Portal:World

The World Portal

The Blue Marble, a photograph of the planet Earth made on 7 December 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft.

In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique while others talk of a "plurality of worlds". Some treat the world as one simple object while others analyze the world as a complex made up of many parts. In scientific cosmology the world or universe is commonly defined as "[t]he totality of all space and time; all that is, has been, and will be". Theories of modality, on the other hand, talk of possible worlds as complete and consistent ways how things could have been. Phenomenology, starting from the horizon of co-given objects present in the periphery of every experience, defines the world as the biggest horizon or the "horizon of all horizons". In philosophy of mind, the world is commonly contrasted with the mind as that which is represented by the mind. Theology conceptualizes the world in relation to God, for example, as God's creation, as identical to God or as the two being interdependent. In religions, there is often a tendency to downgrade the material or sensory world in favor of a spiritual world to be sought through religious practice. A comprehensive representation of the world and our place in it, as is commonly found in religions, is known as a worldview. Cosmogony is the field that studies the origin or creation of the world while eschatology refers to the science or doctrine of the last things or of the end of the world.

In various contexts, the term "world" takes a more restricted meaning associated, for example, with the Earth and all life on it, with humanity as a whole or with an international or intercontinental scope. In this sense, world history refers to the history of humanity as a whole or world politics is the discipline of political science studying issues that transcend nations and continents. Other examples include terms such as "world religion", "world language", "world government", "world war", "world population", "world economy" or "world championship". (Full article...)

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Selected articles - show another

Image 1

Water covers about 71% of Earth's surface

The origin of water on Earth is the subject of a body of research in the fields of planetary science, astronomy, and astrobiology. Earth is unique among the rocky planets in the Solar System in having oceans of liquid water on its surface. Liquid water, which is necessary for life as we know it, continues to exist on the surface of Earth because the planet is at a distance, known as the habitable zone, far enough from the Sun that it does not lose its water, but not so far that low temperatures cause all water on the planet to freeze.

It was long thought that Earth’s water did not originate from the planet’s region of the protoplanetary disk. Instead, it was hypothesized water and other volatiles must have been delivered to Earth from the outer Solar System later in its history. Recent research, however, indicates that hydrogen inside the Earth played a role in the formation of the ocean. The two ideas are not mutually exclusive, as there is also evidence that water was delivered to Earth by impacts from icy planetesimals similar in composition to asteroids in the outer edges of the asteroid belt. (Full article...)
Image 2

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. It uses a set of precise criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies. These criteria are relevant to all species and all regions of the world. With its strong scientific base, the IUCN Red List is recognized as the most authoritative guide to the status of biological diversity. A series of Regional Red Lists are produced by countries or organizations, which assess the risk of extinction to species within a political management unit.

The aim of the IUCN Red List is to convey the urgency of conservation issues to the public and policy makers, as well as help the international community to reduce species extinction. According to IUCN the formally stated goals of the Red List are to provide scientifically based information on the status of species and subspecies at a global level, to draw attention to the magnitude and importance of threatened biodiversity, to influence national and international policy and decision-making, and to provide information to guide actions to conserve biological diversity. (Full article...)
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Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term globalization first appeared in the early 20th century (supplanting an earlier French term mondialization), developed its current meaning some time in the second half of the 20th century, and came into popular use in the 1990s to describe the unprecedented international connectivity of the post-Cold War world. Its origins can be traced back to 18th and 19th centuries due to advances in transportation and communications technology. This increase in global interactions has caused a growth in international trade and the exchange of ideas, beliefs, and culture. Globalization is primarily an economic process of interaction and integration that is associated with social and cultural aspects. However, disputes and international diplomacy are also large parts of the history of globalization, and of modern globalization.

Economically, globalization involves goods, services, data, technology, and the economic resources of capital. The expansion of global markets liberalizes the economic activities of the exchange of goods and funds. Removal of cross-border trade barriers has made the formation of global markets more feasible. Advances in transportation, like the steam locomotive, steamship, jet engine, and container ships, and developments in telecommunication infrastructure, like the telegraph, Internet, mobile phones, and smartphones, have been major factors in globalization and have generated further interdependence of economic and cultural activities around the globe. (Full article...)
Image 4

The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines; new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes; the increasing use of water power and steam power; the development of machine tools; and the rise of the mechanized factory system. Output greatly increased, and a result was an unprecedented rise in population and in the rate of population growth. The textile industry was the first to use modern production methods, and textiles became the dominant industry in terms of employment, value of output, and capital invested.

