Indigenous peoples

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"First peoples" redirects here. For the study of human origins, see Anthropogeny.

A Navajo man on horseback in Monument Valley, Arizona.

Inuit people on a traditional qamutik(dog sled) in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, Canada.

Indigenous peoples, also known as first peoples, aboriginal peoples, native peoples,
or autochthonous peoples, are ethnic groups who are descended from and identify with the
original inhabitants of a given region, in contrast to groups that have settled, occupied or colonized
the area more recently. Groups are usually described as indigenous when they maintain traditions or
other aspects of an early culture that is associated with a given region. Not all indigenous peoples
share these characteristics.[clarification needed]Indigenous peoples may be either settled in a given
locale/region or exhibit a nomadic lifestyle across a large territory, but are generally historically
associated with a specific territory on which they depend. Indigenous societies are found in every
inhabited climate zone and continent of the world.[1][2]
Since indigenous peoples are often faced with threats to their sovereignty, economic well-being, and
their access to resources on which their cultures depend, a special set of political rights in
accordance with international law have been set forth by international organizations such as the
United Nations, the International Labour Organization and the World Bank.[1] The United Nations has
issued a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to guide member-state national policies to
collective rights of indigenous peoplesuch as culture, identity, language, and access to
employment, health, education, and natural resources. Estimates put the total population of
indigenous peoples from 220 million to 350 million.[3]

Contents
[hide]

1Etymology
o

1.1National definitions

1.2United Nations

2History
o

2.1Classical antiquity

2.2European expansion and colonialism

3Population and distribution

4Indigenous peoples by region

o

4.1Africa

4.2Americas

4.3Asia

4.3.1Western Asia

4.3.2South Asia

4.3.3North Asia

4.3.4Eastern Asia

4.3.5Southeast Asia

4.4Europe

4.5Oceania

5Indigenous rights and other issues

o

5.1Human rights violation

5.2Health issues

5.3Indigenous worldviews and the global community

5.4Non-indigenous viewpoints

6See also

7References

8Further reading

9External links
o

9.1Institutions

Etymology[edit]
The adjective indigenous is derived from the two Ancient Greek words indo= endo/ "()",
meaning inside/within, and genous= (o), meaning birth/born and also
race. etymology meaning "native" or "born within".[4] Any given people, ethnic group or community
may be described as indigenous in reference to some particular region or location that they see as
their traditional tribal land claim.[5] Other terms used to refer to indigenous populations are aboriginal,
native, original, or first (as in Canada's First Nations).
The use of the term peoples in association with the indigenous is derived from the 19th
century anthropological and ethnographic disciplines that Merriam-Webster Dictionarydefines as "a
body of persons that are united by a common culture, tradition, or sense of kinship, which typically
have common language, institutions, and beliefs, and often constitute a politically organized group".[6]
During the late twentieth century, the term Indigenous people began to be used to describe a legal
category in indigenous law created in international and national legislation; it refers to culturally
distinct groups affected by colonization.[7]
James Anaya, former Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, has defined
indigenous peoples as "living descendants of pre-invasion inhabitants of lands now dominated by
others. They are culturally distinct groups that find themselves engulfed by other settler societies
born of forces of empire and conquest".[8][9]
They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and
transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their
continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions
and legal system. The International Day of the World's Indigenous People falls on 9 August as this
was the date of the first meeting in 1982 of the United Nations Working Group of Indigenous
Populations of the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of
the Commission on Human Rights.

National definitions[edit]

Ainu man of Hokkaid, Japan in traditional dress

Throughout history, different states designate the groups within their boundaries that are recognized
as indigenous peoples according to international or national legislation by different terms. Indigenous
people also include people indigenous based on their descent from populations that inhabited the
country when non-indigenous religions and cultures arrivedor at the establishment of present state
boundarieswho retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions,
but who may have been displaced from their traditional domains or who may have resettled outside
their ancestral domains.
The status of the indigenous groups in the subjugated relationship can be characterized in most
instances as an effectively marginalized, isolated or minimally participative one, in comparison to
majority groups or the nation-state as a whole. Their ability to influence and participate in the
external policies that may exercise jurisdiction over their traditional lands and practices is very
frequently limited. This situation can persist even in the case where the indigenous population
outnumbers that of the other inhabitants of the region or state; the defining notion here is one of
separation from decision and regulatory processes that have some, at least titular, influence over
aspects of their community and land rights.
In a ground-breaking 1997 decision involving the Ainu people of Japan, the Japanese courts
recognised their claim in law, stating that "If one minority group lived in an area prior to being ruled
over by a majority group and preserved its distinct ethnic culture even after being ruled over by the
majority group, while another came to live in an area ruled over by a majority after consenting to the
majority rule, it must be recognised that it is only natural that the distinct ethnic culture of the former
group requires greater consideration."[10]
The presence of external laws, claims and cultural mores either potentially or actually act to
variously constrain the practices and observances of an indigenous society. These constraints can
be observed even when the indigenous society is regulated largely by its own tradition and custom.
They may be purposefully imposed, or arise as unintended consequence of trans-cultural interaction.

They may have a measurable effect, even where countered by other external influences and actions
deemed beneficial or that promote indigenous rights and interests.

United Nations[edit]
In 1972 the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) accepted as a
preliminary definition a formulation put forward by Mr. Jos R. Martnez-Cobo, Special
Rapporteur on Discrimination against Indigenous Populations. This definition has some limitations,
because the definition applies mainly to pre-colonial populations, and would likely exclude other
isolated or marginal societies.[11]
Indigenous communities, peoples, and nations are those that, having a historical continuity with preinvasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct
from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them. They form at
present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop, and transmit to
future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued
existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal
systems.
The primary impetus in considering indigenous identity comes from the post-colonial movements
and considering the historical impacts on populations by the European imperialism. The first
paragraph of the Introduction of a report published in 2009 by the Secretariat of the Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Issues published a report,[12] states
For centuries, since the time of their colonization, conquest or occupation, indigenous peoples have
documented histories of resistance, interface or cooperation with states, thus demonstrating their
conviction and determination to survive with their distinct sovereign identities. Indeed, indigenous
peoples were often recognized as sovereign peoples by states, as witnessed by the hundreds of
treaties concluded between indigenous peoples and the governments of the United States, Canada,
New Zealand and others.[13]
In May 2016, the Fifteenth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
(UNPFII) affirmed that indigenous people' (also termed aboriginal people, native people,
or autochthonous people) are distinctive groups protected in international or national legislation as
having a set of specific rights based on their linguistic and historical ties to a particular territory, prior
to later settlement, development, and or occupation of a region.[14] The session affirms that since
indigenous peoples are vulnerable to exploitation, marginalization, oppression, forced assimilation,
and genocide by nation states formed from colonizing populations or by politically dominant, different
ethnic groups, special protection of individuals and communities maintaining ways of life indigenous
to their regions, are entitled to special protection.

History[edit]
Classical antiquity[edit]

Greek sources of the Classical period acknowledge the prior existence of indigenous people(s),
whom they referred to as "Pelasgians". These peoples inhabited lands surrounding the Aegean
Sea before the subsequent migrations of the Hellenic ancestors claimed by these authors. The
disposition and precise identity of this former group is elusive, and sources such
as Homer, Hesiod and Herodotus give varying, partially mythological accounts. However, it is clear
that cultures existed whose indigenous characteristics were distinguished by the subsequent
Hellenic cultures (and distinct from non-Greek speaking "foreigners", termed "barbarians" by the
historical Greeks).
Greco-Roman society flourished between 250 BC and 480 AD and commanded successive waves
of conquests that gripped more than half of the globe. But because already existent populations
within other parts of Europe at the time of classical antiquity had more in common culturally speaking
with the Greco-Roman world, the intricacies involved in expansion across the European frontier were
not so contentious relative to indigenous issues. [15]

Alonso Fernndez de Lugopresenting the captured Guanche kings of Tenerife to Ferdinand and Isabella

But when it came to expansion in other parts of the world, namely Asia, Africa, and the Middle East,
then totally new cultural dynamics had entered into the equation, so to speak, and one sees here of
what was to take the Americas, South East Asia, and the Pacific by storm a few hundred years later.
The idea that peoples who possessed cultural customs and racial appearances strikingly different
from those of the colonizing power is no new idea borne out of the Medieval period or
the Enlightenment.

European expansion and colonialism[edit]

The rapid and extensive spread of the various European powers from the early 15th century
onwards had a profound impact upon many of the indigenous cultures with whom they came into
contact. The exploratory and colonial ventures in the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific often
resulted in territorial and cultural conflict, and the intentional or unintentional displacement and
devastation of the indigenous populations.
The Canary Islands had an indigenous population called the Guanches whose origin is still the
subject of discussion among historians and linguists. [16]

Population and distribution[edit]

Members of an uncontacted tribeencountered in the Brazilian state of Acre in 2009.

A Kawanua tribesman in a parade. Native Indonesians make up about 95% of 200

million Indonesianpopulation.

Indigenous societies range from those who have been significantly exposed to the colonizing or
expansionary activities of other societies (such as the Maya peoples of Mexico and Central America)
through to those who as yet remain in comparative isolation from any external influence (such as
the Sentinelese and Jarawa of the Andaman Islands).
Precise estimates for the total population of the world's Indigenous peoples are very difficult to
compile, given the difficulties in identification and the variances and inadequacies of available
census data. The United Nations estimates that there are over 370 million indigenous people living
in over 70 countries worldwide.[17] This would equate to just fewer than 6% of the total world
population. This includes at least 5000 distinct peoples[18] in over 72 countries.
Contemporary distinct indigenous groups survive in populations ranging from only a few dozen to
hundreds of thousands and more. Many indigenous populations have undergone a dramatic decline
and even extinction, and remain threatened in many parts of the world. Some have also been
assimilated by other populations or have undergone many other changes. In other cases, indigenous
populations are undergoing a recovery or expansion in numbers.

Certain indigenous societies survive even though they may no longer inhabit their "traditional" lands,
owing to migration, relocation, forced resettlement or having been supplanted by other cultural
groups. In many other respects, the transf

Prostitution in India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Legal status of prostitution across Asia.

