text:
La Plata

La Plata is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the 2022 census, the Partido has a population of 772,618 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 938,287 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from the southern shore of the Río de la Plata estuary.

La Plata was planned and developed to serve as the provincial capital after the city of Buenos Aires was federalized in 1880. It was officially founded by Governor Dardo Rocha on 19 November 1882. Its construction is fully documented in photographs by Tomás Bradley Sutton. La Plata was briefly known as Ciudad Eva Perón (Eva Perón City) between 1952 and 1955.

History and description

After La Plata was designated the provincial capital, Rocha was placed in charge of creating the city. He hired urban planner Pedro Benoit, who designed a city layout based on a rationalist conception of urban centers. The city has the shape of a square with a central park and two main diagonal avenues, north to south and east to west. In addition, there are numerous other shorter diagonal streets. This design is copied in a self-similar manner in small blocks of six by six blocks in length. For every six blocks, there is a small park or square. Other than the diagonal streets, all streets are on a rectangular grid and are numbered consecutively. Thus, La Plata is nicknamed "la ciudad de las diagonales" (city of diagonals). It is also called "la ciudad de los tilos" (city of linden trees), because of the large number of linden trees lining the many streets and squares. The linden tree is one of a number of deciduous Northern Hemisphere tree species which dominate La Plata's parks and streets; ash, horsechestnut, plane, sweetgum and tulip tree are among the other examples. Palms and subtropical broadleaf evergreen trees thrive but are comparatively infrequent.

The city design and its buildings are noted to possess strong Freemason symbolism as a consequence of both Rocha and Benoit being Freemasons.

The designs for the government buildings were chosen in an international architectural competition. Thus, the Governor Palace was designed by Italians, the City Hall by Germans, etc. Electric street lighting was installed in 1884 and was the first of its kind in Latin America.

Important landmarks
The neo-Gothic cathedral of La Plata is the largest church in Argentina. It is located on the central park, Plaza Moreno, and is the 58th tallest church in the world.

The Teatro Argentino de La Plata is one of the most important opera houses in Argentina, second to the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. The construction was funded by the first inhabitants of La Plata, but as maintenance was very expensive it was later donated to the Province of Buenos Aires. On 18 October 1977, the building was almost completely destroyed by a fire. This has been noted as one of the largest losses to La Plata's historical heritage. It was later replaced by a new building, which houses the theatre's orchestra, choir and ballet, boasting several halls.

The Curutchet House is one of the two buildings by Le Corbusier built in the Americas.

The University of La Plata was founded in 1897 and nationalized in 1905. It is well known for its observatory and natural history museum. Ernesto Sabato graduated in Physics at this university; he went on to teach at the Sorbonne and the MIT before becoming a famed novelist. Doctor René Favaloro was another famous alumnus. During its early years, the university attracted a number of renowned intellectuals from the Spanish-speaking world, such as Dominican Pedro Henríquez Ureña.

San Ponciano church is on the corner of 48th and 5th Streets. It was the first chapel in La Plata and Pedro Benoit himself drew up the plans for the church. It was inaugurated on 19 November 1883, the first anniversary of the foundation of the city. Its neo-Gothic style has been well kept, and the inner paintings are now being restored. Then-governor Rocha was the one to name it "San Ponciano". This was both in memory of his son Ponciano and in honor of Pope Pontian. Inside the church is the "Virgen de Luján" niche, which was moved here in 1904.

La Plata in the 20th century
Under Alvear's administration (1922–1928), Enrique Mosconi, the president of the state oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales, created the La Plata distillery, at the time the tenth largest in the world.

On 10 December 1945, in the Parish church of St. Francis of Assisi in this city, Juan Domingo Perón and Eva Duarte were married.

In 1952, the city was renamed Ciudad Eva Perón; its original name was restored in 1955.

In March 1976, the Argentine military seized power following a coup d'état, which involved the disappearance of a number of students from La Plata. The military junta had implemented what was called the National Reorganization Process which was a set of policies used by the regime to destroy left-wing guerrilla forces and oppress resistance to its rule. The process included kidnappings, torture and murder. Meanwhile, the Montoneros, a leftist guerilla group, responded violently to the junta and its actions as they enlisted other Argentines to join their campaign against the regime. Those enlisted included young, left-wing, politically active students from the organization named the Unión de Estudiantes Secundarios (Union of High School Students) of La Plata. The UES was committed to achieving school reforms and other political reforms through demonstrations and protests that irked the ruling regime. Many of these students were kidnapped and killed (many remain as 'desaparecidos') as part of the state's terrorism during the dictatorship.

In October 1998, UNESCO approved the city's bid to gain recognition as a World Heritage site. The approval is still pending due to various objections to the criterion of maintaining architectural and landscape features during recent decades, which in the opinion of other specialists, has caused severe damage to the original design and contextual aesthetics.

Sports and stadiums
The city is home to two important first division football teams: Estudiantes de La Plata and Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata.

Estudiantes de La Plata is the most successful club in the city, having won five national tournaments, four Copa Libertadores and the Intercontinental Cup against the Manchester United in 1968. It is the origin of several symbols of Argentine football such as Osvaldo Zubeldía, Carlos Bilardo, Alejandro Sabella, Juan Ramón and Juan Sebastián Verón. Estudiantes has had a great influence on the Argentine National Team, mainly through Bilardo in the 1986 World Cup. Its successes and its style of play, normally called bilardismo, have placed it in the position of exponent of a football style deeply rooted in the country.

For its part, Gimnasia de La Plata, founded in 1887, has not obtained titles in the professional era, but it is a traditional First Division club.

The Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, also known as the "Estadio Único", opened on 7 June 2003, as one of the most modern football stadiums in Latin America. Various other construction and renovation projects have continued, including the addition of a roof structure. Estudiantes played in the new stadium from 2006 to 2019 while their own stadium was being modernized; Estudiantes returned to its traditional home ground of Jorge Luis Hirschi Stadium in 2019. Gimnasia La Plata has only played occasional home games in the Estadio Único. In 2011, the Estadio Ciudad de La Plata was one of the host sites for the 2011 Copa America including an opening-round match between Argentina and Bolivia, a semifinal game, and the third-place final. Now, the stadium is additionally used for concerts and Puma matches.

Jorge Luis Hirschi Stadium, the home ground of Estudiantes, is located on 1st Avenue in La Plata. Estadio Juan Carmelo Zerillo, the home ground of Gimnasia La Plata, is located in a park known as El Bosque.

During 2009, following a series of agreements between the city municipality, the governor of the province and the nation's presidency, progress was made in the final transfer of the land of the Paseo del Bosque to Estudiantes and Gimnasia La Plata clubs. On 24 June 2009, the Deliberative Council adopted the convention and the ordinance for which Gimnasia and Estudiantes clubs received "grants" for the lands on which their home grounds are currently located within El Bosque (The Forest).

Elections and civic advances
On 28 October 2007, Pablo Bruera was elected mayor with 26% of the votes, replacing Julio Alak, who had been mayor since 1991.

On 25 February 2009, La Plata debuted a parking system that uses text messaging (SMS), thus becoming the first city in Argentina to control parking using technology applications.

The Pasaje Rodrigo, a traditional "galería" (the older version of shopping malls in Argentina), reopened its doors in April 2009 as Pasaje Rodrigo shopping mall, after having been closed to the public for 10 years. It had originally been opened in 1929 by Spanish immigrant Basilio Rodrigo.

On 25 October 2015, Julio Garro was elected mayor with 41,35% of the votes, replacing Pablo Bruera, who had been mayor since 2007. Garro was reelected for a second term in 2019. In the 2023 local elections, former mayor Alak defeated Garro in an historically close election.

Location
Located in the north-eastern area of the province of Buenos Aires, La Plata is surrounded by Ensenada and Berisso to the northeast, Berazategui and Florencio Varela to the northwest, San Vicente and Coronel Brandsen to the southwest and south, and Magdalena, to the southeast, occupying an area of 893 km2.

The metropolitan area of La Plata includes the neighborhoods of Tolosa, Ringuelet, Manuel B. Gonnet, City Bell, Villa Elisa, Melchor Romero, Abasto, Gorina, José Hernández, Ángel Etcheverry, Arturo Seguí, Los Hornos, Lisandro Olmos, Villa Elvira and Altos de San Lorenzo, all of which have community centers that operate as local delegations.

Climate

La Plata has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa under the Köppen climate classification). During winter, temperatures are cool during the day and cold during the night, even reaching below freezing. The average temperature in the coldest month, July, is 8.9 C. Winters tend to be cloudier than summer, averaging around 10 overcast days from June to August, compared to 6 overcast days from December to February. Summers are warm to hot with a January high of 29 C while nighttime temperatures are cooler, averaging 18 C. Spring and fall are transition seasons, featuring warm daytime temperatures and cool nighttime temperatures, highly variable with some days reaching above 32 C and below 0 C. The city is fairly humid, owing to its coastal location, having an average monthly humidity higher than 75%. La Plata receives 1092 mm of precipitation annually, with winters being the drier months and summer the wetter months. On average, La Plata receives 2,285 hours of sunshine a year, or 51% of possible sunshine, ranging from a low of 41% in June and July to 62% in February. The highest temperature recorded was 41 °C on 14 January 2022 while the lowest temperature recorded was -5.7 °C on 14 June 1967.

Snowfall is extremely rare in the city with only 5 major snowfall events: July 1912, 1928, 22 June 1981, 9 July 2007 during the July 2007 Argentine winter storm, and on 6 June 2012.

Earthquakes
The region lies on the Punta del Este fault, and its latest event occurred on 30 November 2018 at 10:27 UTC−3 with a magnitude of 3.8 on the Richter scale. This earthquake was extremely unusual in La Plata, a city where the last earthquake had been on 5 June 1888 (128 years before) with a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale.

Government
Given the federal system of government in Argentina there are three orders or ranks: the National, Provincial and Municipal.

Power of the executive branch in La Plata is exercised by the municipal mayor, elected by popular vote every four years with the possibility of unlimited reelection. The town hall is known as the Palacio Municipal, and is located in the block surrounded by streets 51, 53, 11 and 12, in the city center. It is one of the important buildings that surround Plaza Moreno, and is opposite the cathedral.

