title: Taiping Rebellion

text: After the conclusion of the Second Opium War, Royal Navy officer Sir James Hope led a expedition to Nanking in February 1861. This expedition was the largest party of Westerners to visit Taiping territories, with the inclusion of many British military personnel, entrepreneurs, missionaries, other unofficial observers and two French representatives. Upon visiting the capital, some members of the expedition wrote that "devastation marked our journey" in reference to the conditions in Taiping territories. Some reports suggested a great deal of indiscriminate slaughter of civilians conducted by the Taiping army in newly controlled areas.


title: Taiping Rebellion

text: In late 1861, Hope made a brief visit to Nanking to come to an agreement with the Taiping rebels not to attack the city of Shanghai, a proposal which was refused by the Taiping government. According to Clarke, this refusal of cooperation and Taiping's occupation of Ningpo in December led to the limited intervention against the rebellion by the British and French in the following years. Western assistance for the Qing was also driven by the fear that a successful rebellion would lead to a stronger China able to resist Western power.


title: South Ossetia

text: South Ossetia ( , ), officially the Republic of South Ossetia – the State of Alania, is a partially recognised landlocked state in the South Caucasus. It has an officially stated population of just over 56,500 people (2022), who live in an area of , on the south side of the Greater Caucasus mountain range, with 33,000 living in the capital city, Tskhinvali. Only Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria recognise South Ossetia as a sovereign state. Although Georgia does not control South Ossetia, the Georgian government and the United Nations consider the territory part of Georgia.


title: South Ossetia

text: Georgia does not recognise the existence of South Ossetia as a political entity, and the territory comprising South Ossetia does not correspond to any Georgian administrative area (although Georgian authorities have set up the Provisional Administration of South Ossetia as a transitional measure leading to the settlement of South Ossetia's status), with most of the territory forming part of the Shida Kartli region. The Georgian constitution designates the area as "the former autonomous district of South Ossetia", in reference to the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast disbanded in 1990. When neutral language is deemed necessary, both Georgia and international organisations often refer to the area informally as the Tskhinvali region.


title: South Ossetia

text: The South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast, established by Soviet authorities in 1922, declared independence from the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991. The Georgian government responded by abolishing South Ossetia's autonomy and trying to re-establish its control over the region by force. The escalating crisis led to the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War. Georgians have fought against those controlling South Ossetia on two other occasions: in 2004 and in 2008. The latter conflict led to the Russo-Georgian War of August 2008, during which Ossetian and Russian forces gained full "de facto" control of the territory of the former South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast. Since the 2008 war, Georgia and a significant part of the international community have regarded South Ossetia as occupied by the Russian military.


title: South Ossetia

text: South Ossetia relies heavily on military, political, and financial aid from Russia. Since 2008, the South Ossetian government has expressed their intention of joining the Russian Federation; if successful, this would end its proclaimed independence. The prospect of a referendum on this matter has been raised multiple times in domestic politics, but none have taken place.


title: South Ossetia

text: The Ossetians are believed to originate from the Alans, a nomadic Iranian tribe. In the 8th century a consolidated Alan kingdom, referred to in sources of the period as Alania, emerged in the northern Caucasus Mountains. Around 1239–1277 Alania fell to the Mongol and later to the Timur's armies, who massacred much of the Alanian population. The survivors among the Alans retreated into the mountains of the central Caucasus and gradually started migration to the south, across the Caucasus Mountains into the Kingdom of Georgia..


title: South Ossetia

text: In the 17th century, by pressure of Kabardian princes, Ossetians started a second wave of migration from the North Caucasus to the Kingdom of Kartli. Ossetian peasants, who were migrating to the mountainous areas of the South Caucasus, often settled in the lands of Georgian feudal lords. The Georgian King of the Kingdom of Kartli permitted Ossetians to immigrate. According to Russian ambassador to Georgia Mikhail Tatishchev, at the beginning of the 17th century there was already a small group of Ossetians living near the headwaters of the Greater Liakhvi River. In the 1770s there were more Ossetians living in Kartli than ever before.


title: South Ossetia

text: This period has been documented in the travel diaries of Johann Anton Güldenstädt who visited Georgia in 1772. The Baltic German explorer called modern North Ossetia simply Ossetia, while he wrote that Kartli (the areas of modern-day South Ossetia) was populated by Georgians and the mountainous areas were populated by both Georgians and Ossetians. Güldenstädt also wrote that the northernmost border of Kartli is the Major Caucasus Ridge. By the end of 18th century, the ultimate sites of Ossetian settlement on the territory of modern South Ossetia were in Kudaro (Jejora river estuary), Greater Liakhvi gorge, the gorge of Little Liakhvi, Ksani River gorge, Guda (Tetri Aragvi estuary) and Truso (Terek estuary).


title: South Ossetia

text: The Georgian Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, including the territory of modern South Ossetia, was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1801. Ossetia, the area comprising modern North Ossetia, was among the first areas of the North Caucasus to come under Russian domination, starting in 1774. The capital, Vladikavkaz, was the first Russian military outpost in the region. By 1806, Ossetia was completely under Russian control. Ossetian migration to Georgian areas continued in the 19th and 20th centuries, when Georgia was part of the Russian Empire and Ossetian settlements emerged in Trialeti, Borjomi, Bakuriani and Kakheti as well.


title: South Ossetia

text: The Ossetians kept fighting against Russian Empire and never admitted Russian authorities above them. In 1850 when Georgia was fully under the control of Russian Empire, Georgian powerful family Machabeli complained to Russian authorities about not being able to seize control over mountain gorges where the Ossetian populations lived. Here is what Russian officials, collegiate assessors Yanovsky and Kozachkovsky, wrote in 1831 about the relationship between Georgian feudal lords and the Ossetian population of mountain gorges in their “Notes on Ossetian gorges appropriated by the princes Eristov-Ksani”: “...in more distant gorges, such as: Magrandoletsky, Tliysky, Chipransky, Gvidisk, Knogsky and others, for which the Eristavi's declare a claim, there are no traces of their control. Before being conquered by our troops, the Ossetians living in these gorges were a model of primitive peoples. In the villages and gorges there was absolutely no order and obedience. Everyone who was able to carry weapons considered himself completely independent. The example of the Eristavi's gave rise to the princes of Machabeli to appropriate the newly conquered Ossetians living along the Bolshaya Liakhva, in the gorges of Roksky, Jomaksky, Urschuarsky, who never obeyed and did not belong to them."


title: South Ossetia

text: Following the Russian revolution, the area of modern South Ossetia became part of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. In 1918, conflict began between the landless Ossetian peasants living in Shida Kartli (Interior Georgia), who were influenced by Bolshevism and demanded ownership of the lands they worked, and the Menshevik government backed ethnic Georgian aristocrats, who were legal owners. Although the Ossetians were initially discontented with the economic policies of the central government, the tension soon transformed into ethnic conflict. The first Ossetian rebellion began in February 1918, when three Georgian princes were killed and their land was seized by the Ossetians. The central government of Tiflis retaliated by sending the National Guard to the area. However, the Georgian unit retreated after they had engaged the Ossetians. Ossetian rebels then proceeded to occupy the town of Tskhinvali and began attacking the ethnic Georgian civilian population. During uprisings in 1919 and 1920, the Ossetians were covertly supported by Soviet Russia, but even so, were defeated. According to allegations made by Ossetian sources, the crushing of the 1920 uprising caused the death of 5,000 Ossetians, while ensuing hunger and epidemics were the causes of death of more than 13,000 people.


title: South Ossetia

text: The Soviet Georgian government, established after the Red Army invasion of Georgia in 1921, created an autonomous administrative unit for Transcaucasian Ossetians in April 1922 under pressure from Kavbiuro (the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union), called the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast (AO). Some believe that the Bolsheviks granted this autonomy to the Ossetians in exchange for their (Bolshevik) loyalty in fighting the Democratic Republic of Georgia and favouring local separatists, since this area had never been a separate entity prior to the Russian invasion. The drawing of administrative boundaries of the South Ossetian AO was quite a complicated process. Many Georgian villages were included within the South Ossetian AO despite numerous protests by the Georgian population. While the city of Tskhinvali did not have a majority Ossetian population, it was made the capital of the South Ossetian AO. In addition to parts of Gori Uyezd and Dusheti Uyezd of Tiflis Governorate, parts of Racha Uyezd of Kutaisi Governorate (western Georgia) were also included within the South Ossetian AO. All these territories historically had been indigenous Georgian lands.


title: South Ossetia

text: Historical Ossetia in the North Caucasus did not have its own political entity before 1924, when the North Ossetian Autonomous Oblast was created.


title: South Ossetia

text: Although the Ossetians had their own language (Ossetian), Russian and Georgian were administrative/state languages. Under the rule of Georgia's government during Soviet times, Ossetians enjoyed minority cultural autonomy, including speaking the Ossetian language and teaching it in schools. In 1989, two-thirds of Ossetians in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic lived outside the South Ossetian AO.


