back of the Masonic Hotel. The fire continued to spread through adjoined wooden buildings, which led to the entire town being engulfed in flames by the afternoon. The wind at this point also picked up strength and began blowing from the east, pushing the fires back over the city. The day was hot and dry which increased the fire's ability to spread. With water mains broken, the brigade was unable to save many buildings. Attempts were made at pumping water from the sea, but these failed. Fire engines at Napier's central fire station were covered in debris from the earthquake which made them unavailable for use. Pumping water from Clive Square, they were able to stop the fires spreading south. Only a few buildings in the central Napier area survived. Some withstood the earthquake only to be gutted by fire. Trapped people had to be left to burn as people were unable to free them in time. It took until the following afternoon for the main fires to go out, but the ruins still smouldered for several days.

In Hastings, the fires were quickly brought under control.

Utilities
The entire east coast of the North Island lost electricity during the quake, although power was restored to Masterton, Pahiatua, Dannevirke and Waipukurau within two hours, and to Gisborne within ten hours. At Napier substation, the transformers were tipped over by the force of the quake and the high-voltage switchgear damaged, while the Napier to Tuai transmission line was taken out of service after a landslide caused a tower to collapse. A limited supply was restored to Napier and Hastings on 4 February; due to the damage at Napier substation, the Waipukurau to Napier transmission line was jumpered to the low-voltage switchgear at both ends. The Napier to Tuai line was repaired and put back into service on 12 February, while full supply to Napier substation was restored on 29 March.

There was also severe damage to sewerage systems, gas supply and telegraph systems.

Transport
The earthquake caused great damage to Napier's roads, railways, bridges and wharves. Rails were badly twisted. The city's tram tracks were also twisted, and were never restored.

New Zealand's first commercial air disaster occurred six days after the quake, when a Dominion Airlines Desoutter monoplane crashed near Wairoa. The small airline had been making three return trips a day between Hastings and Gisborne, carrying passengers and supplies. All three on board were killed.

Et cetera
A group of prisoners working at Bluff Hill in Napier had four of their number buried in a landslip by the quake. The remaining prisoners dug them out, but two had been killed. The prisoners re-assembled without any attempt to escape and were locked up in the Napier Jail. In Taradale, Mission Estate missionaries' accommodation block had been built and opened in February 1931. The next day the Hawke's Bay earthquake struck, causing serious damage to the entire Mission. Two priests and seven students were killed when the stone chapel was destroyed. In Havelock North, St Luke's church was damaged (but not destroyed) just before a wedding was due to take place. The couple got married later in the day, but outdoors.

The Napier Daily Telegraph newspaper office was destroyed by the quake. The Hawke's Bay Herald 's printing facility in Hastings were also destroyed.

Napier Technical College was destroyed in the earthquakes, which caused it to be disestablished and amalgamated into Napier Girls' High School and Napier Boys' High School.

About 10 per cent of homes on soft ground in Napier experienced ground damage, such as liquefaction. There was a large amount of damage to buildings, mainly ones made of brick; the earthquake occurred at a time before an earthquake building code was introduced.

Casualties
The official death toll was 256 although the Napier earthquake memorial lists 258 names. Of these, 161 people were in Napier, 93 in Hastings, and two in Wairoa. Thousands more were injured, with over 400 hospitalised. Places with several deaths include 17 deaths due to Roach's department store collapsing, 15 in an old men's home, nine students in Napier Technical College, eight from Grand Hotel, and seven at the Greenmeadows seminary.

Response
Shortly after the earthquake, people escaped to the Marine Parade Beach. After noticing that the shoreline had receded, they ran away in panic under the expectation that a tsunami was on its way. There was, however, no tidal wave; the receded shoreline was caused by the land moving upwards. On 4 February over 5,000 people evacuated Napier, mainly women and children. Men were expected to stay to help out with the recovery. The army and navy also arrived in Napier to help with the recovery. Nelson Park served as Napier's "evacuation centre" which was the site of many tents and was able to cater for over 1,000 people from a field kitchen. Many people also lived in tents in Marine Parade and other places. There were several places that gave out free food in Napier and Hawke's Bay, such as in several schools. Water barrels were also kept full to allow for people to take from them, after losing water access from their homes.

Within four days of the quake, cinemas around New Zealand offered news specials about the disaster.