The city government is divided into different areas. These are: Private Secretary, Secretary General, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Public Management, Social Development Secretariat, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Modernization and Economic Development, Ministry of Justice, Secretary of Health and Social Medicine, Chief of Staff, Regional Market La Plata, Management Consortium Puerto La Plata, Executive Unit Revenue Agency, Environment Agency Implementation Unit, Human Rights Department, Ministry of Government, Policy Planning Council, Regional Production and Employment, and the city council.

As it is the capital of the Province of Buenos Aires, La Plata is also home to the three provincial powers: the provincial executive (led at the moment by the Governor) along with its ministries, the judiciary, and the provincial Legislature.

Economy
According to the National Economic Survey 2004–2005, out of a total of 23,844 local listings 90% are dedicated to the production of goods and services, 4% belonged to the Civil Service, 2% are for semi sideshows or removable; 1% are for worship, political parties and unions, and the remaining 2% was in the process of classification.

Finance
La Plata has a stock market, the Bolsa de Comercio, which was founded in 1960 and is a member of the Argentine stock market system.

In the city there are branches of major banks operating in the country, including Banco Nación, Banco Provincia, Banco Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Banco Hipotecario, HSBC, Citigroup, Banco Itaú, Francés, Macro, Standard Bank, etc.

Transport
Trenes Argentinos operate a rail service (Roca Line) between La Plata and Constitución station in Buenos Aires via Berazategui. It runs every 24 to 30 minutes Mondays to Saturdays and every 40 minutes on Sundays. In addition, there is a shuttle service Tren Universitario between La Plata station and Policlínico operating five to eight times a day.

The city's general aviation needs are served by La Plata Airport, although it has no commercial service as of 2023. The nearest commercially served airport is Ministro Pistarini International Airport in Buenos Aires.

Population
The greater metropolitan area, according to the National Census of Population and Housing 2010, has a population of 787,294 inhabitants.

Furthermore, the La Plata urban area's population since 1960 was developed as follows:
 * 1960 Census: 337,060 inhabitants.
 * 1970 Census: 391,247 inhabitants.
 * 1980 Census: 459,054 inhabitants.
 * 1991 Census: 521,759 inhabitants.
 * 2001 Census: 763,943 inhabitants.
 * 2010 Census: 799,523 inhabitants.

International communities
The Spanish community's contributions include the renowned Spanish Hospital. Spain has also acknowledged the community by installing a consulate in the city of La Plata.

The Arab community also has several institutions, including the Syriac Orthodox Welfare Assoc, Assoc Islamic Argentino de La Plata, and the Lebanese Society of La Plata.

The Jewish community of La Plata has numerous institutions. These include AMIA La Plata (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina), which has under its orbit Hebrew School Chaim Nachman Bialik and the Jewish cemetery of the city, the Beit Chabad La Plata, part of Chabad Lubavitch Argentina.

Education
La Plata hosts one of the most renowned universities in Argentina, the National University of La Plata (Spanish: Universidad Nacional de La Plata, UNLP). It has over 75,000 regular students, 8,000 teaching staff, 16 faculties and 106 available degrees. UNLP students and professors include:
 * Raúl Alfonsín (Law degree in 1950) President of Argentina (1983–1989)
 * Néstor Kirchner (Law degree) President of Argentina (2003–2007)
 * Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Law degree) President of Argentina (terms 2007–2011, 2011–2015)
 * René Favaloro (Medicine degree in 1949, creator of the technique for coronary bypass surgery)
 * Carlos Saavedra Lamas (Law teacher, rector and Nobel Peace Prize)
 * Ernesto Sabato (Physics PhD in 1937)
 * Mario Bunge (Physics-Mathematics PhD in 1952)
 * Florentino Ameghino (Professor of geology)
 * Juan José Arévalo (Philosophy PhD in 1934, 24th President of Guatemala)
 * Emilio Pettoruti (painter)
 * Pedro Henríquez Ureña (Dominican essayist, philosopher, humanist, philologist and literary critic)

Four high school institutes are under UNLP control and three of them are located in La Plata:
 * Rafael Hernández National High School (Spanish: Colegio Nacional Rafael Hernández)
 * Víctor Mercante Lyceum (Spanish: Liceo Víctor Mercante)
 * Fine Arts High School (Spanish: Bachillerato de Bellas Artes)

La Plata is also home of four other universities:
 * Universidad Católica de La Plata
 * Universidad Notarial Argentina
 * Facultad Regional de la Universidad Tecnológica Nacional.
 * ''Universidad Del Este

Students come to these four universities from every part of Argentina and other countries, giving the city a rich young multicultural lifestyle.

City layout and architecture

La Plata is a planned city, characterized by a strict grid of square blocks, with diagonal avenues running across. The two major diagonals, 73 and 74, go across the city from east to west and from north to south, respectively, and converge right in the city's center at Plaza Moreno. This square houses the so-called "foundation stone" and is the main square of the city. To its sides are located the City Hall and the cathedral of La Plata. Highlights of the city are the Museum of Natural Sciences, the building of the Interior, the Provincial Legislature, the new theater and the hippodrome. Many of these buildings were built at the time of the founding of the city, following an international call for proposals.

Another work is the parent company of Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, located between the streets 6, 7, 46 and 47. This building was designed by architects Juan A. Buschiazzo and Luis Viglione. It opened on 19 April 1886, being amended in 1913 and in the 1970s.

It is a very green city, with its largest park being the "Paseo del Bosque" (or simply 'the forest'). Twenty-two other parks and squares contain much of the city's trees and greenery. Other landmarks include the lake, the Martin Fierro amphitheater, the Parque Pereyra Iraola, the Zoo and Botanical Garden, the Victorian astronomical observatory, and the Natural History Museum. One notable attraction is the Children's Republic, which is said to have inspired Walt Disney to build Disneyland after he visited it during a trip to Argentina.

In 1977 the city lost one of its most valuable monuments to a fire: the Teatro Argentino de La Plata, predominantly built in a neoclassic style. After the fire, a new brutalist style theater was built in its place. The Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, a stadium influenced by modern high-tech architecture, is located in the city. It was planned and built after a national competition during the 1970s. The stadium received repairs and amendments in a subsequent project in order to expand its capacity, and also to rebuild the roof in sectors that had been destroyed by storms. The construction of a semitransparent deck of Kevlar and plastic resins was finished in January 2011.

La Plata has one commercial airport, Aeropuerto de La Plata, which is not served by any airlines.

Awards received by the city
The city was awarded at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889, an event in which the new city was given the two gold medals awarded in the categories "City of the Future" and "Better performance built."

La Plata Cemetery
The municipal cemetery of La Plata was established in 1886 for the new capital of the province of Buenos Aires. It was designed by Pedro Benoit. It lies on the intersection of Avenue 31, 72 and diagonal 74 in the southern tip. It has some remarkable architectural features, both in its main entrance and in many of the family vaults, including neoclassical, Neo-Gothic, Art Nouveau (in its variant of Catalan Art Nouveau), Art Deco and Egyptian revival styles. The main entrance is an impressive neo-classical portico with Doric columns. The Catholic chapel, in Romanesque revival style, was finished in 1950. Diagonal 74 begins at the Río de la Plata and ends at the cemetery, causing some to remark that the layout may have been intentional symbolism of the cycle of life and death by Benoit.

Its annex, the Jewish Cemetery, belongs to the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina in La Plata and is located on Avenue 72.

Sports
The main football teams in the city are Estudiantes de La Plata (locally known as "pinchas"), winners of the Intercontinental Cup in 1968, and Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata, both of which currently play in the Argentina's first division. Estudiantes is the sole team within the city to win a national or international title. La Plata has Liga Amateur Platense de fútbol that encompasses various clubs in the region, such as Club Atlético Estrella de Berisso, La Plata FC, Asociación Nueva Alianza, and Club Everton.

Basketball has a place in the Torneo Nacional de Ascenso (National Ascent Tournament), through Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata. In addition, through the Asociación Platense de Basquetbol, La Plata has leagues and tournaments for all levels and categories, including Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata, Estudiantes, Centro Fomento de Los Hornos Club Atenas, Unión Vecinal, Centro de Fomento Meridiano V, and Club Cultural y Deportivo Juventud.

Auto racing also has its importance in the city in the form of the Turismo Carretera. There is also a race track named Autódromo Roberto José Mouras in honor of the historic Chevrolet driver died in Lobos in 1992. Gastón Mazzacane is from the city as well. After 21 races in Formula 1, he also competed in the Champ Car and Top Race V6 series.

The 1970 Artistic Billiards World Championship were held in La Plata.

Culture
Culture has a major role in the city of La Plata. This is reflected in the large amount of cultural centers, theaters, museums, cinemas and libraries that are in the city, as well as the Universidad Nacional de La Plata and the observatory.