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and many of the technological and architectural innovations were of British origin. By the mid-18th century, Britain was the world's leading commercial nation, controlling a global trading empire with colonies in North America and the Caribbean. Britain had major military and political hegemony on the Indian subcontinent; particularly with the proto-industrialised Mughal Bengal, through the activities of the East India Company. The development of trade and the rise of business were among the major causes of the Industrial Revolution. (Full article...)
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The "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" was a document written in 1992 by Henry W. Kendall and signed by about 1,700 leading scientists. Twenty-five years later, in November 2017, 15,364 scientists signed "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice" written by William J. Ripple and seven co-authors calling for, among other things, human population planning, and drastically diminishing per capita consumption of fossil fuels, meat, and other resources. The second notice has more scientist cosigners and formal supporters than any other journal article ever published. (Full article...)
Image 6

Miss World is the oldest existing international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's widow, Julia Morley, has co-chaired the pageant. Along with Miss Universe, Miss International, and Miss Earth, it is one of the Big Four international beauty pageants.

The current Miss World is Karolina Bielawska of Poland, who was crowned by Toni-Ann Singh of Jamaica on March 16, 2022, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Full article...)
Image 7

2022 Global Hunger Index by Severity

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool that attempts to measure and track hunger globally as well as by region and by country, prepared by European NGOs of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. The GHI is calculated annually, and its results appear in a report issued in October each year.

The 2022 Global Hunger Index shows a dramatic hunger situation worldwide. Global progress in ending Hunger is at a near standstill. The main drivers of hunger are conflicts, the climate crisis, and the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. These drivers come on top of underlying factors such as poverty, inequality, inadequate governance. The situation is expected to continue to worsen in the face of overlapping global crises. Without fundamental changes, the goal of Zero Hunger by 2030 will not be achieved. (Full article...)