title: South Ossetia

text: Tensions in the region began to rise amid rising nationalism among both Georgians and Ossetians in 1989. Before this, the two communities of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast of the Georgian SSR had been living in peace with each other except for the 1918–1920 events. Both ethnicities had a normal degree of interaction and there were many Georgian-Ossetian intermarriages.


title: South Ossetia

text: The dispute surrounding the presence of the Ossetian people in the South Caucasus has been one of the causes of conflict. Although Georgian historiography believes that Ossetian mass migration to the South Caucasus (Georgia) began in the 17th century, Ossetians claim to have been residing in the area since the ancient times., which is not supported by available sources. Some Ossetian historians accept that the migration of Ossetian ancestors to modern South Ossetia began after the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, while one South Ossetian "de facto" foreign minister in the 1990s said that the Ossetians first appeared in the area only in the early 17th century. Since it was created after the Russian invasion of 1921, South Ossetia was regarded as artificial creation by Georgians during the Soviet era.


title: South Ossetia

text: The South Ossetian Popular Front ("Ademon Nykhas") was created in 1988. On 10 November 1989, the South Ossetian regional council asked the Georgian Supreme Council to upgrade the region to the status of an "autonomous republic". The decision to transform the South Ossetian AO into the South Ossetian ASSR by the South Ossetian authorities escalated the conflict. On 11 November, this decision was revoked by the Georgian parliament, the Supreme Soviet. The Georgian authorities removed the First Party Secretary of the oblast from his position.


title: South Ossetia

text: The Georgian Supreme Council adopted a law barring regional parties in summer 1990. The South Ossetian regional council interpreted this as a move against Ademon Nykhas and subsequently passed a "declaration of national sovereignty", proclaiming the South Ossetian Democratic Soviet Republic within the Soviet Union on 20 September 1990. Ossetians boycotted subsequent Georgian parliamentary elections and held their own contest in December.


title: South Ossetia

text: In October 1990, the parliamentary election in Georgia was won by Zviad Gamsakhurdia's "Round Table" block. On 11 December 1990, Zviad Gamsakhurdia's government declared the Ossetian election illegitimate and abolished South Ossetia's autonomous status altogether. Gamsakhurdia rationalised the abolition of Ossetian autonomy by saying, "They [Ossetians] have no right to a state here in Georgia. They are a national minority. Their homeland is North Ossetia... Here they are newcomers."


title: South Ossetia

text: When the Georgian parliament declared a state of emergency in the territory of South Ossetian AO on 12 December 1990, troops from both Georgian and Soviet interior ministries were sent to the region. After the Georgian National Guard was formed in early 1991, Georgian troops entered Tskhinvali on 5 January 1991. The 1991–1992 South Ossetia War was characterised by general disregard for international humanitarian law by uncontrollable militias, with both sides reporting atrocities. The Soviet military facilitated a ceasefire as ordered by Mikhail Gorbachev in January 1991. In March and April 1991, Soviet interior troops were reported actively disarming militias on both sides, and deterring the inter-ethnic violence. Zviad Gamsakhurdia asserted that the Soviet leadership was encouraging South Ossetian separatism in order to force Georgia not to leave the Soviet Union. Georgia declared its independence in April 1991.


title: South Ossetia

text: As a result of the war, about 100,000 ethnic Ossetians fled the territory and Georgia proper, most across the border into North Ossetia. A further 23,000 ethnic Georgians fled South Ossetia to other parts of Georgia. Many refugees went to the North Ossetian Prigorodnyi District. In 1944, many South Ossetians were resettled in areas of North Ossetia from which the Ingush had been expelled by Stalin in 1944. In the 1990s the new wave of South Ossetians migrating to the former Ingush territory fuelled conflict between Ossetians and Ingush.


title: South Ossetia

text: On 29 April 1991, the western part of South Ossetia was affected by an earthquake, which killed more than 200 and left tens of thousands homeless.


title: South Ossetia

text: In late 1991, dissent was mounting against Gamsakhurdia in Georgia due to his intolerance of critics and attempts to concentrate political power. On 22 December 1991, after a coup d'état, Gamsakhurdia and his supporters were besieged by the opposition, which was backed by the national guard, in several government buildings in Tbilisi. The ensuing heavy fighting resulted in over 200 casualties and left the center of the Georgian capital in ruins. On 6 January, Gamsakhurdia and several of his supporters fled the city for exile. Afterwards, the Georgian military council, an interim government, was formed by a triumvirate of Jaba Ioseliani, Tengiz Kitovani and Tengiz Sigua, and, in March 1992, they invited Eduard Shevardnadze, a former Soviet minister, to come to Georgia to assume control of the Georgian State Council.


title: South Ossetia

text: An independence referendum was held in South Ossetia on 19 January 1992, with voters being asked two questions: "Do you agree that South Ossetia should be an independent country?" and "Do you agree with the South Ossetian parliament's solution of 1 September 1991 on reunion with Russia?" Both proposals were approved, but the results were not recognised internationally. Nonetheless, the South Ossetian regional council subsequently passed an "act of state independence" and declared the independence of the Republic of South Ossetia on 29 May 1992.


title: South Ossetia

text: On 24 June 1992, Shevardnadze and the South Ossetian government signed the Sochi ceasefire agreement, brokered by Russia. The agreement included obligations to avoid the use of force, and Georgia pledged not to impose sanctions against South Ossetia. The Georgian government retained control over substantial portions of South Ossetia, including the town of Akhalgori. A Joined Peacekeeping force of Ossetians, Russians and Georgians was established. On 6 November 1992, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) set up a mission in Georgia to monitor the peacekeeping operation. From then until mid-2004, South Ossetia was generally peaceful.


title: South Ossetia

text: Following the 2003 Rose Revolution, Mikheil Saakashvili became the President of Georgia in 2004. Ahead of the 2004 parliamentary and presidential elections, he promised to restore the territorial integrity of Georgia. During one of his early speeches, Saakashvili addressed the separatist regions, saying, "[N]either Georgia nor its president will put up with disintegration of Georgia. Therefore, we offer immediate negotiations to our Abkhazian and Ossetian friends. We are ready to discuss every model of statehood by taking into consideration their interests for the promotion of their future development."


title: South Ossetia

text: Since 2004, tensions began to rise as the Georgian authorities strengthened their efforts to bring the region back under their rule, after it succeeded in Adjara. Georgia sent police to close down the Ergneti black market, which was one of the region's chief sources of revenue, selling foodstuffs and fuel smuggled from Russia. The Georgian authorities claimed the massive smuggling of goods for the Ergneti market through the Roki Tunnel, which was not under Georgian control, cost the country significant amounts of custom revenues. Georgia proposed to bring the Roki tunnel under joint control and monitoring, which was refused by the South Ossetian side. The antismuggling operation against the market resulted in a breakdown of South Ossetian trust in Georgia's intentions. A wave of violence erupted between Georgian peacekeepers and South Ossetian militiamen and freelance fighters from Russia. This included hostage taking of dozens of Georgian peacekeepers, shootouts and shelling of Georgian controlled villages, which left dozens dead and wounded. A ceasefire deal was reached on 13 August though it was repeatedly violated.


title: South Ossetia

text: The Georgian government protested against the allegedly increasing Russian economic and political presence in the region and against the uncontrolled military of the South Ossetian side. Georgian government officials have stated South Ossetian key security positions are occupied by (former) Russian security officials, while some political researchers speak of institutions being outsourced to the Russian Federation.


title: South Ossetia

text: It also considered the peacekeeping force (consisting in equal parts of South Ossetians, North Ossetians, Russians and Georgians) to be non-neutral and demanded its replacement. Various proposals were launched by the Georgian side to internationalise the peacekeeping in South Ossetia. According to U.S. senator Richard Lugar, the United States supported Georgia's call in 2006 for the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the conflict zones. Later, EU South Caucasus envoy Peter Semneby said that "Russia's actions in the Georgia spy row have damaged its credibility as a neutral peacekeeper in the EU's Black Sea neighbourhood." Joseph Biden (Chairman, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee), Richard Lugar, and Mel Martinez sponsored a resolution in June 2008 accusing Russia of attempting to undermine Georgia's territorial integrity and called for replacing the Russian-manned peacekeeping force operating under CIS mandate.


title: South Ossetia

text: Tensions between Georgia and Russia began escalating in April 2008. A bomb explosion on 1 August 2008 targeted a car transporting Georgian peacekeepers. South Ossetians were responsible for instigating this incident, which marked the opening of hostilities and injured five Georgian servicemen. In response, several South Ossetian militiamen were hit. South Ossetian separatists began shelling Georgian villages on 1 August. These artillery attacks caused Georgian servicemen to return fire periodically from 1 August.