HMS Veronica
The death toll might have been much higher had the Royal Navy ship HMS Veronica not been in port at the time. Within minutes of the shock the Veronica had sent radio messages asking for help. The sailors joined survivors to fight the fires, rescue trapped people and help give them medical treatment. The Veronica's radio was used to transmit news of the disaster to the outside world and to seek assistance. The crew from two cargo ships, the Northumberland and Taranaki, also joined the rescue works, while two cruisers, HMS Diomede and HMS Dunedin, were dispatched from Auckland that afternoon with food, tents, medicine, blankets, and a team of doctors and nurses. The cruisers sailed at high speed overnight, arrived on 4 February and provided valuable assistance in all areas until their departure on 11 February.

Aftershocks
On 13 February, Hawke's Bay was struck by a 7.3 aftershock. At the time, this was New Zealand's fourth strongest recorded earthquake. Author Matthew Wright reported that "the power failed three seconds before the earthquake was felt in Napier. People from Napier to Dannevirke ran for their lives as previously damaged buildings cracked and fell". He added "Some inland parts of Hawke's Bay felt this aftershock more strongly than 3 February quake ... but 'there was no damage of any moment'. People rushed into the streets in Dannevirke and Masterton. In Wellington all but one of the clocks stopped working in the Dominion Observatory, and ceiling lights in the Evening Post offices swayed 'more vigorously' than they had the week before". The earthquake of 13 February 1931 is widely regarded as an aftershock of the larger event ten days earlier. But Messrs Adams, Barnett and Hayes commenting on the rapid decline in the frequency of aftershocks in the Journal of Science & Technology stated, "The fresh outbreak on the 13th February, due to the severe shock on that date, may almost be regarded as a separate disturbance, although it probably arose from conditions produced by the original shock on the 3rd".

Aftershocks continued to shake Hawke's Bay frequently until July 1931, where the average aftershock occurrence dropped to less than one daily. Aftershocks continued for several years, with the last major jolt shaking the Bay in April 1934.

Below is a list of all recorded aftershocks following the main event.

In all, 597 earthquakes were recorded at Hastings in February 1931, and more than 900 by the end of December 1931.

Recovery
The government quickly realised that the Napier borough council would be overwhelmed with organising the rebuild and appointed two commissioners for this task, John Barton and Lachlan Bain Campbell. When the commissioners were due to leave in May 1933, they were petitioned to stay, and Barton was invited to stand for the mayoralty, which he declined.

Several temporary structures were built following the earthquake, including the shopping centre commonly referred to as Tin Town in Clive Square. It remained for about two years, housed over 50 businesses, and was created with a £10,000 loan which did not have to be paid back. According to The Press, it was the world's first "pop-up mall".

The earthquake prompted a thorough review of New Zealand building codes, which were found to be totally inadequate. The first earthquake building code was created in 1935. Many buildings built during the 1930s and 1940s are heavily reinforced, although more recent research has developed other strengthening techniques. Building regulations established as a result of this event mean that to this day, there are only four buildings in Hawke's Bay taller than five storeys, and as most of the region's rebuilding took place in the 1930s when Art Deco was fashionable, Hawke's Bay architecture is regarded today as being one of the finest collections of Art Deco in the world.

At the time of the earthquake, there were no national emergency response organisations or legal provisions in case of such disaster, which was a hindrance to recovery. As a result, new legislation had to be passed quickly, such as the Hawke's Bay Earthquake Act 1931 which received assent on 28 April to give out loans for the rebuild. The Great Depression caused difficulty gathering funds however, so a large portion came from charity.

On the tenth anniversary of the earthquake, the New Zealand Listener reported that Napier had risen from the ashes like a phoenix. It quoted the 1931 principal of Napier Girls' High School as saying "Napier today is a far lovelier city than it was before".

The New Napier Carnival was held in January 1933 to celebrate the rebuild of the town, which officially declared it reborn.

Memorials
A common grave was created on 5 February 1931 to bury 101 of the earthquake's victims. Architect J. A. Louis Hay started designing a memorial for the site in 1932, which consists of an obelisk, a garden, the text "Their sun is gone down while it is yet day", and a written list of the victims known to be buried there. A clock tower memorial was built in Hastings in 1935, which serves the purpose of symbolising recovery rather than being a memorial.

