wraiths82

I’m posting this under this topic for now-but all of these are places I’d like to go!

Eight New Natural Wonders Named

Andrea Thompson,LiveScience

Posted: 2008-07-10 17:30:44

Filed Under: Science News, World News

(July 10) – Eight new natural wonders, including the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico and what has been dubbed “the Galápagos of the Indian Ocean,” have been added to the World Heritage List.

World Heritage Sites are named by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The sites, both cultural and natural, added to the list are deemed “of outstanding value to humanity” and deserve protection and preservation, according to the UNESCO Web site.

8 New Natural WondersWesley Hill, IUCNWonder: Joggins Fossil Cliffs

Location: Canada

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With the new additions, the World Heritage List now boasts 878 sites (679 cultural, 174 natural and 25 mixed) in 145 countries. The eight new natural sites added this year include:

• Joggins Fossil Cliffs (Canada)
• Mount Sanqingshan National Park (China)
• Lagoons of New Caledonia: Reef Diversity and Associated Ecosystems (France)
• Surtsey (Iceland)
• Saryarka – Steppe and Lakes of Northern Kazakhstan (Kazakhstan)
• Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (Mexico)
• Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona (Switzerland)
• Socotra Archipelago (Yemen)

“These eight stunning natural sites are amongst the best of what nature has to offer,” said David Sheppard, head of the IUCN’s Protected Areas Program, which recommended the sites. (IUCN stands for International Union for Conservation of Nature.)

Wonders of the Modern WorldChris Steele Perkins, Magnum for National Geographic / APWonder: Stonehenge

Category: Cultural

Location: Wiltshire, England

The World Heritage Committee has designated this and more than 800 other cultural, natural and mixed properties of outstanding universal value. Click to see other wonders of the modern world.

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Below are details on all the sites:

The Socotra Archipelago is known as “the Galápagos of the Indian Ocean” and is home to 825 plant species of which 37 percent can only be found there. Ninety percent of its reptile species can be found nowhere else. Its marine life is also diverse, with 253 species of reef-building corals, 730 species of coastal fish and 300 species of crab, lobster and shrimp.

Socotra is already well set up for long-term conservation, IUCN officials say, as about 75 percent of its land area is already included in natural sanctuaries and national parks.

The Joggins Fossil Cliffs have also drawn a comparison to the diverse Pacific Islands made famous by Charles Darwin’s work, as they are sometimes called “the Coal Age Galápagos.” The cliffs are considered to be an excellent reference site to the Coal Age (about 300 million years ago). The rocks there bear witness to the first reptiles in Earth’s history and preserve upright fossil trees.

“This is a fascinating site where you can literally see a slice of history,” said Tim Badman, World Heritage advisor of IUCN’s Protected Areas Program.

Surtsey, a new island formed by volcanic eruptions off the southern coast of Iceland from 1963 to 1967, is interesting for the new life forms that have settled there. The young bit of land has provided a unique scientific record of the ways in which plants and animals colonize land.

The Mariposa Monarca Biosphere Reserve protects eight areas of wintering habitat of the monarch butterfly in the oyamel fir forests of central Mexico. After traveling thousands of kilometers, as many as a billion monarchs overwinter there.

More than 200,000 hectares of Central Asian steppe, a vast region of open grassland, is found in Saryarka, Kazakhstan — more than half of it is pristine. The area’s Korgalzhyn-Tengiz lakes provide feeding grounds to around 16 million birds and support hundreds of thousands of nesting waterfowl.

“The wetlands of Korgalzhyn and Naurzum State Nature Reserves are key stopover points for migratory birds,” Sheppard said. “Some of these species are globally threatened. Saryarka offers them a safe haven on their journeys from Africa, Europe and South Asia to their breeding grounds in Western and Eastern Siberia.”

Saryarka is also home to the critically endangered saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica).

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Mount Sanqingshan National Park in China was selected for its “outstanding natural beauty,” the IUCN said. The park features a diverse forest and unusual granite rock formations, including shaped pillars and peaks, which can be viewed from suspended walking trails.

The Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona, on the other hand, was picked for its geological value; it features a dramatic display of mountain-building, including an area called the Glarus Overthrust, where older rock overlays younger rock.

The highly diverse coral reef ecosystems of the Lagoons of New Caledonia put it on the new list — they equal or possibly surpass the larger Great Barrier Reef in coral and fish diversity.

These eight natural sites were accompanied by 27 cultural sites as inductees into the World Heritage program. The IUCN also helps monitor conservation at the natural sites. It has deemed several World Heritage sites as under threat, including the Galápagos Islands, in Ecuador, Machu Picchu, in Peru, and Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Fort Pierce used to be full of life and shops that were all over the United States. Our Walmart didn’t run the show, it was a small one that did close by a certain time. There were fields of trees that surrounded that area before Super-Walmart came and dominated our town. Down the road was the Orange Blossom Mall that had Sears, Belks, jewelry stores, dollar stores, assorted goods, KB Toys, shoe stores, the arcade and food court. We didn’t have to go out of county to get to a mall!

There was Bob & Todd’s which was a smaller neighborhood grocery store. Down the road from that was Dairy Queen-which was sold back to the corporation a few years ago-now St. Lucie county doesn’t have a Dairy Queen anywhere! ((the injustice; the inhumanity!)) Not far from there was the old Winn Dixie which is now a food bank. Right next door to that was a drug store and icecream shop; both are long gone now. Follow the trail down to downtown. Our old library with the two stories where so many of my wonderful times were spent. The Great Illustrated Classics I discovered and teen authors I fell hard for. Knowing a library like the back of my hand and feeling like it was a second home… I loved the kid’s section, I could find any book I’d read before and loved-no problem. The new library I don’t have a clue on! The oasis out back of the library is still there but its been cut back. The old library now is a field of grass-but not for long with the way our town loves brick….and traffic circles. Across from it was the grassy field before the old boardwalk where it was wooden and picnic tables to sit at and enjoy the view of the Indian River. Now its all brick and palm trees and stone and cement. We have a fountain …but I’d trade it back in a heartbeat. The old harbor was there too where you could see the various boats out in the water docked…the hurricanes destroyed those, and I don’t think they’re building them back. Streets have changed and traffic circles are all the rage here…we went from having…one to having two more in addition in less than 2 years. Bah!

Driving south into town; the old donut shop that morphed into a pizza shop that now is some dog stand. I remember chatting with the people there when it was a donut shop and my dad worked next door and then when it became a pizza shop. We keep meaning to go to Jensen to see them at their pizza shop there. The old Jiffy Photo with the huge mural…that’s gone, Jiffy is still there but not their mural. Coming into town, the old Steakhouse is a bar I think now. The Pizza Parlor turned into Payless and JRs is still there looking ramshackled as ever. The Mitsubishi car place morphed into a truck/trailer sort of place… The Sabal Palm Plaza jigged around. Where Staples is now, was Publix, that I visited with my grandma and loved. Where Publix is now was Woolworth’s and I loved the sales there. Where Big Lots & Bealls outlet was JC Penney. Bon Worth was Joanne’s Fabrics. What fashion stores is next to Staples was an Eckerds that I flirted with a cashier at…the other fashion store near the Publix was Portside Imports that I found so many treasures at! The movie theater is still there, but has undergone new management a half dozen times by now, and no longer smells of mold! Some things are good with the changes I guess.

Go farther south and the plaza with my favorite thrift stores has been bulldozed down. The two old retirement communities were run off after being bought up or something along those lines with land domain called. It’s sad to see all that space being wasted when the city could be making money from them and providing a great service too. The old theater was down there too, that you could smoke and buy booze at. I remember seeing Pocahontas there with my nieces.

Maybe change is good in many ways…sometimes I wish it didn’t seem to take a town down in the process…

http://www.43things.com/things/view/1169583

I was stuck there for hours on end. It was supposed to be a 2 hour layover which ended up turning into 4 and then 5 hours. Stuck in the same area, because security clearance is needed to leave, just makes this place horrible to be in. I’m hoping not to get stuck at any airport like this again. It’s fine as long as you’re flying out again quickly…but for a long period….this is like insanity=painful.