title: South Ossetia

text: At around 19:00 on 7 August 2008, Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili announced a unilateral ceasefire and called for peace talks. However, escalating assaults against Georgian villages (located in the South Ossetian conflict zone) were soon matched with gunfire from Georgian troops, who then proceeded to move in the direction of the capital of the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia (Tskhinvali) on the night of 8 August, reaching its center in the morning of 8 August. One Georgian diplomat told Russian newspaper "Kommersant" on 8 August that by taking control of Tskhinvali, Tbilisi wanted to demonstrate that Georgia would not tolerate the killing of Georgian citizens. According to Russian military expert Pavel Felgenhauer, the Ossetian provocation was aimed at triggering the Georgian response, which was needed as a pretext for premeditated Russian military invasion. According to Georgian intelligence, and several Russian media reports, parts of the regular (non-peacekeeping) Russian Army had already moved to South Ossetian territory through the Roki Tunnel before the Georgian military action.


title: South Ossetia

text: Russia accused Georgia of "aggression against South Ossetia", and launched a large-scale land, air, and sea invasion of Georgia with the pretext of a "peace enforcement operation" on 8 August 2008. Russian airstrikes against targets within Georgia were also launched. Abkhaz forces opened a second front on 9 August by attacking the Kodori Gorge, held by Georgia. Tskhinvali was seized by the Russian military by 10 August. Russian forces occupied the Georgian cities of Zugdidi, Senaki, Poti, and Gori (the last one after the ceasefire agreement was negotiated). The Russian Black Sea Fleet blockaded the Georgian coast.


title: South Ossetia

text: A campaign of ethnic cleansing against Georgians in South Ossetia was conducted by South Ossetians, with Georgian villages around Tskhinvali being destroyed after the war had ended. The war displaced 192,000 people, and while many were able to return to their homes after the war, a year later around 30,000 ethnic Georgians remained displaced. In an interview published in "Kommersant", South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity said he would not allow Georgians to return.


title: South Ossetia

text: President of France Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated a ceasefire agreement on 12 August 2008. On 17 August, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev announced that Russian forces would begin to pull out of Georgia the following day. Russia recognised Abkhazia and South Ossetia as separate republics on 26 August. In response to Russia's recognition, the Georgian government severed diplomatic relations with Russia. Russian forces left the buffer areas bordering Abkhazia and South Ossetia on 8 October and the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia assumed authority over the buffer areas. Since the war, Georgia has maintained that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are Russian-occupied Georgian territories.


title: South Ossetia

text: On 30 September 2009, the European Union–sponsored "Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia" stated that, while preceded by months of mutual provocations, "open hostilities began with a large-scale Georgian military operation against the town of Tskhinvali and the surrounding areas, launched in the night of 7 to 8 August 2008."


title: South Ossetia

text: In 2016, a referendum on integration with Russia was proposed during an election campaign, but was put on hold indefinitely. A referendum on South Ossetia's official name was held on 9 April 2017; over three-quarters of those who voted supported amendments to the South Ossetian constitution which gave the names "Republic of South Ossetia" and "State of Alania" equal status under the law.


title: South Ossetia

text: President Anatoly Bibilov announced on 26 March 2022 that South Ossetian troops had been sent to assist Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Bibilov announced on 30 March 2022 that South Ossetia would initiate the legal process to become part of Russia. Russian politicians reacted positively and said Russian law would permit (parts of) foreign nations to join the federation. They highlighted the necessity to "express the will of the Ossetian people" through a referendum. Ossetian leader Bibilov said in a lengthy interview that he planned to hold two referendums, one on annexation by Russia, and the second vote on joining North Ossetia, for which he set the election proceedings in motion on April 7, 2022. On May 13, the annexation referendum was scheduled to take place on July 17. Following Biblov's defeat in 2022 election, the new president, Alan Gagloyev, suspended the referendum on May 30.


title: South Ossetia

text: South Ossetia is a very mountainous region located in the Caucasus at the juncture of Asia and Europe. It occupies the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus mountain range and its foothills which are part of the Iberia Plain, a geographic plateau that is roughly in the center of South Ossetia. The Likhi Range shapes the western geographic boundary of South Ossetia, although the northwestern corner of South Ossetia is located west of the range.


title: South Ossetia

text: The Greater Caucasus Mountain Range forms the northern border of South Ossetia with Russia. There is only one main road through the mountain range from South Ossetia to Russia, the TransKAM highway through the Roki tunnel into North Ossetia, which was completed in 1986. The Transkam section located in South Ossetia is nominally part of the Georgian S10 highway even though Tbilisi effectively does not control that part. The Roki Tunnel was vital for the Russian military in the 2008 South Ossetia war because it is the only direct route through the Caucasus Mountains between Russia and South Ossetia.


title: South Ossetia

text: South Ossetia covers an area of about , separated by the mountains from the more populous North Ossetia (which is a republic within Russia) and extending southwards almost to the Mtkvari river in Georgia. More than 89% of South Ossetia lies over above sea level, and its highest point is Mount Khalatsa at above sea level.


title: South Ossetia

text: Out of the roughly 2,000 glaciers that exist in the Greater Caucasus, approximately 30% are located within Georgia. The 10 glaciers of the Liakhvi River basin and a handful of the Rioni River basin are located in South Ossetia.


title: South Ossetia

text: Most of South Ossetia is in the Kura Basin with the northwestern part it in the Black Sea basin. The Likhi and Racha ridges act as divide separating these two basins. Major rivers in South Ossetia include the Greater and Little Liakhvi, Ksani, Medzhuda, Tlidon, Canal Saltanis, Ptsa River and host of other tributaries.


title: South Ossetia

text: South Ossetia's climate is affected by subtropical influences from the East and Mediterranean influences from the West. The Greater Caucasus range moderates the local climate by serving as a barrier against cold air from the north, which results in the fact that, even at great heights, it is warmer there than in the Northern Caucasus. Climatic zones in South Ossetia are determined by distance from the Black Sea and by altitude. The plains of eastern Georgia are shielded from the influence of the Black Sea by mountains that provide a more continental climate.


title: South Ossetia

text: The foothills and mountainous areas (including the Greater Caucasus Mountains) experience cool, wet summers and snowy winters, with snow cover often exceeding two meters in many regions. The penetration of humid air masses from the Black Sea to the west of South Ossetia is often blocked by the Likhi mountain range. The wettest periods of the year in South Ossetia generally occur during spring and autumn while the winter and summer months tend to be the driest. Elevation plays an important role in South Ossetia where climatic conditions above are considerably colder than in any lower-lying areas. The regions that lie above frequently experience frost even during the summer months.


title: South Ossetia

text: The average temperature in South Ossetia in January is around +4 degrees Celsius, and the average temperature in July is around +20.3 degrees Celsius. The average yearly liquid precipitation in South Ossetia is around 598 millimetres. In general, summer temperatures average to across much of South Ossetia, and winter temperatures average to . Humidity is relatively low and rainfall across South Ossetia averages per year, but Alpine and highland regions have distinct microclimates. At higher elevations, precipitation is sometimes twice as heavy as in the eastern plains of Georgia. Alpine conditions begin at about , and above snow and ice are present year-round.


title: South Ossetia

text: The Russian troops who patrol the borders of South Ossetia have reportedly been expanding the boundaries of the region through “encroaching occupation”, meaning they surreptitiously advance several feet at a time into Georgian-held territory.


title: South Ossetia

text: Following the 2008 South Ossetia war, Russia recognised South Ossetia as independent. This unilateral recognition by Russia was met by condemnation from Western Blocs, such as NATO, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Council due to the violation of Georgia's territorial integrity. The EU's diplomatic response to the news was delayed by disagreements between eastern European states, the UK wanting a harsher response and Germany, France and other states' desire not to isolate Russia. Former US envoy Richard Holbrooke said the conflict could encourage separatist movements in other former Soviet states along Russia's western border. Several days later, Nicaragua became the second country to recognise South Ossetia. Venezuela recognised South Ossetia on 10 September 2009, becoming the third UN member state to do so.


title: South Ossetia

text: The European Union, Council of Europe, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and most UN member countries do not recognise South Ossetia as an independent state. The "de facto" republic governed by the secessionist government held a second independence referendum on 12 November 2006, after its first referendum in 1992 was not recognised by most governments as valid. According to the Tskhinvali election authorities, the referendum turned out a majority for independence from Georgia where 99% of South Ossetian voters supported independence and the turnout for the vote was 95%. The referendum was monitored by a team of 34 international observers from Germany, Austria, Poland, Sweden and other countries at 78 polling stations. However, it was not recognised internationally by the UN, European Union, OSCE, NATO and the Russian Federation, given the lack of ethnic Georgian participation and the illegality of such a referendum without recognition from the Georgian government in Tbilisi. The European Union, OSCE and NATO condemned the referendum.


title: South Ossetia

text: Parallel to the secessionist held referendum and elections, to Eduard Kokoity, the then President of South Ossetia, the Ossetian opposition movement (People of South Ossetia for Peace) organised their own elections contemporaneously in Georgian-controlled areas within South Ossetia, in which Georgian and some Ossetian inhabitants of the region voted in favour of Dmitry Sanakoyev as the alternative President of South Ossetia. The alternative elections of Sanakoyev claimed full support of the ethnic Georgian population.