Prostitution legal and regulated
Prostitution (the exchange of sex for money) legal, but organized activities such as brothels and pimpingare
illegal; prostitution is not regulated
Prostitution illegal
No data

A brothel in Kamathipura

In India, prostitution (the exchange of sexual services for money) is legal, [1] but a number of related
activities, including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel,

prostitution in a hotel,[2] child prostitution, pimpingand pandering, are crimes.[3] Prostitution is legal
only if carried out in private residence of a prostitute or others.[4] But many brothels illegally operate in
many Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.[5]
Contents
[hide]

1History

2Organisation
o

2.1Prevalence

2.2Areas of work

2.3Underage prostitution

2.4Research

3Legal status
o

3.1Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act - ITPA

3.2Political and legal debates

4Reasons for entry

5Sex worker health

6Foreigners

7Popular culture

8See also

9References

10Bibliography

11External links

History[edit]
In ancient India, there was a practice of the rich asking Nagarvadhu to sing and dance, noted in
history as "brides of the town". Famous examples include Amrapali, state courtesan and Buddhist

disciple, described in "Vaishali Ki Nagarvadhu" by Acharya Chatursen and Vasantasena, a character

in the classic Sanskrit story of Mricchakatika, written in the 2nd century BC by draka.
Goa, which was a former Portuguese colony in India, during the late 16th and 17th centuries, was a
Portuguese stronghold with community of Portuguese slaves such as Japanese slaves, who were
usually young Japanese women and girls brought or captured as sexual
slaves by Portuguese traders and their captive South Asian lascar crew members from Japan.[6]
During the British East India Company's rule in India in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the
British set up comfort zones for British troops wishing to make young girls and women into sex tools
to satisfy the British soldiers who frequently set up their own prostitution rings. A write up by the BBC
of England states that British troops helped to establish prostitution dens across India in capitals
such as Mumbai which is now the hot bed of child prostitution,[7] Indian lascar seamen who were
forced into the British military to the United Kingdom copied the masters by joining the British forces
on frequent visits to the local British prostitutes there.[8][9] In the 19th and early 20th centuries,
thousands of women and girls from continental Europe and Japan were trafficked into British India,
where they worked as prostitutes servicing British soldiers and local Indian men. [10][11][12]

Organisation[edit]
Government organisations like MDACS (Maharashtra District AIDS Control Society) have played a
very prominent role in generating awareness on HIV/AIDS through the assistance in providing free
literature and organising street campaigns. There are several NGO that feed on funds for protecting
STI/STDs spread to common population NACO (National AIDS Control Organisation), a government
agency lead these NGOs.[13]

Prevalence[edit]
There are an estimated two million female sex workers in the country.[14] In 2007, the Ministry of
Women and Child Development reported the presence of over 3 million female sex workers in India,
with 35.47 percent of them entering the trade before the age of 18 years. [15][16] The number of
prostitutes rose by 50% between 1997 and 2004. [17]

Areas of work[edit]

A lane in Kamathipura, a red light district in Mumbai.

Brothels are illegal de jure but in practice are restricted to certain areas of any given town. Though
the profession does not have official sanction, little effort is made to eradicate or impede it.
India's largest[18] and best-known red-light
districts are Sonagachi in Kolkata, Kamathipura in Mumbai and G. B. Road in New Delhi, that host
thousands of sex workers.[19] Earlier, there were centres such as Naqqasa Bazaar in Saharanpur,
Chaturbhuj Sthan in Muzaffarpur, Lalpur, Maduovwedih in Varanasi, Meerganj in Allahabad and
Kabadi bazar of Meerut.

Underage prostitution[edit]
Surveys show there are an estimated 1.2 million children involved in prostitution. [20] International
organizations like Free a Girl are very willing to assist the Indian police in capturing traffickers, pimps
and sex offenders. Recently some child saving operations were canceled, as the higher police
officials of Mumbai were very displeased with the presence of a foreign journalist. [21]

Research[edit]
Much new knowledge on sex work in India came from the first major survey, in April 2011. [22] This was
performed by the Centre for Advocacy on Stigma and Marginalisation (CASAM), which is part of
SANGRAM,[23] a major NGO that deals with sex workers.

Legal status[edit]
The primary law dealing with the status of sex workers is the 1956 law referred to as The Immoral
Traffic (Suppression) Act (SITA). According to this law, prostitutes can practise their trade privately
but cannot legally solicit customers in public.[citation needed] A BBC article, however, mentions that
prostitution is illegal in India; the Indian law does not refer to the practice of selling one's own sexual
service as "prostitution".[24] Clients can be punished for sexual activity in proximity to a public place.
Organised prostitution (brothels, prostitution rings, pimping, etc.) is illegal. As long as it is done
individually and voluntarily, a woman (male prostitution is not recognised in any law in India but even
consensual anal intercourse is illegal under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code) can use her body
in exchange for material benefit. In particular, the law forbids a sex worker to carry on her profession
within 200 yards of a public place. Unlike as is the case with other professions, sex workers are not
protected under normal labour laws, but they possess the right to rescue and rehabilitation if they
desire and possess all the rights of other citizens.
In practice SITA is not commonly used. The Indian Penal Code (IPC) which predates the SITA is
often used to charge sex workers with vague crimes such as "public indecency" or being a "public
nuisance" without explicitly defining what these consist of. Recently the old law has been amended
as The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act or PITA. Attempts to amend this to criminalise clients [25] have
been opposed by the Health Ministry,[26] and has encountered considerable opposition.[27] In a positive

development in the improvement of the lives of female sex workers in Calcutta, a state-owned
insurance company has provided life insurance to 250 individuals.[28]
Over the years, India has seen a growing mandate to legalise prostitution, to avoid exploitation of
sex workers and their children by middlemen and in the wake of a growing HIV/AIDS menace. [29][30][31]

Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act - ITPA[edit]

The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act or ITPA is a 1986 amendment of legislation passed in 1956 as a
result of the signing by India of the United Nations' declaration in 1950 in New York on the
suppression of trafficking.[32] The act, then called the All India Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act
(SITA), was amended to the current law. The laws were intended as a means of limiting and
eventually abolishing prostitution in India by gradually criminalising various aspects of sex work. The
main points of the PITA are as follows:[33]

Sex Workers: A prostitute who seduces or solicits shall be prosecuted. Similarly, call girls can
not publish phone numbers to the public. (imprisonment up to 6 months with fine, point 8)
Sex worker also punished for prostitution near any public place or notified area. (Imprisonment
of up to 3 months with fine, point 7)

Clients: A client is guilty of consorting with prostitutes and can be charged if he engages in
sex acts with a sex worker within 200 yards of a public place or "notified area". (Imprisonment of
up to 3 months, point 7) The client may also be punished if the sex worker is below 18 years of
age. (From 7 to 10 years of imprisonment, whether with a child or a minor, point 7)

Pimps and babus: Babus or pimps or live-in lovers who live off a prostitute's earnings are
guilty of a crime. Any adult male living with a prostitute is assumed to be guilty unless he can
prove otherwise. (Imprisonment of up to 2 years with fine, point 4)

Brothel: Landlords and brothel-keepers can be prosecuted, maintaining a brothel is illegal.

(From 1 to 3 years imprisonment with fine for first offence, point 3) Detaining someone at a
brothel for the purpose of sexual exploitation can lead to prosecution. (Imprisonment of more
than 7 years, point 6)
Prostitution in a hotel is also a criminal offence.[2]

Procuring and trafficking: A person procures or attempts to procure anybody is liable to be

punished. Also a person who moves a person from one place to another, (human trafficking),
can be prosecuted similarly. (From 3 to 7 years imprisonment with fine, point 5)

Rescued Women: The government is legally obligated to provide rescue and rehabilitation in
a "protective home" for any sex worker requesting assistance. (Point 21)

Public place in context of this law includes places of public religious worship, educational institutions,
hostels, hospitals etc. A "notified area" is a place which is declared to be "prostitution-free" by
the state government under the PITA. Brothel in context of this law, is a place which has two or more
sex workers (2a). Prostitution itself is not an offence under this law, but soliciting, brothels, madams
and pimps are illegal.[34]

Political and legal debates[edit]

Clauses in the ITPA relating to living of the earnings are being challenged in court, together with
criminalisation of brothels, prostitution around a notified public place, soliciting and the power given
to a magistrate to evict sex-workers from their home and forbidding their re-entry. other groups are
lobbying parliament for amendments. [35][36] The apex court accepted to examine the plea of the
Central Government that sex workers should not be allowed to operate under the cover of working
"with dignity". The government counsel contended that any such endorsement by the court would be
ultra vires of ITPA which totally bans prostitution.[37]

Reasons for entry[edit]

An American GI and prostitutes in Calcutta in 1945

Most of the research done by Sanlaap indicates that the majority of sex workers in India work as
prostitutes due to lacking resources to support themselves or their children. Most do not choose this
profession but out of necessity, often after the breakup of a marriage or after being disowned and
thrown out of their homes by their families. The children of sex workers are much more likely to get
involved in this kind of work as well. A survey completed in 1988 by the All Bengal Women's
Union interviewed a random sample of 160 sex workers in Calcutta: Of those, 23 claimed that they
had come of their own accord, whereas the remaining 137 women claimed to have been introduced
into the sex trade by agents. The breakdown was as follows:

Neighbour in connivance with parents: 7

Neighbours as pimps (guardians not knowing): 19

Aged sex workers from same village or locality: 31

Unknown person/accidental meeting with pimp: 32

Mother/sister/near relative in the profession: 18

Lover giving false hope of marriage or job and selling to brothel: 14

Close acquaintance giving false hope of marriage or job: 11

"Husband" (not legally married): 3

Husband (legally married): 1

Young college student selling to brothel and visiting free of cost: 1

The breakdown of the agents by sex were as follows: 76% of the agents were female and 24% were
males. Over 80% of the agents bring young women into the profession were known people and not
traffickers: neighbors, relatives, etc.
Also prevalent in parts of Bengal is the Chukri System, whereby a female is coerced into prostitution
to pay off debts, as a form of bonded labour. In this system, the prostitute generally works without
pay for one year or longer to repay a supposed debt to the brothel owner for food, clothes, make-up
and living expenses. In India, the Government's "central sponsored scheme" provides financial or inkind grants to released bonded labourers and their family members, the report noted, adding over
2,850,000 people have benefited to date. Almost 5,000 prosecutions have been recorded so far
under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act of 1976.
Some women and girls are by tradition born into prostitution to support the family. The Bachara, for
example, follow this tradition with eldest daughters often expected to be prostitutes.
Over 40% of 484 prostituted girls rescued during major raids of brothels in Mumbai in 1996 were
from Nepal.[38] In India as many as 200,000 Nepalese girls, many under the age of 14, have been
sold into sexual slavery.[39][40]

