User:Nwbeeson/WesternHemisphere

Geopolitical
Not to be confused with Western world

The Western Hemisphere is a geopolitical term term for "the hemisphere of the world containing the Americas." The Western Hemisphere consists of the Americas, adjacent islands, and surrounding waters. Longitude 160° E to longitude 20° W are considered the boundaries of the geopolitical Western Hemisphere.

Geographical
In the fields of navigation, geography, and cartography the western hemisphere is a geographical term for the half of the world that lies west of the prime meridian (0° longitude) and east of 180° longitude. The geographical western hemisphere is the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian, which goes through Greenwich, London, United Kingdom, and east of the Antimeridian, the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.

Before the International Meridian Conference settled on the Greenwich Meridian as the international prime meridian, cartographers and navigators used dozens of different longitudes for their prime meridians. Only after the October 1884 agreement did the geographical definition given here become universal.

In this sense, the Western Hemisphere consists of the Americas, the western portions of Europe and Africa, the extreme eastern tip of Russia, numerous territories in Oceania, and a portion of Antarctica, while excluding some of the Aleutian Islands to the southwest of the Alaskan mainland.

New Sectioning
The primary meaning of "Western Hemisphere" is the geopolitical one I have added and placed first. This is shown by both the Merriam Webster's Geographical Dictionary and the Encyclopedia Britannica, truly "reliable references", giving only the geopolitical definition. This is also the definition of the way it is used by the United States government, as referenced.

My Original Research: In addition I consulted six dictionaries at the local library, and all of the gave the same, one-and-only definition, which is the geopolitical one. They are all referenced above. I also used Google to search the London Times, the Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Sydney Morning Herald and could find no use of "Western Hemisphere" except as a synonym for Americas.

I came here because someone had used this page to learn about the Western Hemisphere and came away with the one-and-only definition on it, which is of course not the only one. They then edited a Wikipedia article to deride the primary meaning of the phrase.

I also removed instances of what I believe to be original research from the article: I could find no references for them. I could have missed it, but until I see a reliable reference, I will continue to think this is original research.
 * the population claim;
 * the list of countries; and
 * tallest mountain.

Finally, I am aware that this is a part of the Geography Portal and the Hemispheres of the Earth. I made these changes only after hours research in two libraries, consultation with the map librarian at the University of Michigan, consultation with reference librarians at two libraries. I do not make them lightly, but with serious consideration of the world wide reach of Wikipedia. I think it important to have more than a tag at the top, and so I posted the paragraph.