title: South Ossetia

text: In April 2007, Georgia created the Provisional Administrative Entity of South Ossetia, staffed by ethnic Ossetian members of the separatist movement. Dmitry Sanakoyev was assigned as the leader of the Entity. It was intended that this provisional administration would negotiate with central Georgian authorities regarding its final status and conflict resolution. On 10 May 2007, Sanakoyev was appointed by the President of Georgia as the Head of South Ossetian Provisional Administrative Entity.


title: South Ossetia

text: On 13 July 2007, Georgia set up a state commission, chaired by the Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli, to develop South Ossetia's autonomous status within the Georgian state. According to the Georgian officials, the status was to be elaborated within the framework of "an all-inclusive dialogue" with all the forces and communities within the Ossetian society.


title: South Ossetia

text: South Ossetia, Transnistria, Artsakh, and Abkhazia are sometimes referred to as post-Soviet "frozen conflict" zones.


title: South Ossetia

text: On 30 August 2008, Tarzan Kokoity, the Deputy Speaker of South Ossetia's parliament, announced that the region would soon be absorbed into Russia, so that South and North Ossetians could live together in one united Russian state. Russian and South Ossetian forces began giving residents in Akhalgori, the biggest town in the predominantly ethnic Georgian eastern part of South Ossetia, the choice of accepting Russian citizenship or leaving. However, Eduard Kokoity, the then president of South Ossetia, later stated that South Ossetia would not give up its independence by joining Russia: "We are not going to say no to our independence, which has been achieved at the expense of many lives; South Ossetia has no plans to join Russia." Civil Georgia has said that this statement contradicts previous ones made by Kokoity earlier that day, when he indicated that South Ossetia would join North Ossetia in the Russian Federation.


title: South Ossetia

text: The South Ossetian and Russian presidents signed an "alliance and integration" treaty on 18 March 2015. The agreement includes provisions to incorporate the South Ossetian military into Russia's armed forces, integrate the customs service of South Ossetia into that of Russia's, and commit Russia to paying state worker salaries in South Ossetia at rates equal to those in the North Caucasus Federal District. The Associated Press described the treaty as calling for "nearly full integration" and compared it to a 2014 agreement between Russia and Abkhazia. The Georgian Foreign Ministry described the signing of the treaty as "actual annexation" of the disputed region by Russia, and the United States and European Union said they would not recognise it.


title: South Ossetia

text: In another move towards integration with the Russian Federation, South Ossetian President Leonid Tibilov proposed in December 2015 a name change to "South Ossetia–Alania" – in analogy with "North Ossetia–Alania", a Russian federal subject. Tibilov furthermore suggested holding a referendum on joining the Russian Federation prior to April 2017, which would lead to a united "Ossetia–Alania". In April 2016, Tibilov said he intended to hold the referendum before August of that year. However, on 30 May, Tibilov postponed the referendum until after the presidential election due in April 2017. At the name-change referendum, nearly 80 per cent of those who voted endorsed the name-change, while the presidential race was won by Anatoliy Bibilov – against the incumbent, Tibilov, who had been supported by Moscow and who, unlike Bibilov, was ready to heed Moscow's wish for the integration referendum not be held any time soon.


title: South Ossetia

text: On 30 March 2022, President Anatoly Bibilov announced his intention to begin legal proceedings in the near future to integration with the Russian Federation, although he subsequently lost the presidency in the 2022 South Ossetian presidential election.


title: South Ossetia

text: In late October 2008, President Saakashvili signed into law legislation on the occupied territories passed by the Georgian Parliament. The law covers the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (territories of former South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast). The law spells out restrictions on free movement to, economic activity and concluding real estate transactions in these territories. In particular, according to the law, foreign citizens should enter the two breakaway regions only through Georgia. Entry into Abkhazia should be carried out from Zugdidi Municipality and into South Ossetia from Gori Municipality.


title: South Ossetia

text: The main road leading to South Ossetia from the rest of Georgia passes through the Gori Municipality. However, this road is closed in both directions at Ergneti since 2008. The main crossing point that remained open for Georgians and South Ossetians, to the Akhalgori district, has been closed by South Ossetia since 2019. Furthermore, the South Ossetian authorities only allow entry of foreigners "through the territory of the Russian Federation".


title: South Ossetia

text: The Georgian legislation, however, also lists "special" cases in which entry into the breakaway regions will not be regarded as illegal. It stipulates that a special permit on entry into the breakaway regions can be issued if the trip there "serves Georgia's state interests; peaceful resolution of the conflict; de-occupation or humanitarian purposes." The law also bans any type of economic activity – entrepreneurial or non- entrepreneurial, if such activities require permits, licences or registration in accordance with Georgian legislation. It also bans air, sea and railway communications and international transit via the regions, mineral exploration and money transfers. The provision covering economic activities is retroactive, going back to 1990.


title: South Ossetia

text: The law says that the Russian Federation – the state which has carried out military occupation – is fully responsible for the violation of human rights in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Russian Federation, according to the document, is also responsible for compensation of material and moral damage inflicted on Georgian citizens, stateless persons and foreign citizens, who are in Georgia and enter the occupied territories with appropriate permits. The law also says that de facto state agencies and officials operating in the occupied territories are regarded by Georgia as illegal. The law will remain in force until "the full restoration of Georgian jurisdiction" over the breakaway regions is realised.


title: South Ossetia

text: In November 2009, during the opening ceremony of a new Georgian Embassy building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili stated that residents of South Ossetia and Abkhazia could also use its facilities: "I would like to assure you, my dear friends, that this is your home, as well, and here you will always be able to find support and understanding".


title: South Ossetia

text: Until the armed conflict of August 2008, South Ossetia consisted of a checkerboard of Georgian-inhabited and Ossetian-inhabited towns and villages. The largely Ossetian capital city of Tskhinvali and most of the other Ossetian-inhabited communities were governed by the separatist government, while the Georgian-inhabited villages and towns were administered by the Georgian government. This close proximity and the intermixing of the two communities has made the Georgian–Ossetian conflict particularly dangerous, since any attempt to create an ethnically pure territory would involve population transfers on a large scale.


title: South Ossetia

text: The political dispute has yet to be resolved and the South Ossetian separatist authorities govern the region with effective independence from Tbilisi. Although talks have been held periodically between the two sides, little progress was made under the government of Eduard Shevardnadze (1993–2003). His successor Mikheil Saakashvili (elected 2004) made the reassertion of Georgian governmental authority a political priority. Having successfully put an end to the "de facto" independence of the southwestern province of Ajaria in May 2004, he pledged to seek a similar solution in South Ossetia. After the 2004 clashes, the Georgian government has intensified its efforts to bring the problem to international attention. On 25 January 2005, President Saakashvili presented a Georgian vision for resolving the South Ossetian conflict at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe session in Strasbourg. Late in October, Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli presented the Georgian action plan at the OSCE Permanent Council at Vienna, to which the US government and the OSCE expressed their support. The South Ossetian "de facto" authorities reacted by saying the plan is "not realistic" and "contains nothing new for the South Ossetian side". On 6 December, the OSCE Ministerial Council in Ljubljana adopted a resolution supporting the Georgian peace plan. Prior to the Ministerial Council, the Russian Foreign Ministry rejected the Georgian plan, saying it differed from the plan Saakashvili presented at the UN General Assembly in September 2004, which was favoured by the South Ossetian side. After the OSCE resolution, the South Ossetian side surprised many with their own initiative reminiscent to the Georgian plan, triggering optimism in Tbilisi.


title: South Ossetia

text: According to Article 47 of the South Ossetian Constitution, the president of the Republic of South Ossetia is the head of state and head of the executive branch of government. The president of the republic is elected for five years by direct popular vote, with a maximum of two consecutive terms for the same person. South Ossetia's legislative body is the unicameral parliament, which consists of 34 members who are elected by popular vote for five years in a mixed system of 17 single-member constituencies and 17 delegates elected through proportional representation (article 57).


title: South Ossetia

text: Since 24 May 2022, Alan Gagloev has been the president of the republic, winning the contested election of the then incumbent Anatoly Bibilov.


title: South Ossetia

text: South Ossetia's armed forces in 2017 were partially incorporated into the Russian Armed Forces. The Russian armed forces have established the 4th Guards Military Base in South Ossetia, which is based in Tskhinvali, with training sites north from the city (Dzartsem) and near Java, where a branch of the base is hosted at the village Ugardanta for the Russian Airborne Forces. Furthermore, Russia has established nearly 20 so called "militarized border guard bases" near the boundary line with Tbilisi controlled Georgia, which fall under the command and responsibility of the Russian FSB and are tasked with enforcing a "state border" between South Ossetia and Georgia. An estimated 3,000–3,500 Russian servicemen are deployed in South Ossetia, while an estimated 1,500 FSB personnel are deployed at the border guard bases. According to South Ossetian de facto authorities, about 450 South Ossetian citizens are employed at the 4th Russian Military Base.