Sex worker health[edit]

Living with dignity - Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee

Further information: HIV in India

Mumbai and Kolkata (Calcutta) have the country's largest brothel based sex industry, with over
100,000 sex workers in Mumbai.[41]It is estimated that HIV among prostitutes have largely fallen, in
last decade.[42]
A positive outcome of a prevention programme among prostitutes can be found in Sonagachi, a redlight district in Kolkata. The education programme targeted about 5,000 female prostitutes. A team of

two peer workers carried out outreach activities including education, condom promotion and followup of STI cases. When the project was launched in 1992, 27% of sex workers reported condom use.
By 1995 this had risen to 82%, and in 2001 it was 86%.
Reaching women who are working in brothels has proven to be quite difficult due to the sheltered
and secluded nature of the work, where pimps, Mashis, and brothel-keepers often control access to
the women and prevent their access to education, resulting in a low to modest literacy rate for many
sex workers.
Not only HIV, but other infection diseases have been decreased, examined data from 868 prevention
projects serving about 500,000 female sex workers implemented between 1995 and 2008.
Research found that reaching sex workers through prevention programs decreased HIV and syphilis
infection rates among young pregnant women tested routinely at government' prenatal health clinics.
[43]

Foreigners[edit]
Girls from Arabia, Japan,[44] Russia, Bangladesh,[45] Sri Lanka[46] and from other origins have been
noted as working as prostitutes in India. In 2015 ten Thai women were arrested in India on
prostitution charges for allegedly runn

Global warming
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This page is about the current warming of the Earth's climate system. "Climate change" can also
refer to climate trends at any point in Earth's history. For other uses see Global warming
(disambiguation)

Global mean surface temperature change from 1880 to 2015, relative to the 19511980 mean. The black line is
the annual mean and the red line is the 5-year running mean. Source: NASA GISS.

World map showing surface temperature trends (C per decade) between 1950 and 2014. Source: NASA
GISS.[1]

Fossil fuel related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions compared to five of the IPCC's "SRES" emissions scenarios,
published in 2000. The dips are related to global recessions. Image source: Skeptical Science.

Fossil fuel related carbon dioxide emissions over the 20th century. Image source: EPA.

Global warming and climate change are terms for the observed century-scale rise in the average
temperature of the Earth's climate system and its related effects.[2] Multiple lines of scientific evidence
show that the climate system is warming.[3][4][5] Although the increase of near-surface atmospheric
temperature is the measure of global warming often reported in the popular press, most of the

additional energy stored in the climate system since 1970 has gone into the oceans. The rest has
melted ice and warmed the continents and atmosphere.[6][a] Many of the observed changes since the
1950s are unprecedented over tens to thousands of years.[7]
Scientific understanding of global warming is increasing. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) reported in 2014 that scientists were more than 95% certain that global warming is
mostly being caused by human (anthropogenic) activities, mainly increasing concentrations
of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide(CO2).[8][9][10] Human-made carbon
dioxide continues to increase above levels not seen in hundreds of thousands of years. Methane
and other, often much more potent, greenhouse gases are also rising along with CO 2.[11] Currently,
about half of the carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels remains in the atmosphere.
The rest is absorbed by vegetation and the oceans.[12] Climate model projections summarized in the
report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further
0.3 to 1.7 C (0.5 to 3.1 F) for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to 4.8 C (4.7 to 8.6 F) for
the highest emissions scenario.[13] These findings have been recognized by the national science
academies of the major industrialized nations[14][b] and are not disputed by any scientific body of
national or international standing.[16]
Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe.[17]
[18]
Anticipated effectsinclude warming global temperature, rising sea levels, changing precipitation,
and expansion of deserts in the subtropics.[19] Warming is expected to be greater over land than over
the oceans and greatest in the Arctic, with the continuing retreat of glaciers, permafrost and sea ice.
Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves, droughts,
heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall;[20] ocean acidification; and species extinctions due to
shifting temperature regimes. Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from
decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels.[21]
[22]
Because the climate system has a large "inertia" and greenhouse gases will stay in the
atmosphere for a long time, many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries, but will
persist for tens of thousands of years.[23]
Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions
reduction, adaptation to its effects, building systems resilient to its effects, and possible
future climate engineering. Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC),[24] whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic
climate change.[25] Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are
required[26] and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C (3.6 F) relative to preindustrial levels,[c] with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C (2.7 F).[28]
Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing. A global
2015 Pew Research Centerreport showed a median of 54% consider it "a very serious problem".
There are significant regional differences, with Americans and Chinese (whose economies are
responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions) among the least concerned.[29]
Contents
[hide]

1Observed temperature changes

o

1.1Trends

1.2Warmest years

2Initial causes of temperature changes (external forcings)

o

2.1Greenhouse gases

2.2Aerosols and soot

2.3Solar activity

2.4Variations in Earth's orbit

3Feedback

4Climate models

5Observed and expected environmental effects

o

5.1Extreme weather

5.2Sea level rise

5.3Ecological systems

5.4Long-term effects

5.5Large-scale and abrupt impacts

6Observed and expected effects on social systems

o

6.1Habitat inundation

6.2Economy

6.3Infrastructure

7Possible responses to global warming

o

7.1Mitigation

7.2Adaptation

7.3Climate engineering

8Discourse about global warming

o

8.1Political discussion

8.2Scientific discussion

8.3Discussion by the public and in popular media

8.3.1Surveys of public opinion

9Etymology

10See also

11Notes

12Citations

13References

14Further reading

15External links

Observed temperature changes

Main article: Instrumental temperature record

2015 Warmest Global Year on Record (since 1880) Colours indicate temperature anomalies (NASA/NOAA;
20 January 2016).[30]

Earth has been in radiative imbalancesince at least the 1970s, where less energy leaves the atmosphere than
enters it. Most of this extra energy has been absorbed by the oceans. [31] It is very likely that human activities
substantially contributed to this increase in ocean heat content.[32]

Two millennia of mean surface temperatures according to different reconstructions from climate proxies, each
smoothed on a decadal scale, with the instrumental temperature record overlaid in black.

NOAA graph of Global Annual Temperature Anomalies 19502012, showing the El Nio Southern Oscillation

The global average (land and ocean) surface temperature shows a warming of 0.85 [0.65 to 1.06] C
in the period 1880 to 2012, based on multiple independently produced datasets. [33] Earth's average
surface temperature rose by 0.740.18 C over the period 19062005. The rate of warming almost
doubled for the last half of that period (0.130.03 C per decade, versus 0.070.02 C per decade).[34]
The average temperature of the lower troposphere has increased between 0.13 and 0.22 C (0.23
and 0.40 F) per decade since 1979, according to satellite temperature measurements. Climate
proxies show the temperature to have been relatively stable over the one or two thousand

years before 1850, with regionally varying fluctuations such as the Medieval Warm Period and
the Little Ice Age.[35]
The warming that is evident in the instrumental temperature record is consistent with a wide range of
observations, as documented by many independent scientific groups. [36] Examples include sea level
rise,[37]widespread melting of snow and land ice,[38] increased heat content of the oceans,
[36]
increased humidity,[36]and the earlier timing of spring events,[39] e.g., the flowering of plants.
[40]
The probability that these changes could have occurred by chance is virtually zero.[36]

Trends
Temperature changes vary over the globe. Since 1979, land temperatures have increased about
twice as fast as ocean temperatures (0.25 C per decade against 0.13 C per decade).[41] Ocean
temperatures increase more slowly than land temperatures because of the larger effective heat
capacity of the oceans and because the ocean loses more heat by evaporation. [42] Since
the beginning of industrialisation the temperature difference between the hemispheres has increased
due to melting of sea ice and snow in the North. [43] Average arctic temperatures have been increasing
at almost twice the rate of the rest of the world in the past 100 years; however arctic temperatures
are also highly variable.[44] Although more greenhouse gases are emitted in the Northern than
Southern Hemisphere this does not contribute to the difference in warming because the major
greenhouse gases persist long enough to mix between hemispheres. [45]
The thermal inertia of the oceans and slow responses of other indirect effects mean that climate can
take centuries or longer to adjust to changes in forcing. One climate commitment study concluded
that if greenhouse gases were stabilized at year 2000 levels, surface temperatures would still
increase by about one-half degree Celsius,[46] and another found that if they were stabilized at 2005
levels surface warming could exceed a whole degree Celsius. Some of this surface warming will be
driven by past natural forcings which are still seeking equilibrium in the climate system. One study
using a highly simplified climate model indicates these past natural forcings may account for as
much as 64% of the committed 2050 surface warming and their influence will fade with time
compared to the human contribution.[47]
Global temperature is subject to short-term fluctuations that overlay long-term trends and can
temporarily mask them. The relative stability in surface temperature from 2002 to 2009, which has
been dubbed the global warming hiatus by the media and some scientists,[48] is consistent with such
an episode.[49][50] 2015 updates to account for differing methods of measuring ocean surface
temperature measurements show a positive trend over the recent decade. [51][52]

Warmest years
Fifteen of the top 16 warmest years have occurred since 2000. [53] While record-breaking years can
attract considerable public interest, individual years are less significant than the overall trend. Some
climatologists have criticized the attention that the popular press gives to "warmest year" statistics;
for example, Gavin Schmidt stated "the long-term trends or the expected sequence of records are far
more important than whether any single year is a record or not." [54] Ocean oscillations such as the El
Nio Southern Oscillation (ENSO) can affect global average temperatures, causing temperatures of

a given year to be abnormally warm or cold for reasons not directly related to the overall trend of
climate change. For example, 1998 and 2015 temperatures were significantly enhanced by strong El
Nio conditions.

Initial causes of temperature changes (external forcings)

Main article: Attribution of recent climate change

Greenhouse effect schematic showing energy flows between space, the atmosphere, and Earth's surface.
Energy exchanges are expressed in watts per square metre (W/m 2).

This graph, known as the Keeling Curve, documents the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxideconcentrations
from 19582015. Monthly CO2 measurements display seasonal oscillations in an upward trend; each year's
maximum occurs during the Northern Hemisphere's late spring, and declines during its growing season as
plants remove some atmospheric CO2.

