Encyclopedia of Earth

This entry was compiled, edited and written by: Cutler Cleveland

The Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE) is an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society. The Encyclopedia is described as a free, fully searchable collection of articles written by scholars, professionals, educators, and other approved experts, who collaborate and review each others' work. The articles are written in non-technical language and are intended to be useful to students, educators, scholars, and professionals, as well as to the general public. The authors, editors, and even copy editors are attributed on the articles with links to biographical pages on those individuals. [

The technology platform for the Encyclopedia of Earth is a modified version of MediaWiki, the platform used by Wikipedia, which is closed to all but approved users. Once an article is reviewed and approved it is published to a public site. The EoE was launched in September 2006 with about 360 articles, and as of July 2009 contains about 5,000 articles.

The Encyclopedia of Earth is governed by the Environmental Information Coalition (EIC), an open membership group of scientists, educators, and organizations. The EIC defines the roles and responsibilities for individuals and institutions involved in the Coalition, as well as the editorial guidelines for the Encyclopedia. An EIC Stewardship Committee functions as the primary working group that develops and enforces policies and guidelines for the Encyclopedia, with input from Topic Editors and Authors.

The Secretariat for the EIC is the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), based in Washington D.C., USA. NCSE is a 501(c)(3)non-profit organization with a mission "to improve the scientific basis for environmental decision making" and "specializes in programs that foster collaboration between diverse institutions, communities and individuals. We work closely with those creating and using environmental knowledge, including research, education, environmental, and business organizations, as well as governmental bodies at all levels."

The Department of Geography and Environment and the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Boston University also provides editorial support.

The Stewardship Committee in July 2009 was:

  • Juan Pablo Arce (NatureServe)
  • Cutler J. Cleveland (Boston University)
  • Sidney Draggan
  • J. Emmett Duffy (College of William and Mary)
  • Andrew Jorgenson, (University of Toledo)
  • Ida Kubiszewski (University of Vermont)
  • Mark McGinley (Texas Tech University)
  • Emily Monosson (Mt. Holyoke College)
  • Stephen Nodvin (Mount Ida College)
  • Peter Saundry (National Council for Science and the Environment)


The Editorial Staff as of July 2009 consisted of Cutler J. Cleveland (Editor-in-Chief), and Maggie Surface (Managing Editor).

The International Advisory Board for the Encyclopedia is listed as Rita Colwell, Robert W. Corell, Robert Costanza, Francisco Dallmeier, Mohamed H. A. Hassan, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Andrew J. Hoffman, Stephen P. Hubbell, Simon A. Levin, Bonnie J. McCay, David W. Orr, Frank Sherwood Rowland, and B. L. Turner.

Sources:

This entry was compiled, edited and written by: 
Cutler Cleveland

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This article uses material from the Encyclopedia of Earth. The Author(s) and Editor(s) listed with this article may have significantly modified the content derived from the Encyclopedia of Earth with original content or with content drawn from other sources. The current version of the cited Encyclopedia of Earth article may differ from the version that existed on the date of access. Text in this article available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic License:  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/