 * Cultural centers: Centro Cultural Pasaje Dardo Rocha, Centro Cultural Islas Malvinas, Centro Cultural Estación Provincial, Centro Cultural Viejo Almacén El Obrero, Centro de Cultura & Comunicación, Centro Cultural El Núcleo, Centro Actividades Artísticas CRISOLES, Centro Cultural Los Hornos, Centro Cultural y Social El Galpón de Tolosa.
 * Theaters: Teatro Argentino de La Plata, Teatro Municipal Coliseo Podestá, Anfiteatro Martín Fierro, Teatro La Nonna, Teatro La Hermandad del Princesa, Sala 420, Taller de Teatro de la UNLP, Complejo El Teatro, Teatro La Lechuza.
 * Museums: Museo de Ciencias Naturales, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Latinoamericano, Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes, Museo de Arte Fra. Angélico, Museo de Instrumentos Musicales Colección Dr. Emilio Azzarini, Museo Histórico del Fuerte de la Ensenada de Barragán, Museo y Archivo Dardo Rocha, Museo Almafuerte, Museo del Teatro Argentino, Museo José Juan Podestá, Museo de la Catedral, Museo Indigenista Yana Kúntur, Museo Internacional de Muñecos, Museo del Automóvil Colección Rau, Museo del Tango Platense, Museo Policial Inspector Mayor Vesiroglos, Museo Histórico Contralmirante Chalier (Escuela Naval de Río Santiago), Museo Histórico Militar Tte. Julio A. Roca, Museo de Anatomía Veterinaria Dr. Víctor M. Arroyo, Museo de Artesanía Tradicional Juan Alfonso Carrizo, Museo de Astronomía y Geofísica, Museo de Botánica y Farmacognosia Dr. Carlos Spegazzini, Museo y Casa de Descanso Samay Huasi, Museo de Física, Museo de Historia de la Medicina Dr. Santiago Gorostiague, Museo Biblioteca de Química y Farmacia Prof. Dr. Carlos Sagastume, Museo de Odontología, Museo de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales Prof. Julio Ocampo.
 * Libraries: Biblioteca Central General José de San Martín, Biblioteca Municipal Francisco López Merino, Biblioteca de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Biblioteca de la Legislatura de la Provincia.
 * Cinemas: Cinema San Martín, Cinema 8, Cinema City, Cinema Paradiso, Cinema Rocha, Cine Select, Espacio INCAA km. 60.

There were big personalities in the cultural sphere from the city: Paula Almerares (opera singer, soprano); Dante Anzolini (conductor); Efraín U. Bischoff (historian), José Walter Gavito (sculptor), Osvaldo Golijov (classical composer), Robert Noble (journalist and socialist politician, founder and first editor of the newspaper Clarín), Emilio Pettoruti (painter), Ernesto Tenenbaum (Reporter), María Dhialma Tiberti (writer), Iñaki Urlezaga (classical dancer), Álvaro Yunque (writer), Jorge and Federico D'Elia (actors); Adabel Guerrero (dancer, actress), Alejo García Pintos (film and television actor), Benjamín Rojas (actor and musician), Freddy Villarreal (comedian, actor), Héctor Bidonde (actor), Juan Palomino (actor), Oscar Alberto "Lito" Cruz (actor), Maxi Ghione (actor), Pablo Andrés Martínez (actor), Carlos Mancinelli (musician), among others.

It is worth mentioning other important personalities, not being natives of La Plata, influenced the city's cultural life as Raúl Amaral (writer, poet and journalist. It was part of Ediciones del Bosque), Joaquin V. Gonzalez (historian, educator, writer and politician) and Rafael Hernández (politician and journalist), both founders of the UNLP, Pedro Bonifacio Palacios "Almafuerte" (Poet); Josefina Passadori (writer) Ernesto Sabato (writer and artist), Carlos "Indio" Solari (musician and band member platense Redonditos Patricio Rey and Ricotta), among others.

The city has a great attraction to music, whereas all festival concerts are organized. In addition, this is formed big band music and folklore of Argentina such as Los Redondos, Virus, Guasones, Opus Cuatro, Infonoise, among others.

Festivals, celebrations and events scheduled
The city of La Plata has the particularity of being the only place (with Berisso and Ensenada) in the country where the burning of Momos (Dolls similar to those cremated at the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain) is held every New Year's Eve. Hundreds of dolls are burnt to celebrate the end of the year and the beginning of a new year. Competitions for the best doll is awarded by the La Plata municipality and media.

Every 18 April is International Day For Monuments and Sites. That day, buses with tour guides leave from the Centro Cultural Pasaje Dardo Rocha to the various historical monuments of La Plata, Berisso and Ensenada, being the activity free.

In addition, every year on 19 November, the anniversary of the city is held with recitals and a fireworks show at the Plaza Moreno.

In La Plata, as well as in all of Argentina, the first day of spring is celebrated along with National Student's Day on 21 September. On this date, the municipality organizes concerts both in the Paseo del Bosque and Plaza Moreno.

Patron saint
The patron saint of the city and the party of La Plata is Saint Ponciano, the 18th pope of the Catholic Church, who died in Sardinia on 19 November 235. On 19 November is the feast of the Catholic parish of St. Pontian, pope and martyr.

Tourism
The most important tourist sites are located in the heart of the city's founding, between Streets 51 and 53, being the center of the city's Plaza Moreno. The square separates two great works of the city: the Metropolitan Cathedral of La Plata "Immaculate Conception" and the Palacio Municipal. The city of La Plata has many monuments and historical sites. Among them are: the Banco Provincia de Buenos Aires headquarters, the Curutchet House, Casa de Gobierno Provincial, Casa Mariani – Teruggi, Centro Cultural Islas Malvinas, Centro Cultural Meridiano V, Centro Cultural Pasaje Dardo Rocha, Iglesia San Benjamín, la Legislatura Provincial, Museo de Ciencias Naturales, the Quinta Oreste Santospago, the Rectorado de la UNLP, Museo Ferroviario of Tolosa, the Teatro Municipal Coliseo Podestá, the Anfiteatro Martín Fierro, the Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, entre otros.

Moreover, staying at the city of La Plata the visitors can tour the monuments of the neighboring cities of Berisso and Ensenada (formerly part of La Plata), finding among these to the Street New York, the Swift Refrigerator, Ukrainian Catholic Parish Our Lady of the Assumption, Old Station Cultural Centre, Fort Barragán and Historical Museum, the Ensenada Rotary Bridge, among others.

Quema de muñecos is a traditional celebration held every New Year. People from different parts of the city build giant figures, usually modeled after famous fictional characters, using wood and papier mâché, and stuff them with fireworks. After midnight, all the figures are burnt, igniting the firework-filling in the process, resulting in a fiery spectacle. For safety reasons, most figures are built in the same spot where they are planned to be burnt, which usually involves a large clearing in a plaza, wide median strips, or abandoned lots. After the celebration, residents vote for the best figure in terms of design, size, etc., and the most voted gets a prize from a panel of established figure builders, as well as cash money reward.

Notable people

 * Mauro Colagreco, Argentine chef
 * Irene Bernasconi, Antarctic researcher
 * Facundo Cabral
 * Ángel Cabrera
 * Agustín Creevy
 * René Favaloro
 * Sergio Karakachoff
 * Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
 * Mercedes Lambre
 * Salvadora Medina Onrubia (1894–1972), writer, poet, anarchist, feminist
 * Martín Palermo
 * Emilio Pettoruti
 * Benjamín Rojas
 * Marcos Rojo (born 1990), footballer
 * Guillermo Barros Schelotto
 * Gustavo Barros Schelotto
 * Santiago Sosa (born 1999), footballer for Atlanta United
 * Roberto Themis Speroni (1922–1967), writer
 * Nicolás Tauber (born 1980), Argentine-Israeli footballer
 * Joaquín Tuculet
 * Iñaki Urlezaga
 * Francisco Varallo
 * Juan Sebastián Verón (born 1975), footballer
 * Sergio Parisse, rugby union player

Sister cities

 * 🇧🇷 Brazil, Porto Alegre, 1982
 * 🇮🇹 Italy, Bologna, 1988
 * 🇮🇱 Israel, Beersheba, 1989
 * 🇪🇸 Spain, Zaragoza, 1990
 * 🇵🇾 Paraguay, Asunción, 1993
 * 🇨🇱 Chile, Concepción, 1993
 * 🇻🇪 Venezuela, Barquisimeto, 2012
 * 🇺🇸 United States, Louisville, 1994
 * 🇺🇾 Uruguay, Maldonado, 1994
 * 🇺🇾 Uruguay, Montevideo, 1994
 * 🇧🇴 Bolivia, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 1994
 * 🇧🇴 Bolivia, Sucre, 1994
 * 🇮🇹 Italy, Anghiari, 1998
 * 🇫🇷 France, Boulogne-sur-Mer, 2000
 * 🇬🇧 United Kingdom, Liverpool, 2005
 * 🇻🇪 Venezuela, Santa Ana de Coro, 2007
 * 🇨🇳 China, Jiujiang, 2008
 * 🇲🇽 Mexico Toluca, 2010
 * 🇮🇹 Italy, Bivongi, 2012
 * 🇦🇷 Argentina, Mar del Plata, 2012
 * 🇦🇺 Australia, Baw Baw

La Plata's web guides

 * LaGuiaX
 * Cualbondi (Buses on/from/to La Plata)

title: La Plata


text:
Talk:Le Chatelier's Principle

Merge & redirect to Le Chatelier's principle

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

title: Talk:Le Chatelier's Principle


text:
Talk:Rubén González (pianist)

Untitled
This is written as an obituary. What is the policy on this? The primary issue is with the last line 'he is survived by his wife...'. Does this belong in an encyclopedia? HappyDog 17:06, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * I think you're right so I retired those three lines from the article. It is a biography and not about tanathography.--alfanje 03:12, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

''His state of health became worse: he was struck with arthrosis and problems with his lungs and kidneys. He died on December 8, 2003, after a long illness. He is survived by his wife, Eneida Lime.''

Wikification.
Dear fellow editors,

I thought it would be helpful for me to report here, out of courtesy to other editors interested in maintaining this article, about my intent to wikify it over the next few days. When done, I will insert a closing update in the present 'talk' section.

Until then, please consult the article's 'View history' details to monitor my progress. Thank you.

With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee. (talk) 22:26, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

 * OK. I'm signing off now, after the latest stretch of edits since yesterday.
 * I'll probably come back to this article in the near future, to proof-read it once again; I might apply some more changes then, but will take a break from it now. Happy reading!
 * With kind regards;
 * Patrick. ツ Pdebee. (talk) 15:36, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

correction
"he is said to have "forged the style of modem Cuban piano playing in the 1940s"."? (second line.) i am assuming that this is a typo and will correct "modem" to "modern"...96.63.2.148 (talk) 22:47, 22 September 2015 (UTC)

title: Talk:Rubén González (pianist)


text:
Improved Order of Red Men

The Improved Order of Red Men is a fraternal organization established in North America in 1834. It claims direct descent from the colonial era Sons of Liberty. Their rituals and regalia are modeled after those assumed by men of the era to be used by Native Americans. Despite the name, the order was formed solely by, and for, white men. This whites-only rule was part of their bylaws until 1974, when the all-white clause was eliminated. Their current position is that they are now open to people of all ethnic backgrounds. In 1935 the organization claimed a membership of about half a million but, by 2011, that declined to a little more than by 15,000.