The climate system can warm or cool in response to changes in external forcings.[55][56] These are
"external" to the climate system but not necessarily external to Earth. [57] Examples of external
forcings include changes in atmospheric composition (e.g., increased concentrations of greenhouse
gases), solar luminosity, volcanic eruptions, and variations in Earth's orbit around the Sun.[58]

Greenhouse gases

Main articles: Greenhouse gas, Greenhouse effect, Radiative forcing, Carbon dioxide in Earth's
atmosphere, and Earth's energy budget
See also: List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions and History of climate change science
The greenhouse effect is the process by which absorption and emission of infrared radiation by
gases in a planet's atmosphere warm its lower atmosphere and surface. It was proposed by Joseph
Fourier in 1824, discovered in 1860 by John Tyndall,[59] was first investigated quantitatively by Svante
Arrhenius in 1896,[60] and was developed in the 1930s through 1960s by Guy Stewart Callendar.[61]

Annual world greenhouse gas emissions, in 2010, by sector.

Percentage share of global cumulative energy-related CO 2 emissions between 1751 and 2012 across different
regions.

On Earth, naturally occurring amounts of greenhouse gases cause air temperature near the surface
to be about 33 C (59 F) warmer than it would be in their absence.[62][d] Without the Earth's
atmosphere, the Earth's average temperature would be well below the freezing temperature of water.
[63]
The major greenhouse gases are water vapour, which causes about 3670% of the greenhouse
effect; carbon dioxide (CO2), which causes 926%; methane (CH4), which causes 49%;
and ozone (O3), which causes 37%.[64][65][66] Clouds also affect the radiation balance through cloud
forcings similar to greenhouse gases.
Human activity since the Industrial Revolution has increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere, leading to increased radiative forcing from CO2, methane, tropospheric
ozone, CFCsand nitrous oxide. According to work published in 2007, the concentrations of CO2 and
methane have increased by 36% and 148% respectively since 1750. [67] These levels are much higher
than at any time during the last 800,000 years, the period for which reliable data has been extracted
from ice cores.[68][69][70][71] Less direct geological evidence indicates that CO2 values higher than this
were last seen about 20 million years ago.[72]
Fossil fuel burning has produced about three-quarters of the increase in CO 2 from human activity
over the past 20 years. The rest of this increase is caused mostly by changes in landuse, particularly deforestation.[73] Another significant non-fuel source of anthropogenic CO2 emissions
is the calcination of limestone for clinker production, a chemical process which releases CO2.
[74]
Estimates of global CO2 emissions in 2011 from fossil fuel combustion, including cement
production and gas flaring, was 34.8 billion tonnes (9.5 0.5 PgC), an increase of 54% above

emissions in 1990. Coal burning was responsible for 43% of the total emissions, oil 34%, gas 18%,
cement 4.9% and gas flaring 0.7%[75]

Atmospheric CO2 concentration from 650,000 years ago to near present, using ice core proxy data and direct
measurements.

In May 2013, it was reported that readings for CO2 taken at the world's primary benchmark site
in Mauna Loa surpassed 400 ppm. According to professor Brian Hoskins, this is likely the first time
CO2 levels have been this high for about 4.5 million years.[76][77] Monthly global CO2concentrations
exceeded 400 ppm in March 2015, probably for the first time in several million years. [78] On 12
November 2015, NASA scientists reported that human-made carbon dioxide continues to
increase above levels not seen in hundreds of thousands of years: currently, about half of the carbon
dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels is not absorbed by vegetation and the oceans and
remains in the atmosphere.[12]
Over the last three decades of the twentieth century, gross domestic product per capita
and population growth were the main drivers of increases in greenhouse gas emissions.
[79]
CO2 emissions are continuing to rise due to the burning of fossil fuels and land-use change. [80]
[81]:71
Emissions can be attributed to different regions. Attributions of emissions due to land-use
change are subject to considerable uncertainty.[82][83]:289
Emissions scenarios, estimates of changes in future emission levels of greenhouse gases, have
been projected that depend upon uncertain economic, sociological, technological, and natural
developments.[84] In most scenarios, emissions continue to rise over the century, while in a few,
emissions are reduced.[85][86] Fossil fuel reserves are abundant, and will not limit carbon emissions in
the 21st century.[87] Emission scenarios, combined with modelling of the carbon cycle, have been
used to produce estimates of how atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases might change in
the future. Using the six IPCC SRES "marker" scenarios, models suggest that by the year 2100, the
atmospheric concentration of CO2 could range between 541 and 970 ppm.[88] This is 90250% above
the concentration in the year 1750.
The popular media and the public often confuse global warming with ozone depletion, i.e., the
destruction of stratospheric ozone (e.g., the ozone layer) by chlorofluorocarbons.[89][90] Although there
are a few areas of linkage, the relationship between the two is not strong. Reduced stratospheric
ozone has had a slight cooling influence on surface temperatures, while increased tropospheric
ozone has had a somewhat larger warming effect.[91]

Aerosols and soot

Ship tracks can be seen as lines in these clouds over the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States.
Atmospheric particles from these and other sources could have a large effect on climate through the aerosol
indirect effect.

Global dimming, a gradual reduction in the amount of global direct irradiance at the Earth's surface,
was observed from 1961 until at least 1990.[92] Solid and liquid particles known as aerosols, produced
by volcanoes and human-made pollutants, are thought to be the main cause of this dimming. They
exert a cooling effect by increasing the reflection of incoming sunlight. The effects of the products of
fossil fuel combustion CO2 and aerosols have partially offset one another in recent decades, so
that net warming has been due to the increase in non-CO2 greenhouse gases such as methane.
[93]
Radiative forcing due to aerosols is temporally limited due to the processes that remove aerosols
from the atmosphere. Removal by clouds and precipitation gives tropospheric aerosols
an atmospheric lifetime of only about a week, while stratospheric aerosols can remain for a few
years. Carbon dioxide has a lifetime of a century or more, and as such, changes in ae
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse
change.[1] Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or
light. Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally
occurring contaminants. Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source pollution.
Contents
[hide]

1Ancient cultures

2Urban pollution

3Forms of pollution

4Pollutants

5Cost of pollution

6Sources and causes

7Effects
o

7.1Human health

7.2Environment

7.3Environmental health information

7.4Worker productivity

8Regulation and monitoring

9Pollution control
o

9.1Practices

9.2Pollution control devices

10Perspectives

11Greenhouse gases and global warming

12Most polluted places in the developing world

13See also

14References

15External links

Ancient cultures
Air pollution has always accompanied civilizations. Pollution started from prehistoric times when man
created the first fires. According to a 1983 article in the journal Science, "sootfound on ceilings of
prehistoric caves provides ample evidence of the high levels of pollution that was associated with
inadequate ventilation of open fires."[2] Metal forgingappears to be a key turning point in the creation
of significant air pollution levels outside the home. Core samples of glaciers in Greenland indicate
increases in pollution associated with Greek, Roman and Chinese metal production, [3] but at that time
the pollution was comparatively small and could be handled by nature.

Urban pollution

Air pollution in the US, 1973

The burning of coal and wood, and the presence of many horses in concentrated areas made the
cities the cesspools of pollution. The Industrial Revolution brought an infusion of untreated chemicals
and wastes into local streams that served as the water supply. King Edward I of England banned the
burning of sea-coal by proclamation in London in 1272, after its smoke became a problem.[4][5] But the
fuel was so common in England that this earliest of names for it was acquired because it could be
carted away from some shores by the wheelbarrow.
It was the industrial revolution that gave birth to environmental pollution as we know it today. London
also recorded one of the earlier extreme cases of water quality problems with the Great Stink on
the Thames of 1858, which led to construction of the London sewerage system soon afterward.
Pollution issues escalated as population growth far exceeded view ability of neighborhoods to
handle their waste problem. Reformers began to demand sewer systems, and clean water.[6]
In 1870, the sanitary conditions in Berlin were among the worst in Europe. August Bebel recalled
conditions before a modern sewersystem was built in the late 1870s:
"Waste-water from the houses collected in the gutters running alongside the curbs and
emitted a truly fearsome smell. There were no public toilets in the streets or squares.
Visitors, especially women, often became desperate when nature called. In the public
buildings the sanitary facilities were unbelievably primitive....As a metropolis, Berlin did not
emerge from a state of barbarism into civilization until after 1870."[7]
The primitive conditions were intolerable for a world national capital, and the Imperial German
government brought in its scientists, engineers and urban planners to not only solve the
deficiencies but to forge Berlin as the world's model city. A British expert in 1906 concluded that
Berlin represented "the most complete application of science, order and method of public life,"
adding "it is a marvel of civic administration, the most modern and most perfectly organized city
that there is."[8]
The emergence of great factories and consumption of immense quantities of coal gave rise to
unprecedented air pollution and the large volume of industrial chemical discharges added to the
growing load of untreated human waste. Chicago and Cincinnati were the first two American
cities to enact laws ensuring cleaner air in 1881. Pollution became a major issue in the United

States in the early twentieth century, as progressive reformers took issue with air pollution
caused by coal burning, water pollution caused by bad sanitation, and street pollution caused by
the 3 million horses who worked in American cities in 1900, generating large quantities of urine
and manure. As historian Martin Melosi notes, The generation that first saw automobiles
replacing the horses saw cars as "miracles of cleanliness.".[9] By the 1940s, however,
automobile-caused smog was a major issue in Los Angeles.[10]
Other cities followed around the country until early in the 20th century, when the short lived
Office of Air Pollution was created under the Department of the Interior. Extreme smog events
were experienced by the cities of Los Angeles and Donora, Pennsylvania in the late 1940s,
serving as another public reminder.[11] Air pollution would continue to be a problem in England,
especially later during the industrial revolution, and extending into the recent past with the Great
Smog of 1952.
Awareness of atmospheric pollution spread widely after World War II, with fears triggered by
reports of radioactive fallout from atomic warfare and testing.[12] Then a non-nuclear event,
The Great Smog of 1952 in London, killed at least 4000 people.[13] This prompted some of the
first major modern environmental legislation, The Clean Air Act of 1956.
Pollution began to draw major public attention in the United States between the mid-1950s and
early 1970s, when Congress passed the Noise Control Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water
Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.[14]