title: South Ossetia

text: On 26 March 2022, president Bibilov said that South Ossetia had sent troops to aid Russia during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, stating his troops "understand perfectly that they are going to defend Russia, they are going to defend Ossetia too". A large fraction of these troops would desert and hitchhike back to South Ossetia. Bibilov later said that the deserters would face no punishment.


title: South Ossetia

text: Before the Georgian–Ossetian conflict roughly two-thirds of the population of South Ossetia was Ossetian and 25–30% was Georgian. The eastern quarter of South Ossetia, around the town and district of Akhalgori, was predominantly Georgian, while the center and west were predominantly Ossetian. Much of the mountainous north is sparsely inhabited (see map at Languages of the Caucasus).


title: South Ossetia

text: The Georgian 2002 census was incomplete with regard to South Ossetia, as it only took place in areas under effective Georgian control at the time. This concerned the Georgian populated areas of Akhalgori district and the Georgian communities around Tskhinvali, in the Patara Liachvi and Didi Liakhvi valleys. although according to some estimates there were 47,000 ethnic Ossetians and 17,500 ethnic Georgians in South Ossetia in 2007.


title: South Ossetia

text: 2009 population estimate: During the war, according to Georgian officials, 15,000 Georgians moved to Georgia proper; South Ossetian officials indicate that 30,000 Ossetians fled to North Ossetia, and a total of 500 citizens of South Ossetia were killed.


title: South Ossetia

text: According to the 2015 census conducted by the South Ossetian authorities, the region's total population was 53,532, including 48,146 Ossetians (89.9%), 3,966 Georgians (7.4%), and 610 Russians. The Georgian authorities have questioned the accuracy of these data. Estimates based on official birth rates and school attendance suggest it may have been around 39,000 inhabitants, and an independent estimate from 2009 put the population at 26,000.


title: South Ossetia

text: According to the South Ossetian Statistical agency the population estimate was 56,520 per 1 January 2022. Of these, 33,054 lived in Tskhinvali.


title: South Ossetia

text: Eastern Orthodoxy is the major religion practised in South Ossetia, by Ossetians, Georgians and Russians.


title: South Ossetia

text: South Ossetia's economy is primarily agricultural, although less than 10% of South Ossetia's land area is cultivated. Cereals, fruit and vines are the major produce. Forestry and cattle industries are also maintained. A number of industrial facilities also exist, particularly around the capital, Tskhinvali. Following the war in the 1990s, South Ossetia struggled economically. South Ossetian GDP was estimated at US$15 million (US$250 per capita) in a work published in 2002. In 2017, the Administration of South Ossetia estimated its GDP to be nearly 100 million US dollars. South Ossetia's poverty threshold stood at 3,062 rubles a month in the fourth quarter of 2007, or 23.5 per cent below Russia's average, while South Ossetians have incomparably smaller incomes.


title: South Ossetia

text: The majority of the population survives on subsistence farming. The South Ossetian authorities planned to improve finances by boosting the local production of flour and thus reducing the need for flour imports. For this purpose, the area planted with wheat was increased tenfold in 2008 from 130 hectares to 1,500 hectares. The wheat harvest in 2008 was expected to be 2,500 tons of grain. The South Ossetian Agriculture ministry also imported some tractors in 2008, and was expecting delivery of more farm machinery in 2009.


title: South Ossetia

text: Before the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, South Ossetia's industry consisted of 22 small factories, with a total production of 61.6 million rubles in 2006. In 2007, only 7 factories were functioning. In March 2009, it was reported that most of the production facilities were standing idle and were in need of repairs. Even successful factories have a shortage of workers, are in debt and have a shortage of working capital. One of the largest local enterprises is the Emalprovod factory, which has 130 employees. Additionally, after the 2008 war, Georgia cut off supplies of electricity to the Akhalgori region, which aggravated the socio-economic situation in that area.


title: South Ossetia

text: By the end of 2021 the number of employed people was determined at 20,734 while 2,449 persons were registered as unemployed, on a total working age population of 34,308 (men 18–65, women 18–60). Virtually the only significant economic asset that South Ossetia possesses is control of the Roki Tunnel that is used to link Russia and Georgia, from which the South Ossetian government reportedly obtained a large part of its budget by levying customs duties on freight traffic before the war.


title: South Ossetia

text: Since the 2008 war South Ossetia and its economy is critically dependent on Russian economic assistance, and a year after the war former President Edurard Kokoity was grateful for the Russian aid for reconstruction work. According to reports Russian donations made up nearly 99% of the budget of South Ossetia by 2010. By 2021 this has been reduced to 83%.


title: South Ossetia

text: A new backup power transmission line running from Russia to South Ossetia was put into operation in November 2021 helping to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the region. It cost more than 1.3 billion rubles ($17m) to construct and was built within the framework of the Russian Investment program in South Ossetia.


title: South Ossetia

text: In 2016, Armenia tried to persuade Georgia to open a transit route between Georgia and South Ossetia, but Georgia refused.


title: South Ossetia

text: The socio-economic development program of South Ossetia for the 2022–2025 period is financed by Russia.The Aim of the program is for South Ossetia to reach the socio-economic indicators of the North Caucasus Federal District in 2025.


title: South Ossetia

text: The country's principal university is South Ossetian State University in Tskhinvali. After the Russo-Georgian War in 2008, education officials attempted to place most university-bound students from South Ossetia in Russian post-secondary education institutions.


title: Turmeric

text: Turmeric () is a flowering plant, "Curcuma longa" (), of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, the rhizomes of which are used in cooking. The plant is a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous plant native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia that requires temperatures between and a considerable amount of annual rainfall to thrive. Plants are gathered each year for their rhizomes, some for propagation in the following season and some for consumption.


title: Turmeric

text: The rhizomes are used fresh or boiled in water and dried, after which they are ground into a deep orange-yellow powder commonly used as a coloring and flavoring agent in many Asian cuisines, especially for curries, as well as for dyeing, characteristics imparted by the principal turmeric constituent, curcumin.


title: Turmeric

text: Curcumin, a bright yellow chemical produced by the turmeric plant, is approved as a food additive by the World Health Organization, European Parliament, and United States Food and Drug Administration.


title: Turmeric

text: Although long used in Ayurvedic medicine, where it is also known as "haridra", there is no high-quality clinical evidence that consuming turmeric or curcumin is effective for treating any disease.


title: Turmeric

text: The greatest diversity of "Curcuma" species by number alone is in India, at around 40 to 45 species. Thailand has a comparable 30 to 40 species. Other countries in tropical Asia also have numerous wild species of "Curcuma". Recent studies have also shown that the taxonomy of "Curcuma longa" is problematic, with only the specimens from South India being identifiable as "C. longa". The phylogeny, relationships, intraspecific and interspecific variation, and even identity of other species and cultivars in other parts of the world still need to be established and validated. Various species currently utilized and sold as "turmeric" in other parts of Asia have been shown to belong to several physically similar taxa, with overlapping local names.


title: Turmeric

text: Turmeric has been used in Asia for centuries and is a major part of Ayurveda, Siddha medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, Unani, and the animistic rituals of Austronesian peoples. It was first used as a dye, and then later for its supposed properties in folk medicine.


title: Turmeric

text: From India, it spread to Southeast Asia along with Hinduism and Buddhism, as the yellow dye is used to color the robes of monks and priests. Turmeric has also been found in Tahiti, Hawaii and Easter Island before European contact. There is linguistic and circumstantial evidence of the spread and use of turmeric by the Austronesian peoples into Oceania and Madagascar. The populations in Polynesia and Micronesia, in particular, never came into contact with India, but use turmeric widely for both food and dye. Thus independent domestication events are also likely.


title: Turmeric

text: Turmeric was found in Farmana, dating to between 2600 and 2200 BCE, and in a merchant's tomb in Megiddo, Israel, dating from the second millennium BCE. It was noted as a dye plant in the Assyrians' Cuneiform medical texts from Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh from 7th century BCE. In Medieval Europe, turmeric was called "Indian saffron."


title: Turmeric

text: The name possibly derives from Middle English or Early Modern English as ' or '. It may be of Latin origin, "" ("meritorious earth").


title: Turmeric

text: Turmeric is a perennial herbaceous plant that reaches up to tall. It has highly branched, yellow to orange, cylindrical, aromatic rhizomes.


title: Turmeric

text: The leaves are alternate and arranged in two rows. They are divided into leaf sheath, petiole, and leaf blade. From the leaf sheaths, a false stem is formed. The petiole is long. The simple leaf blades are usually long and rarely up to . They have a width of and are oblong to elliptical, narrowing at the tip.


title: Turmeric

text: At the top of the inflorescence, stem bracts are present on which no flowers occur; these are white to green and sometimes tinged reddish-purple, and the upper ends are tapered.


