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New Guinea

The world's second-largest island, rich in biodiversity and cultural history.

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New Guinea

via Wikipedia: German New Guinea · see source

New Guinea is the world's second-largest island, covering 785,753 km².[1] The island is divided politically, with the eastern half forming the nation of Papua New Guinea and the western half belonging to Indonesia.[2] Globally, New Guinea's remaining rainforest is the third largest, and its island plant biodiversity is the highest.[1]

Geography and history

New Guinea lies in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, separated from Australia by the 150 km wide Torres Strait.[3] The island and Australia share the same continental shelf and were united as the landmass Sahul during Pleistocene glaciations.[3][4] The island's rivers carry about 1,500 km³ of water per year into the sea.[5] Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez gave the island its name in 1545, noting a resemblance between indigenous peoples and those of the African Guinea region.[3][6]

The New Guinea Highlands, a mountain range running east to west, extends for more than 1600 km across the island.[7] Oceania's highest peaks are located in the western half of the island, where Puncak Jaya rises to 4,884 m.[7] New Guinea's biggest river system is formed by the combined Fly and Strickland rivers.[5] Continuous human habitation on the island may date back to 50,000 BCE, according to archaeological evidence.[8]

What the cited sources add

The same source reports that mining companies, loggers, colonists, and armed forces have killed around 100,000 Papuans during Indonesia's occupation.[9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "New Guinea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Stockdale, "Mobilising Papua New Guinea's Conservation Humanities: Research, Teaching, Capacity Building, Future Directions", Conservation and Society, April 2024, p. 86–96 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "New Guinea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "West Papua – promoting human rights, peace and democracy in Indonesia", Tapol (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "New Guinea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bilveer Singh, "Papua: geopolitics and the quest for nationhood", Transaction Publishers, 2008, p. 26 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "New Guinea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Big Bank Shoals of the Timor Sea: An environmental resource atlas", Australian Institute of Marine Science, 2001; Ballard, "Stimulating minds to fantasy? A critical etymology for Sahul", Australian National University, 1993, p. 19–20; Allen, "Sunda and Sahul: Prehistorical studies in Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia", Academic Press, 1977; Allen, "Pleistocene dates for the human occupation of New Ireland, northern Melanesia", Nature, 1988, p. 707–709 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "New Guinea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dénes, "Ausztrália, Óceánia, Antarktisz", Gondolat, 1978, p. 286–287 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "New Guinea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bilveer Singh, "Papua: geopolitics and the quest for nationhood", Transaction Publishers, 2008, p. 26; Sollewijn Gelpke, "On the origin of the name Papua", Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia, 1993, p. 318–332; Bilveer Singh, "Papua: geopolitics and the quest for nationhood", Transaction Publishers, 2008, p. 26 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "New Guinea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Prentice, M.L. and G.S. Hope (2006). "Climate of Papua". Ch. 2.3 in Marshall, A.J., and Beehler, B.M. (eds.). The Ecology of Papua. Singapore: Periplus Editions; "Kincaid and Kline, "Retreat of the Irian Jaya Glaciers from 2000 to 2002 as Measured from IKONOS Satellite Images", paper presented at 61st Eastern Snow Conference, Portland, Maine, 2004"; Recent Global Glacier Retreat Overview (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "New Guinea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Summerhayes, "Human Adaptation and Plant Use in Highland New Guinea 49,000 to 44,000 Years Ago", Science, 2010, p. 78–81; Anthropology Professor Glenn Summerhayes, University of Otago, New Zealand. September 2010 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. First contact with isolated tribes?. facts only, no text reused. survivalinternational.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article New Guinea (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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