Hastings holds a commemoration every year on 3 February for the earthquake, which starts at 10.30am and has clock towers ring at 10.47, which was the same time the earthquake struck.

title: 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake


text:
Longs Peak

Longs Peak is a high and prominent mountain in the northern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 4346 m fourteener is located in the Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness, 15.5 km southwest by south (bearing 209°) of the Town of Estes Park, Colorado, United States. Longs Peak is the northernmost fourteener in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and the highest point in Boulder County and Rocky Mountain National Park. The mountain was named in honor of explorer Stephen Harriman Long and is featured on the Colorado state quarter.

Description
Longs Peak can be seen behind Mt. Meeker from Longmont, Colorado and more directly from Loveland, Colorado, as well as from most of the northern Front Range Urban Corridor. It is one of the most prominent mountains in Colorado, rising 9000 ft above the western edge of the Great Plains.

The peak is named for Major Stephen Harriman Long, who is said to have been the first to spot the Front Range on June 30, 1820, during an expedition on behalf of the U.S. government.

Together with nearby Mount Meeker, with an elevation of 13,911 feet, the two mountains are sometimes referred to as the Twin Peaks (not to be confused with a nearby lower mountain called Twin Sisters).

History of ascents
As the only fourteener in Rocky Mountain National Park, the peak has long been of interest to climbers. The easiest route is not "technical" during the summer season. It was probably first used by pre-Columbian indigenous people collecting eagle feathers.

The first recorded ascent was on August 23, 1868 by the surveying party of John Wesley Powell via the south side. Addie Alexander was the first woman to summit Longs Peak in 1871. Isabella L Bird also recounts an ascent in the 1870s in one of her letters (A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains)

The East Face of the mountain is 1,675 feet, steep, and surmounted by a 1,000 feet steep sheer cliff known as "The Diamond" (so-named because of its shape, approximately that of a cut diamond seen from the side and inverted). Another famous profile belongs to Longs Peak: to the southeast of the summit is a series of rises which, when viewed from the northeast, resembles a beaver. Lumena Wortman Buhl was the first woman to summit the east face of the mountain.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Blaurock)

In 1954 the first proposal made to the National Park Service to climb The Diamond was met with an official closure, a stance not changed until 1960. The Diamond was first ascended by Dave Rearick and Bob Kamps that year, by a route that would come to be known simply as D1. This route would later be listed in Allen Steck and Steve Roper's influential book Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. The easiest route on the face is the Casual Route (5.10a), first climbed in 1977. It has since become the most popular route up the wall.

Clark's Arrow (4th-class) is a climb to the summit of Longs named after John Michael Clark, who was a park ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park in the 1950s. The oldest person to summit Longs Peak was Rev. William "Col. Billy" Butler, who climbed it on September 2, 1926, his 85th birthday. In 1932, Clerin "Zumie" Zumwalt summited Longs Peak 53 times.

The record number of ascents to the summit of Longs Peak is 428, by Jim Detterline. Jim was a rescue Ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park. On October 23, 2016, he died in an accident while solo climbing. Jim rescued over 1,000 people in the mountains of Rocky Mountain National Park and he received the U.S. Interior Department's Valor Award. He also earned the title "Mr. Longs Peak".

On June 6, 2016, a group of US Special Forces were rescued after members of the team suffered from altitude sickness.

Mills Glacier
Longs Peak has one remaining glacier named Mills Glacier. The glacier is located around 12,800 feet (3,900 m) at the base of the Eastern Face, just above Chasm Lake. A permanent snowfield, called The Dove, is located north of Longs Peak. Longs Peak is one of fewer than 50 mountains in Colorado that have a glacier.

Climbing Longs Peak
Trails that ascend Longs Peak include the East Longs Peak Trail, the Longs Peak Trail, the Keyhole Route, Clark's Arrow and the Shelf Trail. Only some technical climbing is required to reach the summit of Longs Peak during the summer season, which typically runs from mid July through early September. Outside of this window the popular "Keyhole" route is still open; however, its rating is upgraded to all "technical" as treacherous ice formation and snow fall necessitates the use of specialized climbing equipment including, at a minimum, crampons and an ice axe. It is one of the most difficult Class 3 fourteener scrambles in Colorado. The hike from the trailhead to the summit is 8.4 miles (13.5 km) each way, with a total elevation gain of 4,875 feet. Most hikers begin before dawn in order to reach the summit and return below the tree line before frequent afternoon thunderstorms bring a risk of lightning strikes. The most difficult portion of the hike begins at the Boulder Field, 6.4 miles (10 km) into the hike. After scrambling over the boulders, hikers reach the Keyhole at 6.7 miles (10.5 km).