title: Turmeric

text: The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic and threefold. The three sepals are long, fused, and white, and have fluffy hairs; the three calyx teeth are unequal. The three bright-yellow petals are fused into a corolla tube up to long. The three corolla lobes have a length of and are triangular with soft-spiny upper ends. While the average corolla lobe is larger than the two lateral, only the median stamen of the inner circle is fertile. The dust bag is spurred at its base. All other stamens are converted to staminodes. The outer staminodes are shorter than the labellum. The labellum is yellowish, with a yellow ribbon in its center and it is obovate, with a length from . Three carpels are under a constant, trilobed ovary adherent, which is sparsely hairy. The fruit capsule opens with three compartments.


title: Turmeric

text: In East Asia, the flowering time is usually in August. Terminally on the false stem is an inflorescence stem, long, containing many flowers. The bracts are light green and ovate to oblong with a blunt upper end with a length of .


title: Turmeric

text: Turmeric powder is about 60–70% carbohydrates, 6–13% water, 6–8% protein, 5–10% fat, 3–7% dietary minerals, 3–7% essential oils, 2–7% dietary fiber, and 1–6% curcuminoids. The golden yellow color of turmeric is due to curcumin.


title: Turmeric

text: Phytochemical components of turmeric include diarylheptanoids, a class including numerous curcuminoids, such as curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin. Curcumin constitutes up to 3.14% of assayed commercial samples of turmeric powder (the average was 1.51%); curry powder contains much less (an average of 0.29%). Some 34 essential oils are present in turmeric, among which turmerone, germacrone, atlantone, and zingiberene are major constituents.


title: Turmeric

text: Turmeric is one of the key ingredients in many Asian dishes, imparting a mustard-like, earthy aroma and pungent, slightly bitter flavor to foods. It is used mostly in savory dishes, but also is used in some sweet dishes, such as the cake "sfouf". In India, turmeric leaf is used to prepare special sweet dishes, "patoleo", by layering rice flour and coconut-jaggery mixture on the leaf, then closing and steaming it in a special utensil ("chondrõ"). Most turmeric is used in the form of rhizome powder to impart a golden yellow color. It is used in many products such as canned beverages, baked products, dairy products, ice cream, yogurt, yellow cakes, orange juice, biscuits, popcorn, cereals, sauces, and gelatin. It is a principal ingredient in curry powders. Although typically used in its dried, powdered form, turmeric also is used fresh, like ginger. It has numerous uses in East Asian recipes, such as a pickle that contains large chunks of fresh soft turmeric.


title: Turmeric

text: Turmeric is used widely as a spice in South Asian and Middle Eastern cooking. Various Iranian "khoresh" recipes begin with onions caramelized in oil and turmeric. The Moroccan spice mix ras el hanout typically includes turmeric. In South Africa, turmeric is used to give boiled white rice a golden color, known as "geelrys" (yellow rice) traditionally served with bobotie. In Vietnamese cuisine, turmeric powder is used to color and enhance the flavors of certain dishes, such as "bánh xèo, bánh khọt", and "mì Quảng". The staple Cambodian curry paste, "kroeung", used in many dishes, including fish amok, typically contains fresh turmeric. In Indonesia, turmeric leaves are used for Minang or Padang curry base of Sumatra, such as "rendang", "sate padang", and many other varieties. In the Philippines, turmeric is used in the preparation and cooking of Kuning and Satay. In Thailand, fresh turmeric rhizomes are used widely in many dishes, in particular in the southern Thai cuisine, such as yellow curry and turmeric soup. Turmeric is used in a hot drink called "turmeric latte" or "golden milk" that is made with milk, frequently coconut milk. The turmeric milk drink known as "haldi doodh" ("haldi" means turmeric in Hindi) is a traditional indian recipe. Sold in the US and UK, the drink known as "golden milk" uses nondairy milk and sweetener, and sometimes black pepper after the traditional recipe (which may also use "ghee").


title: Turmeric

text: Turmeric is approved for use as a food color, assigned the code E100. The oleoresin is used for oil-containing products.


title: Turmeric

text: In combination with annatto (E160b), turmeric has been used to color numerous food products. Turmeric is used to give a yellow color to some prepared mustards, canned chicken broths, and other foodsoften as a much cheaper replacement for saffron.


title: Turmeric

text: In 2019, the European Medicines Agency concluded that turmeric herbal teas, or other forms taken by mouth, on the basis of their long-standing traditional use, could be used to relieve mild digestive problems, such as feelings of fullness and flatulence.


title: Turmeric

text: Turmeric grows wild in the forests of South and Southeast Asia, where it is collected for use in classical Indian medicine (Siddha or Ayurveda). In Eastern India, the plant is used as one of the nine components of along with young plantain or banana plant, taro leaves, barley (), wood apple (), pomegranate (), "Saraca indica", ("Arum"), or , and rice paddy. The Haldi ceremony called in Bengal (literally "yellow on the body") is a ceremony observed during wedding celebrations of people of Indian culture all throughout the Indian subcontinent.


title: Turmeric

text: In Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, as a part of the Tamil–Telugu marriage ritual, dried turmeric tuber tied with string is used to create a Thali necklace. In western and coastal India, during weddings of the Marathi and Konkani people, Kannada Brahmins, turmeric tubers are tied with strings by the couple to their wrists during a ceremony, "Kankana Bandhana".


title: Turmeric

text: Turmeric makes a poor fabric dye, as it is not light fast, but is commonly used in Indian clothing, such as saris and Buddhist monks' robes. During the late Edo period (1603–1867), turmeric was used to dilute or substitute more expensive safflower dyestuff in the production of . Friedrich Ratzel reported in "The History of Mankind" during 1896, that in Micronesia, turmeric powder was applied for embellishment of body, clothing, utensils, and ceremonial uses. Native Hawaiians who introduced it to Hawaii () make a bright yellow dye out of it.


title: Turmeric

text: Turmeric paper, also called curcuma paper or in German literature, "Curcumapapier", is paper steeped in a tincture of turmeric and allowed to dry. It is used in chemical analysis as an indicator for acidity and alkalinity. The paper is yellow in acidic and neutral solutions and turns brown to reddish-brown in alkaline solutions, with transition between pH of 7.4 and 9.2.


title: Turmeric

text: As turmeric and other spices are commonly sold by weight, the potential exists for powders of toxic, cheaper agents with a similar color to be added, such as lead(II,IV) oxide ("red lead"). These additives give turmeric an orange-red color instead of its native gold-yellow, and such conditions led the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue import alerts from 2013 to 2019 on turmeric originating in India and Bangladesh. Imported into the United States in 2014 were approximately of turmeric, some of which was used for food coloring, traditional medicine, or dietary supplement. Lead detection in turmeric products led to recalls across the United States, Canada, Japan, Korea, and the United Kingdom through 2016.


title: Turmeric

text: Lead chromate, a bright yellow chemical compound, was found as an adulterant of turmeric in Bangladesh, where turmeric is used commonly in foods and the contamination levels were up to 500 times higher than the national limit. Researchers identified a chain of sources adulterating the turmeric with lead chromate: from farmers to merchants selling low-grade turmeric roots to "polishers" who added lead chromate for yellow color enhancement, to wholesalers for market distribution, all unaware of the potential consequences of lead toxicity.


title: Turmeric

text: Another common adulterant in turmeric, metanil yellow (also known as acid yellow 36), is considered by the British Food Standards Agency as an illegal dye for use in foods.


title: Turmeric

text: Turmeric and curcumin have been studied in numerous clinical trials for various human diseases and conditions, with no high-quality evidence of any anti-disease effect or health benefit. There is no scientific evidence that curcumin reduces inflammation, . There is weak evidence that turmeric extracts may be beneficial for relieving symptoms of knee osteoarthritis, as well as for reducing pain and muscle damage following physical exercise. There is good evidence that turmeric is an allergen.


title: 2022–23 Premier League

text: The 2022–23 Premier League is the 31st season of the Premier League, and the 124th season of top-flight English football overall.


title: 2022–23 Premier League

text: Manchester City are the two-time defending champions, having won both the 2020–21 and 2021–22 season.


title: 2022–23 Premier League

text: Starting from the 2022–23 season, clubs are able to make five substitutions rather than three. These substitutions can be made in three stoppages during game time, and additionally at half time, in line with other top European leagues. There was a mid-season break for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, when the last matches were played on the weekend of 12–13 November 2022, and the first matches after the World Cup will be played on 26 December 2022, after the World Cup final on 18 December 2022.


title: 2022–23 Premier League

text: On 9 September 2022, all Premier League matches scheduled for 10–12 September were postponed due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The following week, three Premier League matches scheduled for 17–18 September were postponed due to the policing issues surrounding Queen Elizabeth II's funeral on 19 September. Also in the same week, Arsenal v. Manchester City scheduled for 19 October was postponed to accommodate the postponed Europa League tie with PSV Eindhoven, originally on 15 September, now on 20 October.