Smog Pollution in Taiwan

Severe incidents of pollution helped increase consciousness. PCB dumping in the Hudson
River resulted in a ban by the EPA on consumption of its fish in 1974. Longterm dioxin contamination at Love Canal starting in 1947 became a national news story in 1978
and led to the Superfund legislation of 1980.[15] The pollution of industrial land gave rise to the
name brownfield, a term now common in city planning.
The development of nuclear science introduced radioactive contamination, which can remain
lethally radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. Lake Karachay, named by
the Worldwatch Institute as the "most polluted spot" on earth, served as a disposal site for the
Soviet Union throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Second place may go to the area of Chelyabinsk
Russian as the "Most polluted place on the planet".[16]
Nuclear weapons continued to be tested in the Cold War, especially in the earlier stages of their
development. The toll on the worst-affected populations and the growth since then in
understanding about the critical threat to human health posed by radioactivity has also been a
prohibitive complication associated with nuclear power. Though extreme care is practiced in that
industry, the potential for disaster suggested by incidents such as those at Three Mile
Island and Chernobyl pose a lingering specter of public mistrust. Worldwide publicity has been
intense on those disasters.[17] Widespread support for test ban treaties has ended almost all
nuclear testing in the atmosphere.[18]

International catastrophes such as the wreck of the Amoco Cadiz oil tanker off the coast
of Brittany in 1978 and the Bhopal disaster in 1984 have demonstrated the universality of such
events and the scale on which efforts to address them needed to engage. The borderless nature
of atmosphere and oceans inevitably resulted in the implication of pollution on a planetary level
with the issue of global warming. Most recently the term persistent organic pollutant (POP) has
come to describe a group of chemicals such as PBDEs and PFCs among others. Though their
effects remain somewhat less well understood owing to a lack of experimental data, they have
been detected in various ecological habitats far removed from industrial activity such as the
Arctic, demonstrating diffusion and bioaccumulation after only a relatively brief period of
widespread use.
A much more recently discovered problem is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a huge
concentration of plastics, chemical sludge and other debris which has been collected into a large
area of the Pacific Ocean by the North Pacific Gyre. This is a less well known pollution problem
than the others described above, but nonetheless has multiple and serious consequences such
as increasing wildlife mortality, the spread of invasive species and human ingestion of toxic
chemicals. Organizations such as 5 Gyres have researched the pollution and, along with artists
like Marina DeBris, are working toward publicizing the issue.
Pollution introduced by light at night is becoming a global problem, more severe in urban
centres, but nonetheless contaminating also large territories, far away from towns. [19]
Growing evidence of local and global pollution and an increasingly informed public over time
have given rise to environmentalism and the environmental movement, which generally seek to
limit human impact on the environment.

Forms of pollution

The Lachine Canal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Blue drain and yellow fish symbol used by the UK Environment Agency to raise awareness of the
ecological impacts of contaminating surface drainage.

The major forms of pollution are listed below along with the particular contaminant relevant to
each of them:

Air pollution: the release of chemicals and particulates into the atmosphere. Common
gaseous pollutants include carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
and nitrogen oxides produced by industry and motor vehicles.
Photochemical ozone and smog are created as nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons react to
sunlight. Particulate matter, or fine dust is characterized by their micrometre size PM10 to
PM2.5.

Light pollution: includes light trespass, over-illumination and astronomical interference.

Littering: the criminal throwing of inappropriate man-made objects, unremoved, onto public
and private properties.

Noise pollution: which encompasses roadway noise, aircraft noise, industrial noise as well as
high-intensity sonar.

Soil contamination occurs when chemicals are released by spill or underground leakage.
Among the most significant soil contaminantsare hydrocarbons, heavy metals, MTBE,
[20]
herbicides, pesticides and chlorinated hydrocarbons.

Radioactive contamination, resulting from 20th century activities in atomic physics, such as
nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons research, manufacture and deployment.
(See alpha emitters and actinides in the environment.)

Thermal pollution, is a temperature change in natural water bodies caused by human

influence, such as use of water as coolant in a power plant.

Visual pollution, which can refer to the presence of overhead power lines,
motorway billboards, scarred landforms (as from strip mining), open storage of
trash, municipal solid waste or space debris.

Water pollution, by the discharge of wastewater from commercial and industrial

waste (intentionally or through spills) into surface waters; discharges of untreated
domestic sewage, and chemical contaminants, such as chlorine, from treated sewage;
release of waste and contaminants into surface runoff flowing to surface waters
(including urban runoff and agricultural runoff, which may contain

chemical fertilizers and pesticides); waste disposal and leaching

into groundwater; eutrophication and littering.

Plastic pollution: involves the accumulation of plastic products in the environment that
adversely affects wildlife, wildlife habitat, or humans.

Pollutants
Main article: Pollutant
A pollutant is a waste material that pollutes air, water or soil. Three factors determine the severity
of a pollutant: its chemical nature, the concentration and the persistence.

Cost of pollution
Pollution has cost. Manufacturing activities that cause air pollution impose health and clean-up
costs on the whole society, whereas the neighbors of an individual who chooses to fire-proof his
home may benefit from a reduced risk of a fire spreading to their own houses. If external costs
exist, such as pollution, the producer may choose to produce more of the product than would be
produced if the producer were required to pay all associated environmental costs. Because
responsibility or consequence for self-directed action lies partly outside the self, an element
of externalization is involved. If there are external benefits, such as in public safety, less of the
good may be produced than would be the case if the producer were to receive payment for the
external benefits to others.

Sources and causes

Air pollution produced by ships may alter clouds, affecting global temperatures.

Air pollution comes from both natural and human-made (anthropogenic) sources. However,
globally human-made pollutants from combustion, construction, mining, agriculture and warfare
are increasingly significant in the air pollution equation. [21]
Motor vehicle emissions are one of the leading causes of air pollution.[22][23][24] China, United
States, Russia, India[25] Mexico, and Japanare the world leaders in air pollution emissions.
Principal stationary pollution sources include chemical plants, coal-fired power plants, oil
refineries,[26] petrochemical plants, nuclear waste disposal activity, incinerators, large livestock
farms (dairy cows, pigs, poultry, etc.), PVCfactories, metals production factories, plastics
factories, and other heavy industry. Agricultural air pollution comes from contemporary practices
which include clear felling and burning of natural vegetation as well as spraying of pesticides
and herbicides[27]
About 400 million metric tons of hazardous wastes are generated each year.[28] The United
States alone produces about 250 million metric tons.[29] Americans constitute less than 5% of
the world's population, but produce roughly 25% of the worlds CO2,[30] and generate
approximately 30% of worlds waste.[31][32] In 2007, China has overtaken the United States as the

world's biggest producer of CO2,[33]while still far behind based on per capita pollution - ranked
78th among the world's nations.[34]

An industrial area, with a power plant, south of Yangzhou's downtown, China

In February 2007, a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),

representing the work of 2,500 scientists, economists, and policymakers from more than 120
countries, said that humans have been the primary cause of global warming since 1950.
Humans have ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the consequences of global
warming, a major climate report concluded. But to change the climate, the transition from fossil
fuels like coal and oil needs to occur within decades, according to the final report this year from
the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).[35]
Some of the more common soil contaminants are chlorinated hydrocarbons (CFH), heavy
metals (such as chromium, cadmiumfound in rechargeable batteries, and leadfound in
lead paint, aviation fuel and still in some countries, gasoline), MTBE, zinc, arsenic and benzene.
In 2001 a series of press reports culminating in a book called Fateful Harvest unveiled a
widespread practice of recycling industrial byproducts into fertilizer, resulting in the
contamination of the soil with various metals. Ordinary municipal landfills are the source of many
chemical substances entering the soil environment (and often groundwater), emanating from the
wide variety of refuse accepted, especially substances illegally discarded there, or from pre1970 landfills that may have been subject to little control in the U.S. or EU. There have also
been some unusual releases of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, commonly called dioxins for
simplicity, such as TCDD.[36]
Pollution can also be the consequence of a natural disaster. For example, hurricanes often
involve water contamination from sewage, and petrochemical spills from
ruptured boats or automobiles. Larger scale and environmental damage is not uncommon when
coastal oil rigs or refineries are involved. Some sources of pollution, such as nuclear
power plants or oil tankers, can produce widespread and potentially hazardous releases when
accidents occur.
In the case of noise pollution the dominant source class is the motor vehicle, producing about
ninety percent of all unwanted noise worldwide.

Effects
Human health
Further information: Soil pollution Health effects, Toxic hotspots, and List of pollution-related
diseases

Overview of main health effects on humans from some common types of pollution. [37][38][39]

Adverse air quality can kill many organisms including humans. Ozone pollution can
cause respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, throat inflammation, chest pain,
and congestion. Water pollution causes approximately 14,000 deaths per day, mostly due
to contamination of drinking water by untreated sewage in developing countries. An estimated
500 million Indians have no access to a proper toilet,[40][41] Over ten million people in India fell ill
with waterborne illnesses in 2013, and 1,535 people died, most of them children. [42] Nearly 500
million Chinese lack access to safe drinking water.[43] A 2010 analysis estimated that 1.2 million
people died prematurely each year in China because of air pollution.[44] The WHO estimated in
2007 that air pollution causes half a million deaths per year in India. [45] Studies have estimated
that the number of people killed annually in the United States could be over 50,000. [46]
Oil spills can cause skin irritations and rashes. Noise pollution induces hearing loss, high blood
pressure, stress, and sleep disturbance. Mercury has been linked to developmental deficits in
children and neurologic symptoms. Older people are majorly exposed to diseases induced by air
pollution. Those with heart or lung disorders are at additional risk. Children and infants are also
at serious risk. Lead and other heavy metals have been shown to cause neurological problems.
Chemical and radioactive substances can cause cancer and as well as birth defects.

Environment
Pollution has been found to be present widely in the environment. There are a number of effects
of this:

Biomagnification describes situations where toxins (such as heavy metals) may pass
through trophic levels, becoming exponentially more concentrated in the process.

Carbon dioxide emissions cause ocean acidification, the ongoing decrease in the pH of the
Earth's oceans as CO2 becomes dissolved.

The emission of greenhouse gases leads to global warming which affects ecosystems in
many ways.

Invasive species can out compete native species and reduce biodiversity. Invasive plants
can contribute debris and biomolecules (allelopathy) that can alter soil and chemical
compositions of an environment, often reducing native species competitiveness.

Nitrogen oxides are removed from the air by rain and fertilise land which can change the
species composition of ecosystems.

Smog and haze can reduce the amount of sunlight received by plants to carry
out photosynthesis and leads to the production of tropospheric ozone which damages
plants.

Soil can become infertile and unsuitable for plants. This will affect other organisms in
the food web.

Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides can cause acid rain which lowers the pH value of soil.

Environmental health information

The Toxicology and Environmental Health Information Program (TEHIP) [47] at the United States
National Library of Medicine (NLM) maintains a comprehensive toxicology and environmental
health web site that includes access to resources produced by TEHIP and by other government
agencies and organizations. This web site includes links to databases, bibliographies, tutorials,
and other scientific and consumer-oriented resources. TEHIP also is responsible for the
Toxicology Data Network (TOXNET)[48] an integrated system of toxicology and environmental
health databases that are available free of charge on the web.
TOXMAP is a Geographic Information System (GIS) that is part of TOXNET. TOXMAP uses
maps of the United States to help users visually explore data from the United States
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory and Superfund Basic
Research Programs.

Worker productivity
A number of studies show that pollution has an adverse effect on the productivity of both indoor
and outdoor workers.[49][50][51]

Regulation and monitoring

Main article: Regulation and monitoring of pollution
To protect the environment from the adverse effects of pollution, many nations worldwide have
enacted legislation to regulate various types of pollution as well as to mitigate the adverse
effects of pollution.

Pollution control

A litter trap catches floating waste in the Yarra River, east-central Victoria, Australia

Air pollution control system, known as a Thermal oxidizer, decomposes hazard gases from industrial
air streams at a factory in the United States of America.

A dust collector in Pristina, Kosovo

Gas nozzle with vapor recovery

A Mobile Pollution Check Vehicle in India.

Pollution control is a term used in environmental management. It means the control

of emissions and effluents into air, water or soil. Without pollution control, the waste products
from overconsumption, heating, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation and other
human activities, whether they accumulate or disperse, will degrade the environment. In the
hierarchy of controls, pollution prevention and waste minimization are more desirable than
pollution control. In the field of land development, low impact developmentis a similar technique
for the prevention of urban runoff.

Practices
A book is a set of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of ink, paper, parchment, or
other materials, fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is a leaf, and
each side of a leaf is a page. A set of text-filled or illustrated pages produced in electronic format is
known as an electronic book, or e-book.
Books may also refer to works of literature, or a main division of such a work. In library and
information science, a book is called a monograph, to distinguish it from serial periodicals such
as magazines, journals, or newspapers. The body of all written works including books is literature.
In novels and sometimes other types of books (for example, biographies), a book may be divided
into several large sections, also called books (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, and so on). An avid reader of
books is a bibliophile or colloquially, bookworm.
A shop where books are bought and sold is a bookshop or bookstore. Books can also be borrowed
from libraries. Googlehas estimated that as of 2010, approximately 130,000,000 distinct titles had
been published.[1] In some wealthier nations, printed books are giving way to the usage of electronic
or e-books,[2] though sales of e-books declined in the first half of 2015. [3]
Contents
[hide]

1Etymology

2History of books
2.1Antiquity

2.1.1Tablet

2.1.2Scroll

2.1.3Codex

2.1.4Manuscripts

2.1.5Middle East

2.1.6Wood block printing

2.1.7Movable type and incunabula

2.2Modern world

3Book manufacture in modern times

o

3.1Current processes

3.2Finishing

4Digital printing
4.1E-book

5Information explosion

6Book design

7Sizes

8Types
8.1By content

8.1.1Fiction

8.1.2Non-fiction

8.1.3Other types
8.2By physical format

9Libraries

10Identification and classification

10.1Classification systems

11Uses

12Paper and conservation

13See also

14References

15External links

Etymology
The word book comes from Old English "bc", which in turn comes from the Germanic root
"*bk-", cognate to "beech".[4] Similarly, in Slavic languages (for

example, Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian) "" (bukva"letter") is cognate with "beech". In

Russian and in Serbian and Macedonian, the word "" (bukvar') or "" (bukvar) refers
specifically to a primary school textbook that helps young children master the techniques of reading
and writing. It is thus conjectured that the earliest Indo-European writings may have been carved on
beech wood.[5] Similarly, the Latin word codex, meaning a book in the modern sense (bound and with
separate leaves), originally meant "block of wood".

History of books
Main article: History of books

Antiquity

Sumerian language cuneiform script clay tablet, 24002200 BC

When writing systems were created in ancient civilizations, a variety of objects, such as stone, clay,
tree bark, metal sheets, might be used for writing. The study of such inscriptions forms a major part
of history. The study of inscriptions is known as epigraphy. Alphabetic writingemerged in Egypt. The
Ancient Egyptians would often write on papyrus, a plant grown along the Nile River. At first the words
were not separated from each other (scriptura continua) and there was no punctuation. Texts were
written from right to left, left to right, or even so that alternate lines read in opposite directions. The
technical term for that last type of writing is 'boustrophedon', which means literally 'ox-turning' for the
way a farmer drives an ox to plough his fields.
Tablet
A tablet might be defined as a physically robust writing medium, suitable for casual transport and
writing. See also stylus.
Clay tablets were flattened and mostly dry pieces of clay that could be easily carried, and impressed
with a (possibly dampened) stylus. They were used as a writing medium, especially for writing
in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age.
Wax tablets were pieces of wood covered in a thick enough coating of wax to record the impressions
of a stylus. They were the normal writing material in schools, in accounting, and for taking notes.
They had the advantage of being reusable: the wax could be melted, and reformed into a blank. The
custom of binding several wax tablets together (Roman pugillares) is a possible precursor for
modern books (i.e. codex).[6] The etymology of the word codex (block of wood) also suggests that it
may have developed from wooden wax tablets.[7]
Scroll
Main article: Scroll

Egyptian papyrus showing the god Osiris and the weighing of the heart.

Papyrus, a thick paper-like material made by weaving the stems of the papyrus plant, then pounding
the woven sheet with a hammer-like tool, was used for writing in Ancient Egypt, perhaps as early as
the First Dynasty, although the first evidence is from the account books of King Nefertiti Kakai of
the Fifth Dynasty (about 2400 BC).[8] Papyrus sheets were glued together to form a scroll. Tree bark
such as limeand other materials were also used.[9]
According to Herodotus (History 5:58), the Phoenicians brought writing and papyrus to Greece
around the 10th or 9th century BC. The Greek word for papyrus as writing material (biblion) and
book (biblos) come from the Phoenician port town Byblos, through which papyrus was exported to
Greece.[10] From Greek we also derive the word tome (Greek: ), which originally meant a slice
or piece and from there began to denote "a roll of papyrus". Tomus was used by the Latins with
exactly the same meaning as volumen (see also below the explanation by Isidore of Seville).
Whether made from papyrus, parchment, or paper, scrolls were the dominant form of book in the
Hellenistic, Roman, Chinese, Hebrew, and Macedonian cultures. The more modern codex book
format form took over the Roman world by late antiquity, but the scroll format persisted much longer
in Asia.
Codex

A Chinese bamboo bookmeets the modern definition of Codex

Main article: Codex

Isidore of Seville (died 636) explained the then-current relation between codex, book and scroll in his
Etymologiae (VI.13): "A codex is composed of many books; a book is of one scroll. It is called codex
by way of metaphor from the trunks (codex) of trees or vines, as if it were a wooden stock, because
it contains in itself a multitude of books, as it were of branches." Modern usage differs.
A codex (in modern usage) is the first information repository that modern people would recognize as
a "book": leaves of uniform size bound in some manner along one edge, and typically held between
two covers made of some more robust material. The first written mention of the codex as a form of

book is from Martial, in his Apophoreta CLXXXIV at the end of the first century, where he praises its
compactness. However, the codex never gained much popularity in the pagan Hellenistic world, and
only within the Christian community did it gain widespread use.[11] This change happened gradually
during the 3rd and 4th centuries, and the reasons for adopting the codex form of the book are
several: the format is more economical, as both sides of the writing material can be used; and it is
portable, searchable, and easy to conceal. A book is much easier to read, to find a page that you
want, and to flip through. A scroll is more awkward to use. The Christian authors may also have
wanted to distinguish their writings from the pagan and Judaic texts written on scrolls. In addition,
some metal books were made, that required smaller pages of metal, instead of an impossibly long,
unbending scroll of metal. A book can also be easily stored in more compact places, or side by side
in a tight library or shelf space.
Manuscripts
Main article: Manuscript

Folio 14 recto of the 5th century Vergilius Romanus contains an author portrait of Virgil. Note
the bookcase(capsa), reading stand and the text written without word spacing in rustic capitals.

The fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century A.D. saw the decline of the culture of ancient Rome.
Papyrus became difficult to obtain due to lack of contact with Egypt, and parchment, which had been
used for centuries, became the main writing material.
Monasteries carried on the Latin writing tradition in the Western Roman Empire. Cassiodorus, in the
monastery of Vivarium (established around 540), stressed the importance of copying texts. [12] St.
Benedict of Nursia, in his Rule of Saint Benedict (completed around the middle of the 6th century)
later also promoted reading.[13] The Rule of Saint Benedict (Ch. XLVIII), which set aside certain times
for reading, greatly influenced the monastic culture of the Middle Ages and is one of the reasons why
the clergy were the predominant readers of books. The tradition and style of the Roman Empire still
dominated, but slowly the peculiar medieval book culture emerged.
Before the invention and adoption of the printing press, almost all books were copied by hand, which
made books expensive and comparatively rare. Smaller monasteries usually had only a few dozen
books, medium-sized perhaps a few hundred. By the 9th century, larger collections held around 500
volumes and even at the end of the Middle Ages, the papal library in Avignon and Paris library of
the Sorbonne held only around 2,000 volumes.[14]

Burgundian author and scribe Jean Milot, from his Miracles de Notre Dame, 15th century.

The scriptorium of the monastery was usually located over the chapter house. Artificial light was
forbidden for fear it may damage the manuscripts. There were five types of scribes:

Calligraphers, who dealt in fine book production

Copyists, who dealt with basic production and correspondence

Correctors, who collated and compared a finished book with the manuscript from which it
had been produced

Illuminators, who painted illustrations

Rubricators, who painted in the red letters

The bookmaking process was long and laborious. The parchment had to be prepared, then the
unbound pages were planned and ruled with a blunt tool or lead, after which the text was written by
the scribe, who usually left blank areas for illustration and rubrication. Finally, the book was bound by
the bookbinder.[15]

Desk with chained books in the Malatestiana Library of Cesena, Italy.