The following quarter of a mile involves a scramble along narrow ledges, many of which may have nearly sheer cliffs of 1,000 feet (305 m) or more just off the edge. The next portion of the hike includes climbing over 600 vertical feet (183 m) up the Trough before reaching the most exposed section of the hike, the Narrows. Just beyond the Narrows, the Notch signifies the beginning of the Homestretch, a steep climb to the football field-sized, flat summit. It is possible to camp out overnight in the Boulder Field (permit required) which makes for a less arduous two-day hike. However, this is fairly exposed to the elements and requires an ascent of 3300ft over 6.4 miles with an overnight pack. Fifty-nine people have died climbing or hiking Longs Peak. According to the National Park Service, two people, on average, die every year attempting to climb the mountain. Less experienced mountaineers are encouraged to use a guide for this summit to mitigate risk and increase the probability of a summit.

For hikers who do not wish to climb to the summit, there are less-involved hikes on the peak as well. Peacock Pool and Chasm Lake are popular hiking destinations and follow well-maintained trails. It is also rewarding to hike just to the Boulder Field, the Keyhole, or the seldom-visited Chasm View—the ridge between Mount Lady Washington and the east face of Longs Peak. Camping is available at the Boulder Field and also on the lower portions of the mountain, such as Goblin's Forest next to the stream at the bottom. Technical climbers, with the correct permit, are allowed to use sites at the base of the East Face and at Chasm View. It is also possible to camp to the south of the mountain at Sand Beach Lake.

In addition to the standard "Keyhole" route, there are more serious and more technical climbs on Longs Peak. Climbers should seek qualified instruction; deaths on Longs Peak are an annual occurrence. Some of the more common routes are, in approximate order of popularity,
 * North Face Cables route: This follows the Keyhole route to the Boulder Field, then ascends the North Face of the peak.  It requires one or two pitches of low-5th class climbing, and is often downclimbed or rappelled by technical climbers since it is one of the fastest ways to ascend or descend the peak.  In the early 20th century, enterprising guides installed a series of large steel eye bolts along this route, connecting them with a steel cable similar to systems in the Alps.  The cables were removed in 1973 due to concerns about their appropriateness, but several of the bolts remain and are used as rappel anchors.
 * Kieners Route: A traditional mountaineering climb that involves a climb of Lambs Slide (named after Reverend Elkanah Lamb who unintentionally slid down much of the route in 1871 ), which is icy later in the season, then an exposed traverse of the Broadway ledge, and then low-5th class climbing.
 * via the Loft: The Loft is the semipermanent snowfield between Longs Peak and its southeastern neighbor Mt. Meeker.  The saddle provides access to either peak.  One such traverse route is Gorrell's Traverse.  It is also possible to ascend to the saddle via Lambs Slide. The 4th class Clark's Arrow route is also accessible via the Loft, ascending from the West side of the mountain, and later connecting with the Keyhole Route.
 * via the East Face: The East Face is the steep, 1,000 + foot (305 + m) wall that includes the Diamond and the Lower East Face.  All climbs here are technical, from 5.10 to 5.13. It is also possible to ascend to the (climber's) left of the Diamond face proper. The routes on the right side of the Diamond are often aid climbed, and may require spending the night on the wall; the rock here can be very wet. Routes on the left side of the Diamond are usually free climbed. Only qualified climbers should attempt climbs on this face, and they should take into consideration the effects of altitude and alpine conditions in addition to the difficulty rating.
 * via the Notch Couloir: This is a technical climb involving rock climbing and, at some times of year, ice climbing. The Notch Couloir is to the (climber's) left of the Diamond face.

Historical names

 * "Highest Peak"
 * Les Deux Oreilles (named by French fur traders), or "The Two Ears" (Longs Peak and Mount Meeker were both once named this)
 * "Longs Peak" – 1890 original name was Vasquez Peak, after Mountain man Pierre Louis Vasquez, who built his fort on the South Platte River in sight of the peak.
 * "Long's Peak"
 * Neniis-otoyou’u (or nesótaieux) (Arapaho language), or "the two mountains/guides" (Longs Peak and Mount Meeker were both once named this)

In literature
Longs Peak is described in Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" as the location of a 16 feet (192-inch) reflecting telescope called "the Telescope of the Rocky Mountains", built for the purpose of tracking the Columbiad projectile on her flight to the Moon.

title: Longs Peak


text:
GNU Autotools

The GNU Autotools, also known as the GNU Build System, is a suite of programming tools designed to assist in making source code packages portable to many Unix-like systems.