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various world-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A computer-generated image mapping the prevalence of artificial satellites and space debris around Earth in geosynchronous and low Earth orbit (from Earth)
Image 2Chennakesava Temple, Belur, India (from Human history)
Image 3Earth's history with time-spans of the eons to scale (from History of Earth)
Image 4World population, from 10,000 BCE to 2000 CE, with projection to 2100 CE (from Human history)
Image 5An artist's rendering of a protoplanetary disk (from History of Earth)
Image 6Machu Picchu, Inca Empire, Peru (from Human history)
Image 7China urbanized rapidly in the 21st century (Shanghai pictured). (from Human history)
Image 8Earth's major plates, which are:
(from Earth)
Image 9A composite image of artificial light emissions at night on a map of Earth (from Earth)
Image 10Pillar erected by India's Maurya Emperor Ashoka (from Human history)
Image 11Earth's land use for human agriculture (from Earth)
Image 121570 world map, showing Europeans' discoveries (from Human history)
Image 13Artist's conception of Devonian flora (from History of Earth)
Image 14An artist's impression of ice age Earth at glacial maximum. (from History of Earth)
Image 15Atomic bombings: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, 1945 (from Human history)
Image 16Battle during 1281 Mongol invasion of Japan (from Human history)
Image 17Venus figurine, Hohle Fels Germany, c. 40,000-35,000 BCE (from Human history)
Image 18Tiktaalik, a fish with limb-like fins and a predecessor of tetrapods. Reconstruction from fossils about 375 million years old. (from History of Earth)
Image 19A reconstruction of Pannotia (550 Ma). (from History of Earth)
Image 20Persepolis, Achaemenid Empire, 6th century BCE (from Human history)
Image 21Taj Mahal, Mughal Empire, India (from Human history)
Image 22A 580 million year old fossil of Spriggina floundensi, an animal from the Ediacaran period. Such life forms could have been ancestors to the many new forms that originated in the Cambrian Explosion. (from History of Earth)
Image 23Lithified stromatolites on the shores of Lake Thetis, Western Australia. Archean stromatolites are the first direct fossil traces of life on Earth. (from History of Earth)
Image 24Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci epitomizes the advances in art and science seen during the Renaissance. (from History of Earth)
Image 25The pale orange dot, an artist's impression of the early Earth which might have appeared orange through its hazy methane rich prebiotic second atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere at this stage was somewhat comparable to today's atmosphere of Titan. (from History of Earth)
Image 26Topographic view of Earth relative to Earth's center (instead of to mean sea level, as in common topographic maps) (from Earth)
Image 27Earth's rotation imaged by Deep Space Climate Observatory, showing axis tilt (from Earth)
Image 28Olmec colossal head from La Venta (from Human history)
Image 29Artist's impression of the Archean, the eon after Earth's formation, featuring round stromatolites which are early oxygen producing forms of life from billions of years ago. After the Late Heavy Bombardment, Earth's crust had cooled, its water-rich barren surface is marked by continents and volcanoes, with the Moon still orbiting Earth much closer than today, producing strong tides. (from Earth)
Image 30A view of Earth with its global ocean and cloud cover, which dominate Earth's surface and hydrosphere. At Earth's polar regions Earth's hydrosphere forms larger areas of ice cover. (from Earth)
Image 31Pangaea was a supercontinent that existed from about 300 to 180 Ma. The outlines of the modern continents and other landmasses are indicated on this map. (from History of Earth)
Image 32Ming dynasty section, Great Wall of China (from Human history)
Image 33Graph showing range of estimated partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen through geologic time (from History of Earth)
Image 34Notre-Dame de Paris in Paris, France: is among the most recognizable symbols of the civilization of Christendom. (from Human history)
Image 35Cave painting, Lascaux, France, c. 15,000 BCE (from Human history)
Image 36James Watt's steam engine powered the Industrial Revolution. (from Human history)
Image 37Earth–Moon system seen from Mars (from Earth)
Image 38Schematic of Earth's magnetosphere, with the solar wind flows from left to right (from Earth)
Image 39Angkor Wat temple, Cambodia, early 12th century (from Human history)
Image 40A banded iron formation from the 3.15 Ga Moodies Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. Red layers represent the times when oxygen was available; gray layers were formed in anoxic circumstances. (from History of Earth)
Image 41Earth's axial tilt causing different angles of seasonal illumination at different orbital positions around the Sun (from Earth)
Image 42The Pantheon in Rome, Italy, originally a Roman temple, now a Catholic church (from Human history)
Image 43Trilobites first appeared during the Cambrian period and were among the most widespread and diverse groups of Paleozoic organisms. (from History of Earth)
Image 44Obelisk of Axum, Ethiopia (from Human history)
Image 45Artist's rendition of an oxinated fully-frozen Snowball Earth with no remaining liquid surface water. (from History of Earth)
Image 46University of Timbuktu, Mali (from Human history)
Image 47The Standing Buddha from Gandhara, 2nd century AD (from Human history)