Different types of ink were known in antiquity, usually prepared from soot and gum, and later also
from gall nuts and iron vitriol. This gave writing a brownish black color, but black or brown were not
the only colors used. There are texts written in red or even gold, and different colors were used for
illumination. For very luxurious manuscripts the whole parchment was colored purple, and the text
was written on it with gold or silver (for example, Codex Argenteus).[16]
Irish monks introduced spacing between words in the 7th century. This facilitated reading, as these
monks tended to be less familiar with Latin. However, the use of spaces between words did not
become commonplace before the 12th century. It has been argued that the use of spacing between
words shows the transition from semi-vocalized reading into silent reading. [17]
The first books used parchment or vellum (calfskin) for the pages. The book covers were made of
wood and covered with leather. Because dried parchment tends to assume the form it had before
processing, the books were fitted with clasps or straps. During the later Middle Ages, when public
libraries appeared, up to the 18th century, books were often chained to a bookshelf or a desk to
prevent theft. These chained books are called libri catenati.
At first, books were copied mostly in monasteries, one at a time. With the rise of universities in the
13th century, the Manuscript culture of the time led to an increase in the demand for books, and a
new system for copying books appeared. The books were divided into unbound leaves (pecia),
which were lent out to different copyists, so the speed of book production was considerably
increased. The system was maintained by secular stationers guilds, which produced both religious
and non-religious material.[18]
Judaism has kept the art of the scribe alive up to the present. According to Jewish tradition,
the Torah scroll placed in a synagogue must be written by hand on parchment and a printed book
would not do, though the congregation may use printed prayer books and printed copies of the
Scriptures are used for study outside the synagogue. A sofer "scribe" is a highly respected member
of any observant Jewish community.
Middle East
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People of various religious (Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Muslims) and ethnic backgrounds
(Syriac, Coptic, Persian, Arab etc.) in the Middle East also produced and bound books in the Islamic
Golden Age (mid 8th century to 1258), developing advanced techniques in Islamic
calligraphy, miniatures and bookbinding. A number of cities in the medieval Islamic world had book
production centers and book markets. Yaqubi (d. 897) says that in his time Baghdad had over a
hundred booksellers.[19] Book shops were often situated around the town's principal mosque [20] as
in Marrakesh, Morocco, that has a street named Kutubiyyin or book sellers in English and the
famous Koutoubia Mosque is named so because of its location in this street.
The medieval Muslim world also used a method of reproducing reliable copies of a book in large
quantities known as check reading, in contrast to the traditional method of a single scribe producing
only a single copy of a single manuscript. In the check reading method, only "authors could authorize
copies, and this was done in public sessions in which the copyist read the copy aloud in the
presence of the author, who then certified it as accurate."[21] With this check-reading system, "an
author might produce a dozen or more copies from a single reading," and with two or more readings,
"more than one hundred copies of a single book could easily be produced." [22]
By using as writing material the relatively cheap paper instead of parchment or papyrus the Muslims,
in the words of Pedersen "accomplished a feat of crucial significance not only to the history of the
Islamic book, but also to the whole world of books"[23]
Wood block printing

In woodblock printing, a relief image of an entire page was carved into blocks of wood, inked, and
used to print copies of that page. This method originated in China, in the Han dynasty (before 220
AD), as a method of printing on textiles and later paper, and was widely used throughout East Asia.
The oldest dated book printed by this method is The Diamond Sutra (868 AD).
The method (called Woodcut when used in art) arrived in Europe in the early 14th century. Books
(known as block-books), as well as playing-cards and religious pictures, began to be produced by
this method. Creating an entire book was a painstaking process, requiring a hand-carved block for
each page; and the wood blocks tended to crack, if stored for long. The monks or people who wrote
them were paid highly.
Movable type and incunabula

A 15th-century Incunable. Notice the blind-tooled cover, corner bosses and clasps.

Main articles: Movable type and Incunable

"Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Son Masters", the earliest known book printed with movable metal
type, 1377. Bibliothque nationale de France.

The Chinese inventor Bi Sheng made movable type of earthenware circa 1045, but there are no
known surviving examples of his printing. Around 1450, in what is commonly regarded as an
independent invention, Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in Europe, along with
innovations in casting the type based on a matrix and hand mould. This invention gradually made
books less expensive to produce, and more widely available.

Early printed books, single sheets and images which were created before 1501 in Europe are known
as incunables or incunabula. "A man born in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, could look
back from his fiftieth year on a lifetime in which about eight million books had been printed, more
perhaps than all the scribes of Europe had produced since Constantine founded his city in A.D.
330."[24]

Modern world
Steam-powered printing presses became popular in the early 19th century. These machines could
print 1,100 sheets per hour, but workers could only set 2,000 letters per hour.[citation needed]
Monotype and linotype typesetting machines were introduced in the late 19th century. They could set
more than 6,000 letters per hour and an entire line of type at once.
The centuries after the 15th century were thus spent on improving both the printing press and the
conditions for freedom of the press through the gradual relaxation of restrictive censorship laws. See
also intellectual property, public domain, copyright. In mid-20th century, European book production
had risen to over 200,000 titles per year.

Book manufacture in modern times

Main article: Bookbinding
See also: Publishing
The spine of the book is an important aspect in book design, especially in the cover design. When the books
are stacked up or stored in a shelf, the details on the spine is the only visible surface that contains the
information about the book. In stores, it is the details on the spine that attract buyers' attention first.

The methods used for the printing and binding of books continued fundamentally unchanged from
the 15th century into the early 20th century. While there was more mechanization, a book printer in
1900 had much in common with Gutenberg.
Gutenberg's invention was the use of movable metal types, assembled into words, lines, and pages
and then printed by letterpress to create multiple copies.
Modern paper books are printed on papers designed specifically for printed books. Traditionally,
book papers are off-white or low-white papers (easier to read), are opaque to minimise the showthrough of text from one side of the page to the other and are (usually) made to tighter caliper or
thickness specifications, particularly for case-bound books. Different paper qualities are used
depending on the type of book: Machine finished coated papers, woodfree uncoated papers, coated
fine papers and special fine papers are common paper grades.
Today, the majority of books are printed by offset lithography.[citation needed] When a book is printed the
pages are laid out on the plate so that after the printed sheet is folded the pages will be in the correct
sequence. Books tend to be manufactured nowadays in a few standard sizes. The sizes of
books are usually specified as "trim size": the size of the page after the sheet has been folded and
trimmed. The standard sizes result from sheet sizes (therefore machine sizes) which became
popular 200 or 300 years ago, and have come to dominate the industry. British conventions in this
regard prevail throughout the English-speaking world, except for the USA. The European book
manufacturing industry works to a completely different set of standards.

Current processes
Book covers

Some books, particularly those with shorter runs (i.e. fewer copies) will be printed on sheet-fed offset
presses, but most books are now printed on web presses, which are fed by a continuous roll of
paper, and can consequently print more copies in a shorter time. As the production line circulates, a
complete "book" is collected together in one stack, next to another, and another.
A web press carries out the folding itself, delivering bundles of signatures (sections) ready to go into
the gathering line. Notice that when the book is being printed it is being printed one (or two)
signatures at a time, not one complete book at a time. Excess numbers are printed to make up for
any spoilage due to "make-readies" or test pages to assure final print quality.
A make-ready is the preparatory work carried out by the pressmen to get the printing press up to the
required quality of impression. Included in make-ready is the time taken to mount the plate onto the
machine, clean up any mess from the previous job, and get the press up to speed. As soon as the
pressman decides that the printing is correct, all the make-ready sheets will be discarded, and the
press will start making books. Similar make readies take place in the folding and binding areas, each
involving spoilage of paper.
After the signatures are folded and gathered, they move into the bindery. In the middle of last
century there were still many trade binders stand-alone binding companies which did no printing,
specializing in binding alone. At that time, because of the dominance of letterpress printing,
typesetting and printing took place in one location, and binding in a different factory. When type was
all metal, a typical book's worth of type would be bulky, fragile and heavy. The less it was moved in
this condition the better: so printing would be carried out in the same location as the typesetting.
Printed sheets on the other hand could easily be moved. Now, because of
increasing computerization of preparing a book for the printer, the typesetting part of the job has
flowed upstream, where it is done either by separately contracting companies working for the
publisher, by the publishers themselves, or even by the authors. Mergers in the book manufacturing
industry mean that it is now unusual to find a bindery which is not also involved in book printing (and
vice versa).
If the book is a hardback its path through the bindery will involve more points of activity than if it is
a paperback.
Unsewn binding, is now increasingly common. The signatures of a book can also be held together
by "Smyth sewing" using needles, "McCain sewing", using drilled holes often used in schoolbook
binding, or "notch binding", where gashes about an inch long are made at intervals through the fold
in the spine of each signature. The rest of the binding process is similar in all instances. Sewn and
notch bound books can be bound as either hardbacks or paperbacks.

Finishing
Book pages

"Making cases" happens off-line and prior to the book's arrival at the binding line. In the most basic
case-making, two pieces of cardboard are placed onto a glued piece of cloth with a space between
them into which is glued a thinner board cut to the width of the spine of the book. The overlapping
edges of the cloth (about 5/8" all round) are folded over the boards, and pressed down to adhere.
After case-making the stack of cases will go to the foil stamping area for adding decorations and
type.

Digital printing
Recent developments in book manufacturing include the development of digital printing. Book pages
are printed, in much the same way as an office copier works, using toner rather than ink. Each book
is printed in one pass, not as separate signatures. Digital printing has permitted the manufacture of
much smaller quantities than offset, in part because of the absence of make readies and of spoilage.

One might think of a web press as printing quantities over 2000, quantities from 250 to 2000 being
printed on sheet-fed presses, and digital presses doing quantities below 250. These numbers are of
course only approximate and will vary from supplier to supplier, and from book to book depending on
its characteristics. Digital printing has opened up the possibility of print-on-demand, where no books
are printed until after an order is received from a customer.

E-book
Main article: e-book
The term e-book is a contraction of "electronic book"; it refers to a book-length publication in digital
form.[25] An e-book is usually made available through the internet, but also on CD-ROM and other
forms. E-Books may be read either via a computer or by means of a portable book display device
known as an e-book reader, such as the Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo eReader, or
the Amazon Kindle. These devices attempt to mimic the experience of reading a print book.