It can be difficult to make a software program portable: the C compiler differs from system to system; certain library functions are missing on some systems; header files may have different names; shared libraries may be compiled and installed in different ways. One way to handle platform differences is to write conditional code, with code blocks selected by means of preprocessor directives ; but because of the wide variety of build environments this approach quickly becomes unmanageable. Autotools is designed to address this problem more manageably.

Autotools is part of the GNU toolchain and is widely used in many free software and open source packages. Its component tools are free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License with special license exceptions permitting its use with proprietary software.

The GNU Build System makes it possible to build many programs using a two-step process: configure followed by make.

Components

Autotools consists of the GNU utilities Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool. Other related tools frequently used alongside it include GNU make, GNU gettext, pkg-config, and the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC).

Autoconf
Autoconf generates a  script based on the contents of a   file, which characterizes a particular body of source code. The  script, when run, scans the build environment and generates a subordinate   script which, in turn, converts other input files and most commonly   into output files, which are appropriate for that build environment. Finally, the  program uses   to generate executable programs from source code.

The complexity of Autotools reflects the variety of circumstances under which a body of source code may be built.

 * If a source code file is changed then it suffices to re-run, which only re-compiles that part of the body of the source code affected by the change.
 * If a  file has changed then it suffices to re-run   and.
 * If the body of source code is copied to another computer then it is sufficient to re-run  (which runs  ) and  .  (For this reason source code using Autotools is normally distributed without the files that   generates.)
 * If the body of source code is changed more fundamentally, then  and the   files need to be changed and all subsequent steps also followed.

To process files, autoconf uses the GNU implementation of the m4 macro system.

Autoconf comes with several auxiliary programs such as, which is used to help manage C header files;  , which can create an initial input file for Autoconf; and  , which can list C pre-processor identifiers used in the program.

Automake
Automake helps to create portable s, which are in turn processed with the make utility. It takes its input as, and turns it into  , which is used by the configure script to generate the file   output. It also performs automatic dependency tracking; every time a source file is compiled, the list of dependencies (e.g., C header files) is recorded. Later, any time make is run and a dependency appears to have changed, the dependent files will be rebuilt.

Libtool
Libtool helps manage the creation of static and dynamic libraries on various Unix-like operating systems. Libtool accomplishes this by abstracting the library-creation process, hiding differences between various systems (e.g. Linux systems vs. Solaris).

Usage
Autotools assists software developers to write cross-platform software and make it available to a much wider user community, including in its source code form to those users who wish to build the software themselves. In most cases users simply run the supplied  script (which has no dependencies other than the presence of a Bourne-compatible shell), and then a   program. They do not need to have the Autotools themselves installed on the computer.

It can be used both for building native programs on the build machine and also for cross-compiling to other architectures.

Cross-compiling software to run on a Windows host from a Linux or other Unix-like build system is also possible, using MinGW, however native compilation is often desirable on operating systems (such as the Microsoft Windows family of systems) that cannot run Bourne shell scripts on their own. This makes building such software on the Windows operating system a bit harder than on a Unix-like system which provides the Bourne shell as a standard component. One can install the Cygwin or MSYS system on top of Windows to provide a Unix-like compatibility layer, though, allowing configure scripts to run. Cygwin also provides the GNU Compiler Collection, GNU make, and other software that provides a nearly complete Unix-like system within Windows; MSYS also provides GNU make and other tools designed to work with the MinGW version of GCC.

Although the developer is expected to provide a configure script for the end-user, occasionally the user may wish to re-generate the configure script itself. Such working might be necessary if the user wishes to amend the source code itself. Such users would need to have Autotools installed, and to use components such as its autoreconf.

The autoconf-generated  can be slow because it executes programs such as a C compiler many times in order to test whether various libraries, header files, and language features are present. This particularly affects Cygwin, which, due to its lack of a native fork system call, may execute configure scripts considerably slower than Linux.