Image 48Global map of heat flow from Earth's interior to the surface of Earth's crust, mostly along the oceanic ridges (from Earth)
Image 49A view of Earth with different layers of its atmosphere visible: the troposphere with its shadows casting clouds and a band of stratospheric blue sky at the horizon, and above this a line of green airglow of the lower thermosphere around an altitude of 100 km, at the edge of space. (from Earth)
Image 50Overview map of the peopling of the world by early humans during the Upper Paleolithic, following the Southern Dispersal paradigm. Labels are in thousands of years ago. (from Human history)
Image 51Artist's impression of the early Solar System's protoplanetary disk, out of which Earth and other Solar System bodies formed (from Earth)
Image 52Moai, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) (from Human history)
Image 53St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. (from Human history)
Image 54Crusader Krak des Chevaliers, Syria (from Human history)
Image 55Last Moon landing: Apollo 17 (1972) (from Human history)
Image 56Monumental Cuneiform inscription, Sumer, Mesopotamia, 26th century BCE (from Human history)
Image 57Artist's impression of the enormous collision that probably formed the Moon (from History of Earth)
Image 58Civilians (here, Mỹ Lai, Vietnam, 1968) suffered greatly in 20th-century wars. (from Human history)
Image 59Earth's atmosphere as it appears from space, as bands of different colours at the horizon. From the bottom, afterglow illuminates the troposphere in orange with silhouettes of clouds, and the stratosphere in white and blue. Next the mesosphere (pink area) extends to just below the edge of space at one hundred kilometers and the pink line of airglow of the lower thermosphere (invisible), which hosts green and red aurorae over several hundred kilometers. (from Earth)
Image 60Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates throughout most of the Mesozoic (from History of Earth)
Image 61Cross-section through a liposome (from History of Earth)
Image 62A brass "Benin Bronze" from Nigeria (from Human history)
Image 63Chloroplasts in the cells of a moss (from History of Earth)
Image 64Artist's impression of Earth during the later Archean, the largely cooled planetary crust and water-rich barren surface, marked by volcanoes and continents, features already round microbialites. The Moon, still orbiting Earth much closer than today and still dominating Earth's sky, produced strong tides. (from History of Earth)
Image 65Geologic map of North America, color-coded by age. From most recent to oldest, age is indicated by yellow, green, blue, and red. The reds and pinks indicate rock from the Archean.
Image 66Yggdrasil, a modern attempt to reconstruct the Norse world tree which connects the heavens, the world, and the underworld. (from World)
Image 67Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt (from Human history)
Image 68An animation of the changing density of productive vegetation on land (low in brown; heavy in dark green) and phytoplankton at the ocean surface (low in purple; high in yellow) (from Earth)
Image 69Pale orange dot artist's impression of the early Earth tinted orange by its methane-rich early atmosphere (from Earth)
Image 70Image of the physical world, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (from World)
Image 71Conjectured illustration of the scorched Earth after the Sun has entered the red giant phase, about 5–7 billion years from now (from Earth)
Image 72Artist's conception of Hadean Eon Earth, when it was much hotter and inhospitable to all forms of life. (from History of Earth)
Image 73Great Mosque of Kairouan, Tunisia, founded 670 CE (from Human history)
Image 74Change in average surface air temperature and drivers for that change. Human activity has caused increased temperatures, with natural forces adding some variability. (from Earth)
Image 75Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul, is among the most recognizable symbols of the Byzantine civilization. (from Human history)
Image 76Reconstruction of Lucy, the first Australopithecus afarensis skeleton found (from Human history)
Image 77Gutenberg Bible, c. 1450, produced using movable type (from Human history)
Image 78Empires of the world in 1898 (from Human history)
Image 79Astronaut Bruce McCandless II outside of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1984 (from History of Earth)
Image 80Artist's impression of a Hadean landscape with the relatively newly formed Moon still looming closely over Earth and both bodies sustaining strong volcanism. (from History of Earth)
Image 81Tracy Caldwell Dyson in the Cupola module of the International Space Station observing the Earth below (from Earth)
Image 82Relief of Earth's crust. (from Earth)
Image 83A reconstruction of human history based on fossil data. (from History of Earth)
Image 84Approxomately 70.8% of Earth's surface is ocean water, the remaining 29.2% is land. At the polar regions, Earth's ocean and land surface is mostly covered by ice, as depicted in this composite image of the ice cover over the Southern Ocean (in grey) and Antarctica (in white). (from Earth)
Image 85World War I trench warfare (from Human history)
Image 86A pillar from Göbekli Tepe (from Human history)
Image 87The replicator in virtually all known life is deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is far more complex than the original replicator and its replication systems are highly elaborate. (from History of Earth)
Image 88The first aeroplane, the Wright Flyer, flew on 17 December 1903. (from Human history)
Image 89Maya observatory, Chichen Itza, Mexico (from Human history)