History
On December 16, 1773, a group of colonists — all men, and members of the Sons of Liberty — met in Boston to protest the tax on tea imposed by England. When their protest went unheeded, they disguised themselves as their idea of Mohawk people, proceeded to Boston harbor, and dumped overboard 342 chests of English tea. (See Boston Tea Party.)

In the late 18th century, the Tammany Societies, named after Tamanend, were formed. The most well-known of these was New York City's Society of St. Tammany, which grew into a major political machine known as "Tammany Hall."

For the next 35 years, the original Sons of Liberty and the Sons of St. Tamina groups went their own way, under many different names.

Around 1813, a disenchanted group created the philanthropic "Society of Red Men" at historic Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia.

The organization grew in the 1820s. Parallel lines of advancement were offered in the Order of Red Men: a series of military titles and a set of “Indian rankings.”

Class and ethnic differences introduced by new immigrants, anti-Masonic persecutions, attacks on fraternal groups based on excessive drinking, and, ultimately, a wide-spread cholera epidemic in 1832 led to the decline of the organization.

In 1834, the Improved Order of Red Men (IORM) was started as a revival in Baltimore. It was focused on temperance, patriotism and American History. In 1835, with only two groups in place (called "tribes" by the IORM), a larger IORM was organized. Unlike the original Order, the IORM uses only expanded Native American titles. Rather than the public display of Native American costumes, the IORM uses its regalia in private gatherings.

In 1886, its membership requirements were defined in the same pseudo-Indigenous phrasing as the rest of the constitution: Sec. 1. No person shall be entitled to adoption into the Order except a free white male of good moral character and standing, of the full age of twenty-one great suns, who believes in the existence of a Great Spirit, the Creator and Preserver of the Universe, and is possessed of some known reputable means of support.

In one 1886 "tribe", a member's 12 cent a week dues went into a fund which was used to pay disability benefits to members at a rate of about "three fathoms per seven suns" ($3/week) for up to "six moons" (6 months) and then two dollars a week. Some medical care ("a suitable nurse") was available, and also a death benefit of one hundred dollars. The fund was invested in bonds, mortgages, and "Building Association Stock". Meetings were held weekly on Friday nights.

Organization
The Order has a three tiered structure. Local units are called "tribes" and are presided over by a "Sachem" and a board of directors. Local meeting sites are called "Wigwams". The state level is called the "Reservation" and governed by a "Great Sachem" and "Great Council" or "Board of Chiefs". The national level is the "Great Council of the United States". The Great Council consists of the "Great Incohonee" (president), and a "Board of Great Chiefs", which includes the "Great Senior Sagamore" (first vice-president), "Great Junior Sagamore", "Great Chief of Records" (secretary), "Great Keeper of the Wampum" (treasurer) and "Prophet" (past president). The headquarters of the Order has been in Waco, Texas, since at least 1979. They maintain an official museum and library in Waco.

Auxiliaries and side degrees
A side degree of the order was founded in 1890 as the National Haymakers' Association. There was also once a uniformed division called the Knights of Tammany, as well as a group called the Chieftains League, which consisted of members who had been exalted to the Chief Degree (see below) and were in good standing within their respective "tribes".

In 1952, the Order created the Degree of Hiawatha, as a youth auxiliary for males 8 and up. Most of the members of the Degree of Hiawatha were concentrated in New England. In 1979 there were less than 5,000 members in approximately 125 "Councils".

The Order female auxiliary is the Degree of Pocahontas and dates to the 1880s and the Degree of Anona, a junior order of the Degree of Pocahontas, was formed in 1952.

Membership
The Improved Order of the Red Men grew in membership in the late 19th century. It reached 519,942 members in forty-six states in 1921, but had declined to 31,789 in 32 states in 1978 and to 15,251 by 2011.

Until 1974, the Order was open to whites only. That year the 106th Great Council of the United States eliminated the all-white clause in what was called a "turning point for the order". In the present-day, the Improved Order of Red Men is open to people of all ethnic backgrounds.

Rituals
The order itself claims direct descent from the Sons of Liberty, noting that the Sons participated in the Boston Tea Party dressed as their idea of "Indians". Thus, they continue to dress as "Indians" and use Native American terminology, despite being a non-Native organization.

The group's ritual terminology is derived from language they believe is used by Native Americans, though it also shows the influence of Freemasonry. Outsiders are called "Palefaces", to open a meeting is called "kindling the fire", officers' installations are called "Raising up of Chiefs" and voting is called "twigging". The Masonic influence is seen in the three basic degrees – Adoption, Warrior and Chief. There is also a fourth degree, Beneficiary, for insurance.

Calendar system
Originally, the society used the Hebrew Anno Mundi system for calendar year numbering when dating their documents, rather than AD (note: the Redmen did not use the Common Era reference); however, in CE 1865, a new system was devised and adopted, known as the "Great Sun of Discovery" (GSD). The first year of the system, known as GSD 1, was the year that Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas, namely AD 1492. In this system, years were known as "great suns" and months were called "moons", each with their own epithet, e.g. "Cold Moon" for January, but the length of these years and months conformed to the conventional Gregorian calendar.

Philanthropy and positions
The order has historically opposed federal welfare programs, waste in government and Communism. However, there are examples of substantial socialist participation in the organization in pockets of the United States; for example, in southern West Virginia, during the build up to the West Virginia Mine Wars, "the Improved Order of Red Men [was] . . . the most comfortable lodge for Socialist miners and other radical workers."

After the Civil war in West Virginia, the Improved Order of Red Men became a fraternal organization of some notoriety for vigilante activity. The Red Men Act, West Virginia's anti conspiracy law, was passed in response to a groundswell of such violence. Occasionally this vigilante activity included the use of red masks over their faces.

The IORM supported the founding of the Society of American Indians in 1911 and helped organize the SAI's first two conferences.

Independent Order of Red Men
In 1850, the German-language, "Metamora Tribe of Baltimore", refused to pay a benefit, even though the Great Councils of Maryland and the United States decided that it was legal and proper for them to do so. The group then surrendered its charter and formed a new, German-speaking Independent Order of Red Men. It asked the other German-language groups (or Stamms) to join the new group, but few did so. The Independent Order had a height of 12,000 members, though in the 1880s many Stamms returned to the Improved Order. It still existed in 1896, but according to Albert C. Stevens it gave "no sign of vigorous growth". In the early 1920s, Arthur Preuss could not get into contact with them, but felt it probably still existed.

Afro-American Order of Red Men
In 1904, another group called the Independent Order of Red Men emerged in Virginia, this time composed entirely of African Americans. When the Improved Order objected to the use of the name, the leader of the group, R. M. Spears, had the charter withdrawn and renamed the group the "Afro-American Order of Red Men and Daughters of Pocahontas". The Virginia IORM still apparently considered an injunction against the new group, but it is unclear how the episode turned out. A Tribe #23 based in Metompkin, Virginia is attested by the existence of a ribbon badge in the collection of Theda Skocpol, suggesting that the group had at least 23 local "tribes" in the state. The badge is identical to the ones worn by the IORM, except with the AAORM initials.

Notable members

 * Alben W. Barkley
 * Albert Dutton MacDade
 * John Buchanan Robinson
 * A. J. Rosier

title: Improved Order of Red Men


text:
Talk:List of U.S. military vessels named after living Americans

USS Henry M. Jackson
Question: I believe this sub belongs in this group...

 * USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN-730) (laid down in 1981; Sen. Jackson died 1983)

...but I don't know whether it was actually named for the senator before he died. It was launched the following month and commissioned the following year. Anyone? Bbpen 19:35, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Not a terribly good idea for a page: it will be obsolete at some point! -- Tarquin 17:18, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * No, it won't. These will remain the only ships named, as the next comment says, for people who were alive at the time. Bbpen 19:35, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Presumably it should really mean "Americans alive at the time of naming". While I'm thinking about, a bunch of early ships, such Adam, Washington, Deane, etc were also named for living Americans, need to add those at some point. Stan 18:26, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Will this ever be a full-sized article? It was originally a single sentence I added to the articles on the ships themselves, but someone decided to move it to its own page and use a different (and astoundingly graceless) sentence as a link to the one-sentence article.  In case you can't tell, I don't like it. --the Epopt 16:00, 1 Jan 2004 (UTC)

 * Nice reorg work on 31 Dec, Epopt. I think the list deserves its own article. I've found it a useful reference on several occasions. Bbpen 19:53, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Removing phrase
I removed the phrase "(indeed, all navies)" from the article. Show me a reference stating that, please. I strongly doubt that every navy on the planet has the tradition that ships cannot be named for living people. ➥the Epopt [[TINC| of the Cabal ]] 17:01, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Age of honorees
Perhaps it should be mentioned that the recent violation of the tradition has been tepid in that the eponyms have all been (usually long) retired, rather elderly and presumably near death. It would still I think be unthinkable to name a ship for someone who still had an active military or politcal career.--Pharos 03:06, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

 * So, you want to say that it's okay because the honorees all have one foot in the grave? Note that Touncey, mentioned in the main article, was actively serving. The ship was only not named after him on his request. The idea that the honorees should be nearly dead is not part of the tradition. Perhaps a comment about their retired status is okay, but mentioning their health seems rather, oh, I don't know, crass. Jinian 14:09, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Does anyone know if J Fred Talbott and Richmond K Turner were actually named before their namesakes died or were named to honor their recently deceased namesakes? Ssvonavec 03:36, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_John_S._McCain_(DDG-56) needs to go in too 69.88.45.175 (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 15:44, 19 March 2009 (UTC).