title: 2022–23 Premier League

text: Twenty teams are competing in the league – the top seventeen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the Championship. The promoted teams are Fulham, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest, who return after an absence of one, two and twenty-three years from the top flight respectively. The twenty-three years between Nottingham Forest's previous Premier League season and this season is the longest absence for a previous Premier League club in the Premier League era to date. They replaced Burnley (relegated after a six-year top flight spell), Watford, and Norwich City (both teams relegated after just one year back in the top flight).


title: Katherine Waterston

text: Katherine Boyer Waterston (born March 3, 1980) is a British-American actress. She made her feature film debut in "Michael Clayton" (2007). She had supporting roles in films including "Robot & Frank," "Being Flynn" (both 2012) and "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby" (2013), before her breakthrough performance in "Inherent Vice" (2014). She portrayed Chrisann Brennan in "Steve Jobs" (2015), and went on to star in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" (2016) and its sequels. Her other film roles were in "" (2017), "Logan Lucky" (2017), "The Current War" (2017), "Mid90s" (2018) and "The World to Come" (2020).


title: Katherine Waterston

text: Katherine Boyer Waterston was born March 3, 1980 in Westminster, London, the daughter of American parents, Lynn Louisa (née Woodruff), a former model, and actor Sam Waterston. She holds dual citizenship. Her father is of English and Scottish descent. Her sister is actress Elisabeth Waterston and her brother is director Graham Waterston. She has an older half-brother, James Waterston, also an actor.


title: Katherine Waterston

text: She was raised in Connecticut, and graduated from the Loomis Chaffee School in 1998. She earned her BFA in Acting from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.


title: Katherine Waterston

text: In 2007, Waterston made her big screen debut starring in the independent drama film "The Babysitters" appearing alongside John Leguizamo and Cynthia Nixon. Also in 2007, Waterston performed in the play "Los Angeles" by Julian Sheppard and in 2008, she performed in the play "Kindness" by Adam Rapp. In 2010, Waterston played the role of Gena in the original Off-Broadway production of Leslye Headland’s "Bachelorette", played in the 2011 film version by Lizzy Caplan. In 2011, she played Anya in the Classic Stage Company revival of "The Cherry Orchard". Also in 2011, she performed in "Dreams of Flying, Dreams of Falling", also by Adam Rapp, at the Classic Stage Company.


title: Katherine Waterston

text: After playing supporting roles in films including "Enter Nowhere" (2011), "Being Flynn" (2012), "The Letter" (2012), and "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby" (2013), Waterston was cast in the crime film "Inherent Vice" written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film and her performance received generally positive reviews from critics. The following year, she appeared in "Queen of Earth" and "Steve Jobs" playing Chrisann Brennan.


title: Katherine Waterston

text: In 2016, Waterston was cast as Tina Goldstein in the fantasy film "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" opposite Eddie Redmayne. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and emerged a commercial success after grossing $814 million worldwide. Waterston reprised her role in "" in 2018, and had a short part in "" (2022). In 2017, she starred alongside Michael Fassbender in the science fiction horror film "" directed by Ridley Scott. Also that year she starred in the Steven Soderbergh's comedy-drama "Logan Lucky" and Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's historical drama "The Current War". The following years she starred in the independent films "State Like Sleep" (2018), "Mid90s" (2018), "Amundsen" (2019) and "The World to Come" (2020). In 2020, she starred in the British-American horror drama series "The Third Day" alongside Jude Law. In 2022, she joined the cast of the second season of HBO period drama series "Perry Mason".


title: Katherine Waterston

text: Waterston was previously in a six-year relationship with American playwright and director Adam Rapp. His 2011 three-play collection "The Hallway Trilogy" is dedicated to her; she appeared as Rose Hathaway in "Part 1: Rose" in its premiere at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.


title: Katherine Waterston

text: In November 2018, Waterston confirmed that she was expecting her first child. Her son was born in 2019.


title: Pollution

text: Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants. Although environmental pollution can be caused by natural events, the word pollution generally implies that the contaminants have an anthropogenic source – that is, a source created by human activities. Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source pollution. In 2015, pollution killed nine million people worldwide (one in six deaths). This remained unchanged in 2019, with little real progress against pollution being identifiable. Air pollution accounted for of these earlier deaths.<ref name="10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00090-0"></ref>


title: Pollution

text: Major forms of pollution include air pollution, light pollution, litter, noise pollution, plastic pollution, soil contamination, radioactive contamination, thermal pollution, visual pollution, and water pollution.


title: Pollution

text: Various definitions of pollution exist, which may or may not recognize certain types, such as noise pollution or greenhouse gases. The United States Environmental Protection Administration defines pollution as "Any substances in water, soil, or air that degrade the natural quality of the environment, offend the senses of sight, taste, or smell, or cause a health hazard. The usefulness of the natural resource is usually impaired by the presence of pollutants and contaminants." In contrast, the United Nations considers pollution to be the "presence of substances and heat in environmental media (air, water, land) whose nature, location, or quantity produces undesirable environmental effects."


title: Pollution

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


title: Pollution

text: A pollutant is a waste product that pollutes the environment, such as the air, water, or soil. A pollutant's severity is determined by three factors: its chemical type, concentration, extent of damage, and duration.


title: Pollution

text: One of the most significant natural sources of pollution are volcanoes, which during eruptions release large quantities of harmful gases into the atmosphere. Volcanic gases include carbon dioxide, which can be fatal in large concentrations and contributes to climate change, hydrogen halides which can cause acid rain, sulfur dioxides, which are harmful to animals and damage the ozone layer, and hydrogen sulfides, which are capable of killing humans at concentrations of less than 1 part per thousand. Volcanic emissions also include fine and ultrafine particles which may contain toxic chemicals and substances such as arsenic, lead, and mercury.


title: Pollution

text: Wildfires, which can be caused naturally by lightning strikes, are also a significant source of air pollution. Wildfire smoke contains significant quantities of both carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, which can cause suffocation. Large quantities of fine particulates are found within wildfire smoke as well, which pose a health risk to animals.


title: Pollution

text: Motor vehicle emissions are one of the leading causes of air pollution. China, United States, Russia, India Mexico, and Japan are the world leaders in air pollution emissions. Principal stationary pollution sources include chemical plants, coal-fired power plants, oil refineries, petrochemical plants, nuclear waste disposal activity, incinerators, large livestock farms (dairy cows, pigs, poultry, etc.), PVC factories, 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.


title: Pollution

text: About 400 million metric tons of hazardous wastes are generated each year. The United States alone produces about 250 million metric tons. Americans constitute less than 5% of the world's population, but produce roughly 25% of the world's , and generate approximately 30% of world's waste. In 2007, China overtook the United States as the world's biggest producer of , while still far behind based on per capita pollution (ranked 78th among the world's nations).


title: Pollution

text: Chlorinated hydrocarbons (CFH), heavy metals (such as chromium, cadmium – found in rechargeable batteries, and lead – found in lead paint, aviation fuel, and even in certain countries, gasoline), MTBE, zinc, arsenic, and benzene are some of the most frequent soil contaminants. A series of press reports published in 2001, culminating in the publication of the book Fateful Harvest, revealed a widespread practise of recycling industrial leftovers into fertilizer, resulting in metal poisoning of the soil. 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 pre-1970 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.


title: Pollution

text: Pollution can also occur as a result of natural disasters. Hurricanes, for example, frequently result in sewage contamination and petrochemical spills from burst boats or automobiles. When coastal oil rigs or refineries are involved, larger-scale and environmental damage is not unusual. When accidents occur, some pollution sources, such as nuclear power stations or oil ships, can create extensive and potentially catastrophic emissions.


title: Pollution

text: The motor vehicle is the most common cause of noise pollution, accounting for over 90% of all undesirable noise globally.


title: Pollution

text: Plastic pollution it’s choking our oceans by making plastic gyres, entangling marine animals, poisoning our food and water supply, and ultimately inflicting havoc on the health and well-being of humans and wildlife globally. With the exception of a small amount that has been incinerating, virtually every piece of plastic that was ever made in the past still exists in one form or another.  And since most of the plastics don’t biodegrade in any meaningful sense, all that plastic waste could exist for hundreds or even thousands of years. If plastic production isn’t circumscribed, plastic pollution will be disastrous and will eventually outweigh fish in oceans.


title: Pollution

text: Carbon dioxide, while vital for photosynthesis, is sometimes referred to as pollution, because raised levels of the gas in the atmosphere are affecting the Earth's climate. Disruption of the environment can also highlight the connection between areas of pollution that would normally be classified separately, such as those of water and air. Recent studies have investigated the potential for long-term rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide to cause slight but critical increases in the acidity of ocean waters, and the possible effects of this on marine ecosystems.


title: Pollution

text: 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, confirmed 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).


title: Pollution

text: 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, Over ten million people in India fell ill with waterborne illnesses in 2013, and 1,535 people died, most of them children.