Criticism
In his column for ACM Queue, FreeBSD developer Poul-Henning Kamp criticized the GNU Build System:

"The idea is that the configure script performs approximately 200 automated tests, so that the user is not burdened with configuring libtool manually. This is a horribly bad idea, already much criticized back in the 1980s when it appeared, as it allows source code to pretend to be portable behind the veneer of the configure script, rather than actually having the quality of portability to begin with. It is a travesty that the configure idea survived."

Kamp sketches the history of the build system in the portability problems inherent in the multitude of 1980s Unix variants, and bemoans the need for such build systems to exist:

"the 31,085 lines of configure for libtool still check if  and  exist, even though the Unixen, which lacked them, had neither sufficient memory to execute libtool nor disks big enough for its 16-MB source code."

Although critics of the Autotools frequently advocate for alternatives that provide greater simplicity to their users, some have argued that this is not necessarily a good thing. John Calcote, author of the Autotools, 2nd Edition: A Practitioner's Guide to GNU Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool, opined:

"The Autotools are actually more transparent than any other build tools out there. All these other tools' (cmake, maven, etc) - that purport to be so much simpler because they insulate the user from the underlying details of the build process - these tool's primary failure is that this very insulation keeps users from being able to make the changes they need to accomplish their unique project-specific build goals.

Anyone who has nothing but good things to say about this aspect of cmake, maven, gradle, or whatever, has simply not worked on a project that requires them to move far enough away from the defaults. I've used them all and I've spent hours in frustration trying to determine how to work around the shortcomings of some "do-all" (except what I want) tool function. This is simply not an issue with the Autotools. As someone mentioned earlier in this thread, you can drop shell script into a configure.ac file, and make script into a Makefile.am file. That is the very definition of transparency. No other tool in existence allows this level of flexibility."

title: GNU Autotools


text:
Louise Dresser

Louise Dresser (born Louise Josephine Kerlin; October 5, 1878 – April 24, 1965) was an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the many films in which she played the wife of Will Rogers, including State Fair and David Harum.

Early life
Louise Josephine Kerlin was born on October 5, 1878, in Evansville, Indiana to Ida (née Shaffer) and William S. Kerlin, a railroad engineer who died when she was 15 years old. She had a younger brother, William Lambert Kerlin.

Career
Dresser took her professional last name from Paul Dresser, who was a friend of her father. Upon finding out Louise was William Kerlin's daughter, he launched her as his younger sister, and she took on his last name. Many people believed the two were related, and when Paul died, Louise was mentioned in his obituary as a surviving relative.

Dresser worked as a burlesque dancer and a singer at the Boston dime museum and then made her vaudeville debut in 1900. She formed a team named "Louise Dresser and Her Picks", a singing act that was backed by a chorus of African-American children. In 1906, she began to play New York vaudeville stages, and that year, she was in the musical About Town with Lew Fields, which was a hit. The following year, she was in the hit show Girl Behind the Counter, which ran for 260 performances.

After vaudeville, Dresser's success continued on Broadway, where she starred with De Wolf Hopper in Matinee Idol (1910-1912), and appeared in Broadway to Paris (1912), Potash and Perlmutter (1913), and Hello Broadway! (1914). Her final Broadway show was Have a Heart (1917), which received good reviews.

Dresser made her film debut in The Glory of Clementina (1922), and her first starring role was in The City That Never Sleeps (1924). In 1925, she starred in The Eagle, opposite Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Bánky as Catherine the Great, and played the title role in The Goose Woman, alongside Jack Pickford.

During the first presentations of the Academy Awards in 1929, Dresser was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for A Ship Comes In.

In 1930, she acted as Al Jolson's mother in Mammy, and she portrayed Empress Elizabeth in The Scarlet Empress (1934). Her last film was Maid of Salem (1937). On television, she appeared in an episode spotlighting Buster Keaton on Ralph Edwards's program This Is Your Life. She had known Keaton since he was a small boy with his parents in vaudeville.

Later years
After retiring in 1937, Dresser worked as a volunteer at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.

In 1950, Dresser attempted to make a comeback, but she was unable to get any screen roles, which she blamed on rumors of her being deaf.

Personal life
Dresser was married twice. Her first marriage was to singer/songwriter Jack Norworth, whom she married in 1898.

She then wed Jack Gardner in 1910, and they remained together until his death in 1950. Neither union produced any children.

Dresser died in Woodland Hills, California after surgery for an intestinal ailment. She had lost much of her fortune trying to establish a racing stable. Her gravesite is at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California.

Filmography
Silent

Sound

title: Louise Dresser