 * I don't think so. McCain Sr. died in 1945, Jr. in 1981, and the USS McCain was laid down in 1991. Rees11 (talk) 16:20, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
 * That ship's not named after the current US Senator, John S. McCain III. It's named after his father and grandfather, who as Rees11 noted both died long before the ship was named. 75.76.213.106 (talk) 21:01, 30 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Except, the McCain's own page mentions this: "On 11 July 2018, at a rededication ceremony, Senator John McCain was added as a namesake, along with his father and grandfather."  So, even though it was not originally named for him, it appears that it is now.  So shouldn't that warrant inclusion?  Chief1983 (talk) 16:55, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

Timeline
I've just started Template:U.S. ships named for living persons timeline. It is my first EasyTimeline project, and it leaves a lot to be desired. For one thing, there should be some way to redesign the thing so you can read all of the ships' names. For another, it would be nice to show how the namesakes' death dates corresponded to the ships' naming. Please have at it. PRRfan (talk) 16:52, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Christening/Namiing
This list seems to confuse naming and chrisetning, using "naming" for both events. "Nmaing" is the announcment by the Navy of the name of the ship, and can occur at aany time. "Christening" is only done when the ship is launched. the USS Smiling Jimmy was christened in 2004, but named under the Clinton administration (pre-2001). - BilCat (talk) 17:24, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

 * I found a couple sources that seem to say 2000, but they're behind paywalls so I can't check them. I don't see any other cases of naming/christening confusion but if you know of any please either point them out here or fix them yourself. Rees11 (talk) 20:47, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

 * I will, if I find sources with the correct dates. - BilCat (talk) 23:49, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

 * Naming events (as opposed to commissioning) don't seem to get a lot of press coverage. But there must be a stash of press releases on the Navy web site that could be used. Rees11 (talk) 15:43, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Arleigh Burke
It may be worth mentioning that Admiral Burke has a whole CLASS of ships named after him, since the USS Arleigh Burke was the first of its class. He also has the distinction of being the only one to have actually driven his namesake ship. (He was allowed to take the con for a few minutes I think on a shakedown cruise.) Bigmac31 (talk) 16:02, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on List of U.S. military vessels named after living Americans. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20091015142929/http://www.sublant.navy.mil/JohnWarner.htm to http://www.sublant.navy.mil/JohnWarner.htm

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

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 02:46, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

April 14, 2021 Congressional Research Service report, Navy Ship Names: Background for Congress.
Here is an official source from with a  — MrDolomite • Talk 13:52, 16 April 2021 (UTC)


text:
User talk:S-grigera

Hello, welcome to Wikipedia. Here are some useful links in case you haven't already found them:

 * How to edit a page
 * How to write a great article
 * Naming conventions
 * Manual of Style

If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian!

Tip: you can sign your name with ~

snoyes 17:20, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Hello. In creating a new article, please highlight the title word or title phrase at its first appearance, like this. (See my editing of La Plata.) Michael Hardy 01:12, 11 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Unverified images
Hi! Thanks for uploading the following image:

 * Image:Laplatamap.jpg

I notice it currently doesn't have an image copyright tag. Could you add one to let us know its copyright status? (You can use if you release it under the GNU Free Documentation License,  if you wish to release your own work to the public domain,  if you claim fair use, etc.) If you don't know what any of this means, just let me know at my talk page where you got the images and I'll tag them for you. Thanks so much. Peter O. (Talk, automation script) 21:11, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC)

P.S. You can help tag other images at User:Yann/Untagged_Images. Thanks again.

title: User talk:S-grigera


text: User talk:209.215.171.12

title: User talk:209.215.171.12


text:
William Scott

William Scott may refer to:

Academics

 * William A. Scott (psychologist), American social psychologist
 * William Alphonsus Scott (1871–1921), Irish Roman Catholic architectural historian
 * William Amasa Scott (1862–1944), American economist
 * William Anderson Scott (1813–1885), Presbyterian minister, author, and educator
 * William Berryman Scott (1858–1947), American paleontologist
 * William Earl Dodge Scott (1852–1910), American ornithologist
 * William Henry Scott (historian) (1921–1993), anthropologist and historian
 * William Henry Scott (university president) (1840–1937), American academic administrator
 * William Richard Scott (born 1932), American sociologist
 * W. R. Scott (economist) (William Robert Scott, 1868–1940), political economist

Arts and entertainment

 * Sir William Scott of Thirlestane (1645–1725), Scottish poet
 * William Bell Scott (1811–1890), British poet and artist
 * William Scott (artist) (1913–1989), British artist
 * William Edouard Scott (1884–1964), African-American artist
 * William Winfield Scott (1855–1935), American writer
 * William Matthew Scott (1893–1964), pen name Will Scott, English author
 * William Scott (actor) (1893–1967), American silent film actor
 * Bill Scott (voice actor) (1920–1985), American voice actor and producer
 * William Lee Scott (born 1973), American actor
 * William Rufus Scott, employer of Margaret Wise Brown, publisher of W. R. Scott
 * William B. Scott (magazine editor), American magazine editor

Law

 * Sir William Scott (justice) (died 1350s), English lawyer and Chief Justice of the King's Bench
 * Sir William Scott, Lord Balwearie (died 1532), Scottish judge
 * William Scott (Irish lawyer) (1705–1776), Irish lawyer
 * William Scott, 1st Baron Stowell (1745–1836), English judge and jurist
 * William Scott (Missouri judge) (1804–1862), judge on the Missouri Supreme Court
 * Will T. Scott (born 1947), judge on the Kentucky Supreme Court

Canada

 * William Henry Scott (politician) (1799–1851), Canadian politician
 * William James Scott (1812–1882), farmer and politician in Canada West
 * William Hepburn Scott (1837–1881), Canadian lawyer and politician from Ontario
 * William C. Scott (1921–1998), Canadian politician

United Kingdom

 * William Scott (died 1434), MP for Kent
 * Sir William Scott (Lord Warden) (1459–1524), English politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
 * William Scott (MP for New Woodstock) (c. 1579–aft. 1611), MP for New Woodstock
 * Sir William Scott, Lord Clerkington (died 1656), Scottish politician and judge
 * Sir William Scott, 6th Baronet (1803–1871), Scottish Liberal politician
 * William Montagu Douglas Scott, 6th Duke of Buccleuch, Scottish member of parliament and peer

United States

 * William A. Scott, pilot of the Boeing 727 in the unsolved DB Cooper case of commercial air piracy
 * William Grason Scott (died 1882), American politician
 * William Lawrence Scott (1828–1891), US Representative from Pennsylvania and mayor of Erie, Pennsylvania
 * W. Kerr Scott (1896–1958), American politician, Governor of North Carolina, US Senator
 * William L. Scott (1915–1997), US Senator and Representative from Virginia
 * William J. Scott (Illinois politician) (1926–1986), American politician
 * William R. Scott, candidate in the 1980 United States Senate election in New York
 * William Scott (Kentucky politician), Kentucky legislator

Other countries

 * William Scott (South Australian politician) (1795–1866), vigneron, businessman and politician in South Australia
 * Jack Scott (New Zealand politician) (William John Scott, 1915–2001), New Zealand politician
 * Alex Scott (politician) (William Alexander Scott, born 1940), Bermudian politician, Premier of Bermuda

Religion

 * Maurus Scott (William Scott, died 1612), English Roman Catholic priest, missionary, and martyr
 * William Scott (Anglican priest, born 1813) (1813–1872), English clergyman
 * William Scott (astronomer and priest) (1825–1917), Church of England clergyman; colonial astronomer for New South Wales
 * William Scott (archdeacon of Bombay) (died 1918), British priest
 * Bill Scott (priest) (William Sievwright Scott, born 1946), British Anglican priest and Chaplain to the Queen of the United Kingdom
 * Gene Scott (William Eugene Scott, 1929–2005), American pastor and television evangelist

Sports

 * William Scott (jockey) (1797–1848), British jockey
 * William Harvey Scott (died 1885), jockey, rode in 1840s Grand Nationals
 * William Martin Scott (1870–1944), English international rugby union half back
 * William Patrick Scott (1880–1948), Scottish international rugby union player
 * Will Scott (1893–1972), English footballer and football manager
 * William Scott (Australian cricketer) (1882–1965), Australian cricketer
 * William Scott (cricketer, born 1845) (1845–1899), English cricketer
 * William Scott (English cricketer, born 1864) (1864–1920), English cricketer
 * William Scott (English cricketer, born 1903) (1903–1989), English cricketer
 * William Scott (Scottish cricketer) (1908–1971), Scottish cricketer
 * William Scott (athlete) (1886–?), English long-distance runner who competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics

Other

 * William Scott (Texas settler) (1784–1837), American settler in Baytown, Texas
 * William Henry Scott (British Army officer) (1789–1868), British Army general
 * William Scott (The Sleeping Sentinel) (1839–1862/40–1862), Union Army soldier during the American Civil War
 * William R. Scott, Chief of Staff of the 1st Infantry Division in 1919
 * William Shirley Scott (1856–1941), US Army general in World War I
 * William Scott Shipbuilders, British shipyard based in Bristol during the mid-18th century
 * William Gillbee Scott (1857–1930), English architect who designed the Gower Street Memorial Chapel (now the Chinese Church in London)
 * William Bennett Scott Sr., American newspaper founder and publisher, mayor, and civil rights campaigner

title: William Scott


text:
Talk:Mitochondrial Eve

Including more research
There are a variety of studies who bring in another perspective to the ones mentionned in the article, these studies have been published and recognized by a number of scientists. I would like the opinion of an editor with a genetics education background to incorporate those views in the article properly. The articles: Carter, Criswell, & Sanford ICC.indd, calibrating the mitochondrial clock, In light of genetics. It seems, in these articles, that the hypothesis suggested to estimate the 200 000 years of age still have some points of contention. Notably in the the number of 'mutations' happening in every generations. These mutations seems to be within a wide range depending on which study is read, with some saying the rate of mutation means a 200 000 years of time, others saying that would be 20 times more than they have observed in their samples. The study ' the eve mitochondrial consensus sequence' had a sample of 800 genetic sequences, and cannot be simply dismissed as an 'exception'... Excluding the debate over the origin of Mitochondrial Eve and Adam and Eve, the facts brought by those articles, among others, seem to be science-based and worth mentionning. What is particularly interesting is the study of the genomes itself. I would need the opinion of said editor to determine the other points of contention worth mentioning. Emli89 (talk) 19:33, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Hi Emil89, if the points you mentioned are well supported by reliable sources, then please feel free to add a few sentences to reflect those. Don't forget to include the citation info. Lightest (talk) 01:04, 17 July 2022 (UTC)

Naming?
"The name "Mitochondrial Eve" alludes to the biblical Eve, which has led to repeated misrepresentations or misconceptions in journalistic accounts on the topic."