Megacities of the world - show another

Tianjin (/tjɛnˈdʒɪn/; Chinese: 天津; pinyin: Tiānjīn; Mandarin: [tʰjɛ́n.tɕín] (listen)), alternately romanized as Tientsin (/ˈtjɛnˈtsɪn/), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants during the 2020 Chinese census. Its built-up (or metro) area, made up of 12 central districts (all but Baodi, Jizhou, Jinghai and Ninghe), was home to 11,165,706 inhabitants and is also the world's 29th-largest agglomeration (between Chengdu and Rio de Janeiro) and 11th-most populous city proper.

It is governed as one of the four municipalities under the direct administration of Chinese central government and is thus under direct administration of the State Council. Tianjin borders Hebei Province and Beijing Municipality, bounded to the east by the Bohai Gulf portion of the Yellow Sea. Part of the Bohai Economic Rim, it is the largest coastal city in Northern China and part of the Jing-Jin-Ji megapolis. (Full article...)

List of megacities
Bangalore Bangkok Beijing Bogotá Buenos Aires Cairo Chengdu Chennai Chongqing Delhi Dhaka Guangzhou Hangzhou Ho Chi Minh City Hyderabad Istanbul Istanbul Jakarta Karachi Keihanshin Kinshasa Kolkata Lagos Lahore Lima London Los Angeles Manila Mexico City Moscow Mumbai Nagoya New York City Paris Rhine-Ruhr Rio de Janeiro São Paulo Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen Tehran Tokyo Xiamen

Did you know - load new batch

... that International Boxing Federation flyweight world champion Leonela Paola Yúdica won a house in a raffle?
... that in the Chinese erotic novella The Lord of Perfect Satisfaction, Empress Wu Zetian has a virgin lover whose penis is compared with snails and earthworms?
... that an underground home was featured at the 1964 New York World's Fair?
... that according to Slavic mythology, the creation of the world required the cooperation of a "good god" and an "evil god"?
... that Henry Wilson Hodge served as the director of military railroads for the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I?
... that despite losing his left arm in World War II, Austrian tennis player Hans Redl reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 1947?
... that of the ten Royal Navy flag officers to die during the First World War, three were killed in action?
... that Edward V. Boursaud was the first American assistant secretary to the Jesuit Superior General for the English-speaking world?

Countries of the world - show another

Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan to the north, by Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, and by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. It covers an area of 1.64 million square kilometres (0.63 million square miles), making it the 17th-largest country. Iran has an estimated population of 86.8 million, making it the 17th-most populous country in the world, and the second-largest in the Middle East. Its largest cities, in descending order, are the capital Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, and Tabriz.

The country is home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, beginning with the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BC. It was first unified by the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, in the seventh century BC, and reached its territorial height in the sixth century BC, when Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Persian Empire, which became one of the largest empires in history and a superpower. The Achaemenid Empire fell to Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC and was subsequently divided into several Hellenistic states. An Iranian rebellion established the Parthian Empire in the third century BC, which was succeeded in the third century AD by the Sassanid Empire, a major world power for the next four centuries. Arab Muslims conquered the empire in the seventh century AD, which led to the Islamization of Iran. It subsequently became a major center of Islamic culture and learning, with its art, literature, philosophy, and architecture spreading across the Muslim world and beyond during the Islamic Golden Age. Over the next two centuries, a series of native Iranian Muslim dynasties emerged before the Seljuk Turks and the Mongols conquered the region. In the 15th century, the native Safavids re-established a unified Iranian state and national identity, and converted the country to Shia Islam. Under the reign of Nader Shah in the 18th century, Iran presided over the most powerful military in the world, though by the 19th century, a series of conflicts with the Russian Empire led to significant territorial losses. The early 20th century saw the Persian Constitutional Revolution. Efforts to nationalize its fossil fuel supply from Western companies led to an Anglo-American coup in 1953, which resulted in greater autocratic rule under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and growing Western political influence. He went on to launch a far-reaching series of reforms in 1963. After the Iranian Revolution, the current Islamic Republic was established in 1979 by Ruhollah Khomeini, who became the country's first Supreme Leader. (Full article...)

List of countries

Wonders of the World - show another

Various lists of the Seven Wonders of Romania (Romanian: Cele Șapte Minuni ale României) have been compiled from past to the present day, to catalogue Romania's most spectacular artificial structures. (Full article...)

List of articles
Wonders of the World Seven Wonders of the Ancient World New7Wonders of the World Seven Wonders of Canada Seven Wonders of Colombia Seven Wonders of Poland Seven Wonders of Portugal Seven Wonders of Russia Seven Wonders of Ukraine Seven Wonders of Wales Seven Wonders of the Industrial World Seven Wonders of Portuguese Origin in the World 12 Treasures of Spain Eighth Wonder of the World