title: Pollution

text: , nearly 500 million Chinese lack access to safe drinking water. A 2010 analysis estimated that 1.2 million people died prematurely each year in China because of air pollution. The high smog levels China has been facing for a long time can do damage to humans' bodies and cause different diseases. The WHO estimated in 2007 that air pollution causes half a million deaths per year in India. Studies have estimated that the number of people killed annually in the United States could be over 50,000.


title: Pollution

text: 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.


title: Pollution

text: An October 2017 study by the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health found that global pollution, specifically toxic air, water, soils and workplaces, kills nine million people annually, which is triple the number of deaths caused by AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, and 15 times higher than deaths caused by wars and other forms of human violence. The study concluded that "pollution is one of the great existential challenges of the Anthropocene era. Pollution endangers the stability of the Earth’s support systems and threatens the continuing survival of human societies."


title: Pollution

text: A study published in 2022 in "GeoHealth" concluded that eliminating energy-related fossil fuel emissions in the United States would prevent 46,900–59,400 premature deaths each year and provide $537–$678 billion in benefits from avoided PM2.5-related illness and death.


title: Pollution

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


title: Pollution

text: A 2022 study published in "Environmental Science & Technology" found that levels of anthropogenic chemical pollution have exceeded planetary boundaries and now threaten entire ecosystems around the world.


title: Pollution

text: The Toxicology and Environmental Health Information Program (TEHIP) 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) an integrated system of toxicology and environmental health databases that are available free of charge on the web.


title: Pollution

text: 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.


title: Pollution

text: A number of studies show that pollution has an adverse effect on the productivity of both indoor and outdoor workers.


title: Pollution

text: 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.


title: Pollution

text: 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 development is a similar technique for the prevention of urban runoff.


title: Pollution

text: Policy, law and monitoring/transparency/life-cycle assessment-attached economics could be developed and enforced to control pollution. A review concluded that there is a lack of attention and action such as work on a globally supported "formal science–policy interface", e.g. to "inform intervention, influence research, and guide funding".


title: Pollution

text: Pollution has a cost. Manufacturing activities that cause air pollution impose health and clean-up costs on the whole of society. A manufacturing activity that causes air pollution is an example of a negative externality in production. A negative externality in production occurs "when a firm’s production reduces the well-being of others who are not compensated by the firm." For example, if a laundry firm exists near a polluting steel manufacturing firm, there will be increased costs for the laundry firm because of the dirt and smoke produced by the steel manufacturing firm. If external costs exist, such as those created by pollution, the manufacturer will choose to produce more of the product than would be produced if the manufacturer 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. Goods and services that involve negative externalities in production, such as those that produce pollution, tend to be overproduced and underpriced since the externality is not being priced into the market.


title: Pollution

text: Pollution can also create costs for the firms producing the pollution. Sometimes firms choose, or are forced by regulation, to reduce the amount of pollution that they are producing. The associated costs of doing this are called abatement costs, or marginal abatement costs if measured by each additional unit. In 2005 pollution abatement capital expenditures and operating costs in the US amounted to nearly $27 billion.


title: Pollution

text: The Pure Earth, an international non-for-profit organization dedicated to eliminating life-threatening pollution in the developing world, issues an annual list of some of the world's most polluting industries. Below is the list for 2016:


title: Pollution

text: A 2018 report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and GRAIN says that the meat and dairy industries are poised to surpass the oil industry as the world's worst polluters.


title: Pollution

text: Outdoor air pollution attributable to fossil fuel use alone causes ~3.61 million deaths annually, making it one of the top contributors to human death, beyond being a major driver of climate change whereby greenhouse gases are considered per se as a form of pollution .


title: Pollution

text: Society derives some indirect utility from pollution; otherwise, there would be no incentive to pollute. This utility may come from the consumption of goods and services that inherently create pollution (albeit the level can vary) or lower prices or lower required efforts (or inconvenience) to abandon or substitute these goods and services. Therefore, it is important that policymakers attempt to balance these indirect benefits with the costs of pollution in order to achieve an efficient outcome.


title: Pollution

text: It is possible to use environmental economics to determine which level of pollution is deemed the social optimum. For economists, pollution is an "external cost and occurs only when one or more individuals suffer a loss of welfare". There is a socially optimal level of pollution at which welfare is maximized. This is because consumers derive utility from the good or service manufactured, which will outweigh the social cost of pollution until a certain point. At this point the damage of one extra unit of pollution to society, the marginal cost of pollution, is exactly equal to the marginal benefit of consuming one more unit of the good or service.


title: Pollution

text: Moreover, the feasibility of pollution reduction rates could also be a factor of calculating optimal levels. While a study puts the global mean loss of life expectancy (LLE; similar to YPLL) from air pollution in 2015 at 2.9 years (substantially more than, for example, 0.3 years from all forms of direct violence), it also indicated that a significant fraction of the LLE is unavoidable in terms of current economical-technological feasibility such as aeolian dust and wildfire emission control.<ref name="10.1093/cvr/cvaa025"></ref>


title: Pollution

text: In markets with pollution, or other negative externalities in production, the free market equilibrium will not account for the costs of pollution on society. If the social costs of pollution are higher than the private costs incurred by the firm, then the true supply curve will be higher. The point at which the social marginal cost and market demand intersect gives the socially optimal level of pollution. At this point, the quantity will be lower and the price will be higher in comparison to the free market equilibrium. Therefore, the free market outcome could be considered a market failure because it "does not maximize efficiency".


title: Pollution

text: This model can be used as a basis to evaluate different methods of internalizing the externality. Some examples include tariffs, a carbon tax and cap and trade systems.


title: Pollution

text: 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," "soot" found on ceilings of prehistoric caves provides ample evidence of the high levels of pollution that was associated with inadequate ventilation of open fires."


title: Pollution

text: Metal forging appears 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.


title: Pollution

text: The burning of coal and wood, and the presence of many horses in concentrated areas made the cities the primary sources of pollution. King Edward I of England banned the burning of sea-coal by proclamation in London in 1272, after its smoke became a problem; 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.


title: Pollution

text: 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 viability of neighborhoods to handle their waste problem. Reformers began to demand sewer systems and clean water.


title: Pollution

text: In 1870, the sanitary conditions in Berlin were among the worst in Europe. August Bebel recalled conditions before a modern sewer system was built in the late 1870s:


title: Pollution

text: 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."


title: Pollution

text: 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 three 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". By the 1940s, automobile-caused smog was a major issue in Los Angeles.


title: Pollution

text: 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.


title: Pollution

text: 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. Then a non-nuclear event – the Great Smog of 1952 in London – killed at least 4000 people. This prompted some of the first major modern environmental legislation: the Clean Air Act of 1956.


title: Pollution

text: 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.


title: Pollution

text: 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. National news stories in the late 1970s – especially the long-term dioxin contamination at Love Canal starting in 1947 and uncontrolled dumping in Valley of the Drums – led to the Superfund legislation of 1980. The pollution of industrial land gave rise to the name brownfield, a term now common in city planning.


title: Pollution

text: 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. Chelyabinsk, Russia, is considered the "Most polluted place on the planet".


title: Pollution

text: 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, Chernobyl, and Fukushima pose a lingering specter of public mistrust. Worldwide publicity has been intense on those disasters. Widespread support for test ban treaties has ended almost all nuclear testing in the atmosphere.


title: Pollution

text: 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.


title: Pollution

text: 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.


title: Pollution

text: 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.


title: Pollution

text: 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.


The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into a unified state. The establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 led to the remainder later being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1927.


title: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

text: The United Kingdom, having financed the European coalition that defeated France during the Napoleonic Wars, developed a large Royal Navy that enabled the British Empire to become the foremost world power for the next century. For nearly a century from the final defeat of Napoleon following the Battle of Waterloo to the outbreak of World War I, Britain was almost continuously at peace with Great Powers. The most notable exception was the Crimean War with the Russian Empire, in which actual hostilities were relatively limited. However, the United Kingdom did engage in extensive offensive military operations in Africa and Asia, such as the Opium Wars with the Qing dynasty, to extend its overseas territorial holdings and influence.


text: Beginning in earnest in the second half of the nineteenth century, the Imperial government granted increasing levels of autonomy to locally elected governments in colonies where white settlers had become demographically and/or politically dominant, with this process eventually resulting in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland and South Africa becoming self-governing dominions. Although these dominions remained part of the British Empire, in practice dominion governments were permitted to largely manage their own internal affairs without interference from London, which was primarily responsible only for foreign policy.


text: Rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the state's formation continued up until the mid-19th century. The Great Irish Famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the mid-19th century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland and increased calls for Irish land reform. The 19th century was an era of rapid economic modernisation and growth of industry, trade and finance, in which Britain largely dominated the world economy. Outward migration was heavy to the principal British overseas possessions and to the United States. The British Empire was expanded into most parts of Africa and much of South Asia. The Colonial Office and India Office ruled through a small number of administrators who managed the units of the empire locally, while democratic institutions began to develop. British India, by far the most important overseas possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In overseas policy, the central policy was free trade, which enabled British and Irish financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America.