And not just journalistic accounts, but among the religious who hold a very belief in Biblical "Adam & Eve" of paradisiacal garden fame. If this is so confusing for such a large group of people, why do these names persist? Surely other, less provocative, names could be applied. Thank you for your time, Wordreader (talk) 18:03, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

 * Ooops! Make that: "...among the religious who hold a very FIRM belief in Biblical "Adam & Eve" of paradisiacal garden fame." Sorry, Wordreader (talk) 18:05, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

 * Not the place to fix that type of problem. On Wikipedia we follow the publications.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 21:41, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

Missing chart link from the journal Nature.
The chart linked to by @Donald Albury in Nature under Archive 4 does not lead to a chart. Mr Albury - is this perhaps the chart to which you referred? https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms16046/figures/1 Thank you for your time, Wordreader (talk) 18:57, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

 * I mentioned three different charts in that archive. It turns out that the links I added for the charts in Nature do not match anything found in the Internet Archive. The chart you link to above was in an article published $3 1/2$ years after the archived discussion. Sorry, but that discussion happened more than nine years ago, and I remember nothing of it, or of what the charts looked like. Donald Albury 20:05, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

Note 3 typo
"neighbourhood of 15 ka" should read 150 ka 99.59.182.228 (talk) 19:45, 8 September 2023 (UTC)

Date range typo
How can the estimated range begin before the overall given range? "As of 2013, estimates for the age Y-MRCA are subject to substantial uncertainty, with a wide range of times from 180,000 to 580,000 years ago[6][7][8] (with an estimated age of between 120,000 and 156,000 years ago" The wider range should begin with 120,000 rather than 180,000 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.13.131.219 (talk) 20:25, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

 * I agree that this is a problem. Would anyone object to trimming the content about Y-MRCA age to just It's what's in the main article. The level of uncertainty is better left to the body of this article or the lead of the Y-MRCA one. Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 20:40, 17 November 2023 (UTC)
 * I went for it. Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 15:25, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Mitochondrial Eve


text:
Wilderness

Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural) are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity, or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally referred to terrestrial environments, though growing attention is being placed on marine wilderness. Recent maps of wilderness suggest it covers roughly one-quarter of Earth's terrestrial surface, but is being rapidly degraded by human activity. Even less wilderness remains in the ocean, with only 13.2% free from intense human activity.

Some governments establish protection for wilderness areas by law to not only preserve what already exists, but also to promote and advance a natural expression and development. These can be set up in preserves, conservation preserves, national forests, national parks and even in urban areas along rivers, gulches or otherwise undeveloped areas. Often these areas are considered important for the survival of certain species, biodiversity, ecological studies, conservation, solitude and recreation. They may also preserve historic genetic traits and provide habitat for wild flora and fauna that may be difficult to recreate in zoos, arboretums or laboratories.

Ancient times and Middle Ages
From a visual arts perspective, nature and wildness have been important subjects in various epochs of world history. An early tradition of landscape art occurred in the Tang Dynasty (618–907). The tradition of representing nature as it is became one of the aims of Chinese painting and was a significant influence in Asian art. Artists in the tradition of Shan shui (lit. mountain-water-picture), learned to depict mountains and rivers "from the perspective of nature as a whole and on the basis of their understanding of the laws of nature… as if seen through the eyes of a bird". In the 13th century, Shih Erh Chi recommended avoiding painting "scenes lacking any places made inaccessible by nature".

For most of human history, the greater part of Earth's terrain was wilderness, and human attention was concentrated on settled areas. The first known laws to protect parts of nature date back to the Babylonian Empire and Chinese Empire. Ashoka, the Great Mauryan King, defined the first laws in the world to protect flora and fauna in Edicts of Ashoka around the 3rd century B.C. In the Middle Ages, the Kings of England initiated one of the world's first conscious efforts to protect natural areas. They were motivated by a desire to be able to hunt wild animals in private hunting preserves rather than a desire to protect wilderness. Nevertheless, in order to have animals to hunt they would have to protect wildlife from subsistence hunting and the land from villagers gathering firewood. Similar measures were introduced in other European countries.

However, in European cultures, throughout the Middle Ages, wilderness generally was not regarded worth protecting but rather judged strongly negative as a dangerous place and as a moral counter-world to the realm of culture and godly life. "While archaic nature religions oriented themselves towards nature, in medieval Christendom this orientation was replaced by one towards divine law. The divine was no longer to be found in nature; instead, uncultivated nature became a site of the sinister and the demonic. It was considered corrupted by the Fall (natura lapsa), becoming a vale of tears in which humans were doomed to live out their existence. Thus, for example, mountains were interpreted [e.g, by Thomas Burnet ] as ruins of a once flat earth destroyed by the Flood, with the seas as the remains of that Flood." "If paradise was early man's greatest good, wilderness, as its antipode, was his greatest evil."

15th to 19th century
Wilderness was viewed by colonists as being evil in its resistance to their control. The puritanical view of wilderness meant that in order for colonists to be able to live in North America, they had to destroy the wilderness in order to make way for their 'civilized' society. Wilderness was considered to be the root of the colonists' problems, so to make the problems go away, wilderness needed to be destroyed. One of the first steps in doing this, is to get rid of trees in order to clear the land. Military metaphors describing the wilderness as the "enemy" were used, and settler expansion was phrased as "[conquering] the wilderness".

In relation to the wilderness, Native Americans were viewed as savages. The relationship between Native Americans and the land was something colonists did not understand and did not try to understand. This mutually beneficial relationship was different from how colonists viewed the land only in relation to how it could benefit themselves by waging a constant battle to beat the land and other living organisms into submission. The belief colonists had of the land being only something to be used was based in Christian ideas. If the earth and animals and plants were created by a Christian God for human use, then the cultivation by colonists was their God-given goal.

However, the idea that what European colonists saw upon arriving in North America was pristine and devoid of humans is untrue due to the existence of Native Americans. The land was shaped by Native Americans through practices such as fires. Burning happened frequently and in a controlled manner. The landscapes seen in the US today are very different from the way things looked before colonists came. Fire could be used to maintain food, cords, and baskets. One of the main roles of frequent fires was to prevent the out of control fires which are becoming more and more common.

The idea of wilderness having intrinsic value emerged in the Western world in the 19th century. British artists John Constable and J. M. W. Turner turned their attention to capturing the beauty of the natural world in their paintings. Prior to that, paintings had been primarily of religious scenes or of human beings. William Wordsworth's poetry described the wonder of the natural world, which had formerly been viewed as a threatening place. Increasingly the valuing of nature became an aspect of Western culture.

By the mid-19th century, in Germany, "Scientific Conservation", as it was called, advocated "the efficient utilization of natural resources through the application of science and technology". Concepts of forest management based on the German approach were applied in other parts of the world, but with varying degrees of success. Over the course of the 19th century wilderness became viewed not as a place to fear but a place to enjoy and protect; hence came the conservation movement in the latter half of the 19th century. Rivers were rafted and mountains were climbed solely for the sake of recreation, not to determine their geographical context.

In 1861, following an intense lobbying by artists (painters), the French Waters and Forests Military Agency set an "artistic reserve" in Fontainebleau State Forest. With a total of 1,097 hectares, it is known to be the first World nature reserve.

Modern conservation
Global conservation became an issue at the time of the dissolution of the British Empire in Africa in the late 1940s. The British established great wildlife preserves there. As before, this interest in conservation had an economic motive: in this case, big game hunting. Nevertheless, this led to growing recognition in the 1950s and the early 1960s of the need to protect large spaces for wildlife conservation worldwide. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), founded in 1961, grew to be one of the largest conservation organizations in the world.

Early conservationists advocated the creation of a legal mechanism by which boundaries could be set on human activities in order to preserve natural and unique lands for the enjoyment and use of future generations. This profound shift in wilderness thought reached a pinnacle in the US with the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964, which allowed for parts of U.S. National Forests to be designated as "wilderness preserves". Similar acts, such as the 1975 Eastern Wilderness Areas Act, followed.

Nevertheless, initiatives for wilderness conservation continue to increase. There are a growing number of projects to protect tropical rainforests through conservation initiatives. There are also large-scale projects to conserve wilderness regions, such as Canada's Boreal Forest Conservation Framework. The Framework calls for conservation of 50 percent of the 6,000,000 square kilometres of boreal forest in Canada's north. In addition to the World Wildlife Fund, organizations such as the Wildlife Conservation Society, the WILD Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, The Wilderness Society (United States) and many others are active in such conservation efforts.

The 21st century has seen another slight shift in wilderness thought and theory. It is now understood that simply drawing lines around a piece of land and declaring it a wilderness does not necessarily make it a wilderness. All landscapes are intricately connected and what happens outside a wilderness certainly affects what happens inside it. For example, air pollution from Los Angeles and the California Central Valley affects Kern Canyon and Sequoia National Park. The national park has miles of "wilderness" but the air is filled with pollution from the valley. This gives rise to the paradox of what a wilderness really is; a key issue in 21st century wilderness thought.

National parks
The creation of national parks, beginning in the 19th century, preserved some especially attractive and notable areas, but the pursuits of commerce, lifestyle, and recreation combined with increases in human population have continued to result in human modification of relatively untouched areas. Such human activity often negatively impacts native flora and fauna. As such, to better protect critical habitats and preserve low-impact recreational opportunities, legal concepts of "wilderness" were established in many countries, beginning with the United States (see below).

The first National Park was Yellowstone, which was signed into law by U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant on 1 March 1872. The Act of Dedication declared Yellowstone a land "hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people."