Information explosion
Throughout the 20th century, libraries have faced an ever-increasing rate of publishing, sometimes
called an information explosion. The advent of electronic publishing and the internet means that
much new information is not printed in paper books, but is made available online through a digital
library, on CD-ROM, or in the form of e-books. An on-line book is an e-book that is available online
through the internet.
Though many books are produced digitally, most digital versions are not available to the public, and
there is no decline in the rate of paper publishing. [26] There is an effort, however, to convert books that
are in the public domain into a digital medium for unlimited redistribution and infinite availability. This
effort is spearheaded by Project Gutenbergcombined with Distributed Proofreaders.
There have also been new developments in the process of publishing books. Technologies such as
POD or "print on demand", which make it possible to print as few as one book at a time, have made
self-publishing much easier and more affordable. On-demand publishing has allowed publishers, by
avoiding the high costs of warehousing, to keep low-selling books in print rather than declaring them
out of print.

Book design
Main article: Book design
Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the
various components of a book into a coherent whole.
In the words of Jan Tschichold, book design "though largely forgotten today, methods and rules upon
which it is impossible to improve have been developed over centuries. To produce perfect books
these rules have to be brought back to life and applied." Richard Hendel describes book design as
"an arcane subject" and refers to the need for a context to understand what that means.

Sizes
Main article: Book size

Real-size facsimile of Codex Gigas

The world's largest book

The size of a modern book is based on the printing area of a common flatbed press. The pages of
type were arranged and clamped in a frame, so that when printed on a sheet of paper the full size of
the press, the pages would be right side up and in order when the sheet was folded, and the folded
edges trimmed.
The most common book sizes are:

Quarto (4to): the sheet of paper is folded twice, forming four leaves (eight pages)
approximately 11-13 inches (ca 30 cm) tall

Octavo (8vo): the most common size for current hardcover books. The sheet is folded three
times into eight leaves (16 pages) up to 9 " (ca 23 cm) tall.

DuoDecimo (12mo): a size between 8vo and 16mo, up to 7 " (ca 18 cm) tall
Sextodecimo (16mo): the sheet is folded four times, forming 16 leaves (32 pages) up to 6 "
(ca 15 cm) tall

Sizes smaller than 16mo are:

24mo: up to 5 " (ca 13 cm) tall.

32mo: up to 5" (ca 12 cm) tall.

48mo: up to 4" (ca 10 cm) tall.

64mo: up to 3" (ca 8 cm) tall.

Small books can be called booklets.

Sizes larger than quarto are:

Folio: up to 15" (ca 38 cm) tall.

Elephant Folio: up to 23" (ca 58 cm) tall.

Atlas Folio: up to 25" (ca 63 cm) tall.

Double Elephant Folio: up to 50" (ca 127 cm) tall.

The largest extant medieval manuscript in the world is Codex Gigas 92 50 22 cm. The world's
largest book is made of stone and is in Kuthodaw Pagoda (Burma).
The longest book title in the world is 670 words long[citation needed].

Types
By content

Novels in a bookstore

A common separation by content are fiction and non-fiction books. This simple separation can be
found in most collections, libraries, and bookstores.
Fiction
Many of the books published today are fiction, meaning that they are in-part or completely untrue.
Historically, paper production was considered too expensive to be used for entertainment. An
increase in global literacy and print technology led to the increased publication of books for the

purpose of entertainment, and allegorical social commentary. Most fiction is additionally categorized
by genre.
The novel is the most common form of fiction book. Novels are stories that typically feature
a plot, setting, themes and characters. Stories and narrative are not restricted to any topic; a novel
can be whimsical, serious or controversial. The novel has had a tremendous impact on
entertainment and publishing markets.[27] A novella is a term sometimes used for
fiction prose typically between 17,500 and 40,000 words, and a novelette between 7,500 and
17,500. A Short story may be any length up to 10,000 words, but these word lengths vary.
Comic books or graphic novels are books in which the story is illustrated. The characters and
narrators use speech or thought bubbles to express verbal language.
Non-fiction

A page from a dictionary

In a library, a reference book is a general type of non-fiction book which provides information as
opposed to telling a story, essay, commentary, or otherwise supporting a point of view. An almanac is
a very general reference book, usually one-volume, with lists of data and information on many
topics. An encyclopedia is a book or set of books designed to have more in-depth articles on many
topics. A book listing words, their etymology, meanings, and other information is called a dictionary.
A book which is a collection of maps is an atlas. A more specific reference book with tables or lists of
data and information about a certain topic, often intended for professional use, is often called
a handbook. Books which try to list references and abstracts in a certain broad area may be called
an index, such as Engineering Index, or abstracts such as chemical abstracts and biological
abstracts.

An atlas

Books with technical information on how to do something or how to use some equipment are
called instruction manuals. Other popular how-to books include cookbooks and home
improvement books.

Students typically store and carry textbooks and schoolbooks for study purposes. Elementary
school pupils often use workbooks, which are published with spaces or blanks to be filled by them
for study or homework. In US higher education, it is common for a student to take an exam using
a blue book.

A page from a notebookused as hand written diary

There is a large set of books that are made only to write private ideas, notes, and accounts. These
books are rarely published and are typically destroyed or remain private. Notebooks are blank
papers to be written in by the user. Students and writers commonly use them for taking
notes. Scientists and other researchers use lab notebooks to record their notes. They often feature
spiral coil bindings at the edge so that pages may easily be torn out.

A Telephone Directory, with business and residence listings.

Address books, phone books, and calendar/appointment books are commonly used on a daily basis
for recording appointments, meetings and personal contact information.
Books for recording periodic entries by the user, such as daily information about a journey, are
called logbooks or simply logs. A similar book for writing the owner's daily private personal events,
information, and ideas is called a diary or personal journal.
Businesses use accounting books such as journals and ledgers to record financial data in a practice
called bookkeeping.
Other types
There are several other types of books which are not commonly found under this
system. Albums are books for holding a group of items belonging to a particular theme, such as a
set of photographs, card collections, and memorabilia. One common example is stamp albums,
which are used by many hobbyists to protect and organize their collections of postage stamps. Such
albums are often made using removable plastic pages held inside in a ringed binder or other similar
smolder. Picture books are books for children with little text and pictures on every page.

Hymnals are books with collections of musical hymns that can typically be found
in churches. Prayerbooks or missals are books that contain written prayers and are commonly
carried by monks, nuns, and other devoted followers or clergy.

By physical format

Hardcover books

Paperback books

Hardcover books have a stiff binding. Paperback books have cheaper, flexible covers which tend to
be less durable. An alternative to paperback is the glossy cover, otherwise known as a dust cover,
found on magazines, and comic books. Spiral-bound books are bound by spirals made of metal or
plastic. Examples of spiral-bound books include teachers' manuals and puzzle
books (crosswords, sudoku).
Publishing is a process for producing pre-printed books, magazines, and newspapers for the
reader/user to buy.
Publishers may produce low-cost, pre-publication copies known as galleys or 'bound proofs' for
promotional purposes, such as generating reviews in advance of publication. Galleys are usually
made as cheaply as possible, since they are not intended for sale.

Libraries
Main article: Library

Celsus Library was built in 135 AD and could house around 12,000 scrolls.

Private or personal libraries made up of non-fiction and fiction books, (as opposed to the state or
institutional records kept in archives) first appeared in classical Greece. In ancient world the
maintaining of a library was usually (but not exclusively) the privilege of a wealthy individual. These
libraries could have been either private or public, i.e. for people who were interested in using them.
The difference from a modern public library lies in the fact that they were usually not funded from
public sources. It is estimated that in the city of Rome at the end of the 3rd century there were
around 30 public libraries. Public libraries also existed in other cities of the ancient Mediterranean
region(for example, Library of Alexandria).[28] Later, in the Middle Ages, monasteries and universities
had also libraries that could be accessible to general public. Typically not the whole collection was
available to public, the books could not be borrowed and often were chained to reading stands to
prevent theft.
The beginning of modern public library begins around 15th century when individuals started to
donate books to towns.[29] The growth of a public library system in the United States started in the
late 19th century and was much helped by donations from Andrew Carnegie. This reflected classes
in a society: The poor or the middle class had to access most books through a public library or by
other means while the rich could afford to have a private library built in their homes. In the United
States the Boston Public Library 1852 Report of the Trusteesestablished the justification for the
public library as a tax-supported institution intended to extend educational opportunity and provide
for general culture.[30]
The advent of paperback books in the 20th century led to an explosion of popular publishing.
Paperback books made owning books affordable for many people. Paperback books often included
works from genres that had previously been published mostly in pulp magazines. As a result of the
low cost of such books and the spread of bookstores filled with them (in addition to the creation of a
smaller market of extremely cheap used paperbacks) owning a private library ceased to be a status
symbol for the rich.
In library and booksellers' catalogues, it is common to include an abbreviation such as "Crown 8vo"
to indicate the paper size from which the book is made.
When rows of books are lined on a book holder, bookends are sometimes needed to keep them from
slanting.

Identification and classification

During the 20th century, librarians were concerned about keeping track of the many books being
added yearly to the Gutenberg Galaxy. Through a global society called the International Federation
of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), they devised a series of tools including
the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD).

ISBN with barcode

Each book is specified by an International Standard Book Number, or ISBN, which is unique to every
edition of every book produced by participating publishers, worldwide. It is managed by the ISBN
Society. An ISBN has four parts: the first part is the country code, the second the publisher code, and
the third the title code. The last part is a check digit, and can take values from 09 and X (10).
The EANBarcodes numbers for books are derived from the ISBN by prefixing 978, for Bookland, and
calculating a new check digit.
Commercial publishers in industrialized countries generally assign ISBNs to their books, so buyers
may presume that the ISBN is part of a total international system, with no exceptions. However,
many government publishers, in industrial as well as developing countries, do not participate fully in
the ISBN system, and publish books which do not have ISBNs.
A large or public collection requires a catalogue. Codes called "call numbers" relate the books to the
catalogue, and determine their locations on the shelves. Call numbers are based on a Library
classification system. The call number is placed on the spine of the book, normally a short distance
before the bottom, and inside.
Institutional or national standards, such as ANSI/NISO Z39.41 - 1997, establish the correct way to
place information (such as the title, or the name of the author) on book spines, and on "shelvable"
book-like objects, such as containers for DVDs, video tapes and software.

Books on library shelves with bookends, and call numbers visible on the spines

One of the earliest and most widely known systems of cataloguing books is the Dewey Decimal
System. Another widely known system is the Library of Congress Classification system. Both
systems are bi