When national parks were established in an area, the Native Americans that had been living there were forcibly removed so visitors to the park could see nature without humans present. National parks are seen as areas untouched by humans, when in reality, humans existed in these spaces, until settler colonists came in and forced them off their lands in order to create the national parks. The concept glorifies the idea that before settlers came, the US was an uninhabited landscape. This erases the reality of Native Americans, and their relationship with the land and the role they had in shaping the landscape. Such erasure suggests there were areas of the US which were historically unoccupied, once again erasing the existence of Native Americans and their relationship to the land. In the case of Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite, the 'preservation' of these lands by the US government was what caused the Native Americans who lived in the areas to be systematically removed.

Historian Mark David Spence has shown that the case of Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet people who live there is a perfect example of such erasure. The Blackfeet people had specifically designated rights to the area, but the 1910 Glacier National Park act made void those rights. The act of 'preserving' the land was specifically linked to the exclusion of the Blackfeet people. The continued resistance of the Blackfeet people has provided documentation of the importance of the area to many different tribes.

The world's second national park, the Royal National Park, located just 32 km to the south of Sydney, Australia, was established in 1879.

The U.S. concept of national parks soon caught on in Canada, which created Banff National Park in 1885, at the same time as the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway was being built. The creation of this and other parks showed a growing appreciation of wild nature, but also an economic reality. The railways wanted to entice people to travel west. Parks such as Banff and Yellowstone gained favor as the railroads advertised travel to "the great wild spaces" of North America. When outdoorsman Teddy Roosevelt became president of the United States, he began to enlarge the U.S. National Parks system, and established the National Forest system.

By the 1920s, travel across North America by train to experience the "wilderness" (often viewing it only through windows) had become very popular. This led to the commercialization of some of Canada's National Parks with the building of great hotels such as the Banff Springs Hotel and Chateau Lake Louise.

Despite their similar name, national parks in England and Wales are quite different from national parks in many other countries. Unlike most other countries, in England and Wales, designation as a national park may include substantial settlements and human land uses which are often integral parts of the landscape, and land within a national park remains largely in private ownership. Each park is operated by its own national park authority.

The United States philosophy around wilderness preservation through National Parks has been attempted in other countries. However, people living in those countries have different ideas surrounding wilderness than people in the United States, thus, the US concept of wilderness can be damaging in other areas of the world. India is more densely populated and has been settled for a long time. There are complex relationships between agricultural communities and the wilderness. An example of this is the Project Tiger parks in India. By claiming areas as no longer used by humans, the land moves from the hands of poor people to rich people. Having designated tiger reserves is only possible by displacing poor people, who were not involved in the planning of the areas. This situation places the ideal of wilderness above the already existing relationships between people and the land they live on. By placing an imperialistic ideal of nature onto a different country, the desire to reestablish wilderness is being put above the lives of those who live by working the land.

Conservation and preservation in 20th century United States
By the late 19th century, it had become clear that in many countries wild areas had either disappeared or were in danger of disappearing. This realization gave rise to the conservation movement in the United States, partly through the efforts of writers and activists such as John Burroughs, Aldo Leopold, and John Muir, and politicians such as U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt.

The idea of protecting nature for nature's sake began to gain more recognition in the 1930s with American writers like Aldo Leopold, calling for a "land ethic" and urging wilderness protection. It had become increasingly clear that wild spaces were disappearing rapidly and that decisive action was needed to save them. Wilderness preservation is central to deep ecology; a philosophy that believes in an inherent worth of all living beings, regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs.

Two different groups had emerged within the US environmental movement by the early 20th century: the conservationists and the preservationists. The initial consensus among conservationists was split into "utilitarian conservationists" later to be referred to as conservationists, and "aesthetic conservationists" or preservationists. The main representative for the former was Gifford Pinchot, first Chief of the United States Forest Service, and they focused on the proper use of nature, whereas the preservationists sought the protection of nature from use. Put another way, conservation sought to regulate human use while preservation sought to eliminate human impact altogether. The management of US public lands during the years 1960s and 70s reflected these dual visions, with conservationists dominating the Forest Service, and preservationists the Park Service

International
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) classifies wilderness at two levels, 1a (strict nature reserves) and 1b (Wilderness areas).

There have been recent calls for the World Heritage Convention to better protect wilderness and to include the word wilderness in their selection criteria for Natural Heritage Sites

Forty-eight countries have wilderness areas established via legislative designation as IUCN protected area management Category 1b sites that do not overlap with any other IUCN designation. They are: Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Canada, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Finland, French Guiana, Greenland, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Norway, Northern Mariana Islands, Portugal, Seychelles, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Tanzania, United States of America, and Zimbabwe. At publication, there are 2,992 marine and terrestrial wilderness areas registered with the IUCN as solely Category 1b sites.

Twenty-two other countries have wilderness areas. These wilderness areas are established via administrative designation or wilderness zones within protected areas. Whereas the above listing contains countries with wilderness exclusively designated as Category 1b sites, some of the below-listed countries contain protected areas with multiple management categories including Category 1b. They are: Argentina, Bhutan, Brazil, Chile, Honduras, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Namibia, Nepal, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Switzerland, Uganda, Ukraine, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Venezuela, and Zambia.

Germany
The German National Strategy on Biological Diversity aims to establish wilderness areas on 2% of its terrestrial territory by 2020 (7,140 km2). However, protected wilderness areas in Germany currently only cover 0.6% of the total terrestrial area. In absence of pristine landscapes, Germany counts national parks (IUCN Category II) as wilderness areas. The government counts the whole area of the 16 national parks as wilderness. This means, also the managed parts are included in the "existing" 0,6%. There is no doubt, that Germany will miss its own time-dependent quantitative goals, but there are also some critics, that point a bad designation practice: Findings of disturbance ecology, according to which process-based nature conservation and the 2% target could be further qualified by more targeted area designation, pre-treatment and introduction of megaherbivores, are widely neglected. Since 2019 the government supports bargains of land that will then be designated as wilderness by 10 Mio. Euro annually. The German minimum size for wilderness candidate sites is normally 10 km2. In some cases (i.e. swamps) the minimum size is 5 km2.

Finland
There are twelve wilderness areas in the Sami native region in northern Finnish Lapland. They are intended both to preserve the wilderness character of the areas and further the traditional livelihood of the Sami people. This means e.g. that reindeer husbandry, hunting and taking wood for use in the household is permitted. As population is very sparse, this is generally no big threat to the nature. Large scale reindeer husbandry has influence on the ecosystem, but no change is introduced by the act on wilderness areas. The World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) classifies the areas as "VI Protected area with sustainable use of natural resources".

France
Since 1861, the French Waters and Forests Military Agency (Administration des Eaux et Forêts) put a strong protection on what was called the « artistic reserve » in Fontainebleau State Forest. With a total of 1,097 hectares, it is known to be the first World nature reserve.

Then in the 1950s, Integral Biological Reserves (Réserves Biologiques Intégrales, RBI) are dedicated to man free ecosystem evolution, on the contrary of Managed Biological reserves (Réserves Biologiques Dirigées, RBD) where a specific management is applied to conserve vulnerable species or threatened habitats.

Integral Biological Reserves occurs in French State Forests or City Forests and are therefore managed by the National Forests Office. In such reserves, all harvests coupe are forbidden excepted exotic species elimination or track safety works to avoid fallen tree risk to visitors (already existing tracks in or on the edge of the reserve).

At the end of 2014, there were 60 Integral Biological Reserves in French State Forests for a total area of 111,082 hectares and 10 in City Forests for a total of 2,835 hectares.

Greece
In Greece there are some parks called "ethniki drimoi" (εθνικοί δρυμοί, national forests) that are under protection of the Greek government. Such parks include Olympus, Parnassos and Parnitha National Parks.

New Zealand
There are seven Wilderness Areas in New Zealand as defined by the National Parks Act 1980 and the Conservation Act 1987 that fall well within the IUCN definition. Wilderness areas cannot have any human intervention and can only have indigenous species re-introduced into the area if it is compatible with conservation management strategies.

In New Zealand wilderness areas are remote blocks of land that have high natural character. The Conservation Act 1987 prevents any access by vehicles and livestock, the construction of tracks and buildings, and all indigenous natural resources are protected. They are generally over 400 km2 in size.

Three Wilderness Areas are currently recognised, all on the West Coast: Adams Wilderness Area, Hooker/Landsborough Wilderness Area and Paparoa Wilderness Area.

United States

In the United States, a Wilderness Area is an area of federal land set aside by an act of Congress. It is typically at least 5,000 acres (about 8 mi2 or 20 km2) in size. Human activities in wilderness areas are restricted to scientific study and non-mechanized recreation; horses are permitted but mechanized vehicles and equipment, such as cars and bicycles, are not.

The United States was one of the first countries to officially designate land as "wilderness" through the Wilderness Act of 1964. The Wilderness Act is an important part of wilderness designation because it created the legal definition of wilderness and established the National Wilderness Preservation System. The Wilderness Act defines wilderness as "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammelled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."

Wilderness designation helps preserve the natural state of the land and protects flora and fauna by prohibiting development and providing for non-mechanized recreation only.

The first administratively protected wilderness area in the United States was the Gila National Forest. In 1922, Aldo Leopold, then a ranking member of the U.S. Forest Service, proposed a new management strategy for the Gila National Forest. His proposal was adopted in 1924, and 750,000 acres of the Gila National Forest became the Gila Wilderness.

The Great Swamp in New Jersey was the first formally designated wilderness refuge in the United States. It was declared a wildlife refuge on 3 November 1960. In 1966 it was declared a National Natural Landmark and, in 1968, it was given wilderness status. Properties in the swamp had been acquired by a small group of residents of the area, who donated the assembled properties to the federal government as a park for perpetual protection. Today the refuge amounts to 7600 acre that are within thirty miles of Manhattan.

While wilderness designations were originally granted by an Act of Congress for Federal land that retained a "primeval character", meaning that it had not suffered from human habitation or development, the Eastern Wilderness Act of 1975 extended the protection of the NWPS to areas in the eastern states that were not initially considered for inclusion in the Wilderness Act. This act allowed lands that did not meet the constraints of size, roadlessness, or human impact to be designated as wilderness areas under the belief that they could be returned to a "primeval" state through preservation.

Approximately 107500000 acre are designated as wilderness in the United States. This accounts for 4.82% of the country's total land area; however, 54% of that amount is found in Alaska (recreation and development in Alaskan wilderness is often less restrictive), while only 2.58% of the lower continental United States is designated as wilderness. As of 2023 there are 806 designated wilderness areas in the United States ranging in size from Florida's Pelican Island at 5 acre to Alaska's Wrangell-Saint Elias at 9078675 acre.

Western Australia
In Western Australia, a wilderness area is an area that has a wilderness quality rating of 12 or greater and meets a minimum size threshold of 80 km2 in temperate areas or 200 km2 in arid and tropical areas. A wilderness area is gazetted under section 62(1)(a) of the Conservation and Land Management Act 1984 by the Minister on any land that is vested in the Conservation Commission of Western Australia.

International movement

At the forefront of the international wilderness movement has been The WILD Foundation, its founder Ian Player and its network of sister and partner organizations around the globe. The pioneer World Wilderness Congress in 1977 introduced the wilderness concept as an issue of international importance, and began the process of defining the term in biological and social contexts. Today, this work is continued by many international groups who still look to the World Wilderness Congress as the international venue for wilderness and to The WILD Foundation network for wilderness tools and action. The WILD Foundation also publishes the standard references for wilderness professionals and others involved in the issues: Wilderness Management: Stewardship and Protection of Resources and Values, the International Journal of Wilderness, A Handbook on International Wilderness Law and Policy and Protecting Wild Nature on Native Lands are the backbone of information and management tools for international wilderness issues.

The Wilderness Specialist Group within the World Commission on Protected Areas (WTF/WCPA) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) plays a critical role in defining legal and management guidelines for wilderness at the international level and is also a clearing-house for information on wilderness issues. The IUCN Protected Areas Classification System defines wilderness as "A large area of unmodified or slightly modified land, and/or sea retaining its natural character and influence, without permanent or significant habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural condition (Category 1b)." The WILD Foundation founded the WTF/WCPA in 2002 and remains co-chair.

Extent

The most recent efforts to map wilderness show that less than one quarter (~23%) of the world's wilderness area now remains, and that there have been catastrophic declines in wilderness extent over the last two decades. Over 3 million square kilometers (10 percent) of wilderness was converted to human land-uses. The Amazon and Congo rain forests suffered the most loss. Human pressure is extending into almost every corner of the planet. The loss of wilderness could have serious implications for biodiversity conservation.

According to a previous study, Wilderness: Earth's Last Wild Places, carried out by Conservation International, 46% of the world's land mass is wilderness. For purposes of this report, "wilderness" was defined as an area that "has 70% or more of its original vegetation intact, covers at least 10000 km2 and must have fewer than five people per square kilometer." However, an IUCN/UNEP report published in 2003, found that only 10.9% of the world's land mass is currently a Category 1 Protected Area, that is, either a strict nature reserve (5.5%) or protected wilderness (5.4%). Such areas remain relatively untouched by humans. Of course, there are large tracts of lands in national parks and other protected areas that would also qualify as wilderness. However, many protected areas have some degree of human modification or activity, so a definitive estimate of true wilderness is difficult.

The Wildlife Conservation Society generated a human footprint using a number of indicators, the absence of which indicate wildness: human population density, human access via roads and rivers, human infrastructure for agriculture and settlements and the presence of industrial power (lights visible from space). The society estimates that 26% of the Earth's land mass falls into the category of "Last of the wild." The wildest regions of the world include the Arctic Tundra, the Siberia Taiga, the Amazon rainforest, the Tibetan Plateau, the Australia Outback and deserts such as the Sahara, and the Gobi. However, from the 1970s, numerous geoglyphs have been discovered on deforested land in the Amazon rainforest, leading to claims about Pre-Columbian civilizations. The BBC's Unnatural Histories claimed that the Amazon rainforest, rather than being a pristine wilderness, has been shaped by man for at least 11,000 years through practices such as forest gardening and terra preta.

The percentage of land area designated wilderness does not necessarily reflect a measure of its biodiversity. Of the last natural wilderness areas, the taiga—which is mostly wilderness—represents 11% of the total land mass in the Northern Hemisphere. Tropical rainforest represent a further 7% of the world's land base. Estimates of the Earth's remaining wilderness underscore the rate at which these lands are being developed, with dramatic declines in biodiversity as a consequence.

Critique

The American concept of wilderness has been criticized by some nature writers. For example, William Cronon writes that what he calls a wilderness ethic or cult may "teach us to be dismissive or even contemptuous of such humble places and experiences", and that "wilderness tends to privilege some parts of nature at the expense of others", using as an example "the mighty canyon more inspiring than the humble marsh." This is most clearly visible with the fact that nearly all U.S. National Parks preserve spectacular canyons and mountains, and it was not until the 1940s that a swamp became a national park—the Everglades. In the mid-20th century national parks started to protect biodiversity, not simply attractive scenery.

Cronon also believes the passion to save wilderness "poses a serious threat to responsible environmentalism" and writes that it allows people to "give ourselves permission to evade responsibility for the lives we actually lead... to the extent that we live in an urban-industrial civilization but at the same time pretend to ourselves that our real home is in the wilderness".

Michael Pollan has argued that the wilderness ethic leads people to dismiss areas whose wildness is less than absolute. In his book Second Nature, Pollan writes that "once a landscape is no longer 'virgin' it is typically written off as fallen, lost to nature, irredeemable." Another challenge to the conventional notion of wilderness comes from Robert Winkler in his book, Going Wild: Adventures with Birds in the Suburban Wilderness. "On walks in the unpeopled parts of the suburbs," Winkler writes, "I’ve witnessed the same wild creatures, struggles for survival, and natural beauty that we associate with true wilderness." Attempts have been made, as in the Pennsylvania Scenic Rivers Act, to distinguish "wild" from various levels of human influence: in the Act, "wild rivers" are "not impounded", "usually not accessible except by trail", and their watersheds and shorelines are "essentially primitive". Another source of criticism is that the criteria for wilderness designation is vague and open to interpretation. For example, the Wilderness Act states that wilderness must be roadless. The definition given for roadless is "the absences of roads which have been improved and maintained by mechanical means to insure relatively regular and continuous use". However, there have been added sub-definitions that have, in essence, made this standard unclear and open to interpretation, and some are drawn to narrowly exclude existing roads.

Coming from a different direction, some criticism from the Deep Ecology movement argues against conflating "wilderness" with "wilderness reservations", viewing the latter term as an oxymoron that, by allowing the law as a human construct to define nature, unavoidably voids the very freedom and independence of human control that defines wilderness. True wilderness requires the ability of life to undergo speciation with as little interference from humanity as possible. Anthropologist and scholar on wilderness Layla Abdel-Rahim argues that it is necessary to understand the principles that govern the economies of mutual aid and diversification in wilderness from a non-anthropocentric perspective.

Others have criticized the American concept of wilderness as rooted in white supremacy, ignoring Native American perspectives on the natural environment and excluding people of color from narratives about human interactions with the environment. Many early conservationists, such as Madison Grant, were also heavily involved in the eugenics movement. Grant, who worked alongside President Theodore Roosevelt to create the Bronx Zoo, also wrote The Passing of the Great Race, a book on eugenics that was later praised by Adolf Hitler. Grant is also known to have featured Ota Benga, a Mbuti man from Central Africa, in the Bronx Zoo monkey house exhibit. John Muir, another important figure in the early conservation movement, referred to African-Americans as "making a great deal of noise and doing little work", and compared Native Americans to unclean animals who did not belong in the wilderness. Environmental history professor Miles A. Powell of Nanyang Technological University has argued that much of the early conservation movement was deeply tied to and inspired by a desire to preserve the Nordic race. Prakash Kashwan, a political science professor at the University of Connecticut who specializes in environmental policies and environmental justice, argues that the racist ideas of many early conservationists created a narrative of wilderness that has led to "fortress conservation" policies that have driven Native Americans off of their land. Kashwan has proposed conservation practices that would allow Indigenous people to continue using the land as a more just and more effective alternative to fortress conservation. The idea that the natural world is primarily made up of remote wilderness areas has also been criticized as classist, with environmental sociologist Dorceta Taylor arguing that this leads to experiencing wilderness becoming a privilege, as working-class people are often unable to afford transportation to wilderness areas. She further argues that, due to poverty and lack of access to transportation caused by systemic racism, this perception is also rooted in racism.

Human–nature dichotomy
Another critique of wilderness is that it perpetuates the human-nature dichotomy. The idea that nature and humans are separate entities can be traced back to European colonial views. To European settlers, land was an inherited right and was to be used to profit. While native groups saw their relationship with the land in a more holistic view, they were eventually subjected to European property systems. Colonists from Europe saw the American landscape as wild, savage, dark, [etc.] and thus needed to be tamed in order for it to be safe and habitable. Once cleared and settled, these areas were depicted as "Eden itself". Yet the native peoples of those lands saw "wilderness" as that when the connection between humans and nature is broken. For native communities, human intervention was a part of their ecological practices.

There is a historical belief that wilderness must not only be tamed to be protected but that humans also need to be outside of it. In order to clear certain areas for conservation, such as national parks, involved the removal of native communities from their land. Some authors have come to describe this type of conservation as conservation-far, where humans and nature are kept separate. The other end of the conservation spectrum then, would be conservation-near, which would mimic native ecological practices of humans integrated into the care of nature.

Most scientists and conservationists agree that no place on earth is completely untouched by humanity, either due to past occupation by indigenous people, or through global processes such as climate change or pollution. Activities on the margins of specific wilderness areas, such as fire suppression and the interruption of animal migration, also affect the interior of wildernesses.

Documentaries

 * 2022: Wild Forests by David Cebulla

Definitions

 * Detailed maps of United States wilderness designations
 * What is Wilderness? – Definition and discussion of wilderness as a human construction
 * Wilderness and the American Mind – by Roderick Nash
 * The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature by William Cronon.

title: Wilderness