Answers to frequently asked questions about this website:
There are already numerous websites about the environment. Why do we need yet another one?
Yes, there are certainly a lot, and many of them are very good. And there is also increasing coverage of environmental issues on other websites. However, geprep.org is very different from all of those sites. It is unique not only in its appearance but also in that it will serve as a comprehensive education resource for both the general public and for promoting the difficult but necessary actions by individuals, governments and other organizations to solve our increasingly severe environmental problems.
Also, unlike other sites, which are mostly available in only one or just a few languages, geprep.org will become truly global, with identical content becoming available in about a hundred languages.
Isn't there already way too much web content about the environment for any individual person to be able to read and remember?
Yes, it can be overwhelming. That is why we are creating a website that brings all of the most important things together into a single, compact, cohesive, and easy-to-navigate structure that omits most of the duplicative and the overly technical material.
Why aren't there any pictures or colors?
We purposely gave our website an ultra-minimalist design in order to set it apart from other environment websites and let visitors know immediately that this is a very different type of website. Also, eliminating photos helps speed up loading time, especially in the many locations, particularly in the developing countries, where there is poor internet service and weak wifi. In addition, it would require a great deal of time and expense to take original photographs of many of the topics we discuss, and there are already numerous colorful websites with beautiful environment-related photos. Our focus is instead on providing very clear, concise and easy-to-understand text.
Why is this website only in English? There are many parts of the world where most people cannot read English.
It is being written in English initially because English is the native language of most of the site's developers. Additional language versions with identical content will be launched in the near future.
How many languages will you have?
The goal is to eventually have about one hundred, which will allow the contents to be available in the native languages of the vast majority of the world's population. However, achieving this is dependent on sufficient funding and the availability of sufficiently high quality translation services.
How will you select the languages?
We plan to initially provide translations in the languages with the largest numbers of native speakers, the top ten of which are Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, English, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese and Western Punjabi. But we also want to include minority languages to the extent possible.
Isn't this website just like Wikipedia?
Superficially there is some similarity. However, there are also major differences. Wikipedia is a truly vast electronic encyclopedia that attempts to cover every imaginable topic. The English language version alone contains more than 59 million pages, of which more than 6.7 million are articles. Wikipedia is clearly one of the best resources on the web, including for environmental topics.
Geprep.org is far smaller, with a goal of only about a thousand English language articles, and it is tightly focussed just on protecting and restoring our natural environment. One big advantage of this much smaller size is that it provides a less overwhelming experience for its users. Another is that it makes it possible to have a much greater consistency of both the writing style and the content, thus making it easier for readers to understand.
Also, Wikipedia articles are frequently lengthy (with an average of about 650 words per article) and delve deep into technical details, much beyond what the great majority of non-professionals need or can comprehend, or have time or patience for. However, geprep.org focusses on providing education in a highly compact (averaging about 220 words per article), tightly organized form in order to encourage mainly non-specialist and busy individuals and organizations to read them and to take the often difficult but urgently needed actions to protect and start restoring our natural environment.
Who started this project?
It was started by a few people who are terrified of what will happen to our environment and to the lives of our children and grandchildren if present trends continue. They realized that a key to taking the difficult but necessary steps is the provision of high quality and easily accessible environmental education on a global scale.
Unfortunately, much of the world's population still has little understanding of environmental issues and the need for urgent action. An understanding by ordinary people can both help guide them to make environmentally responsible decisions and be useful in stimulating governments, businesses and other organizations to place greater emphasis on environmental protection.
What is the background of the founders?
It is diverse. Among the areas of experience and expertise, in addition to environmental issues, are economics, transportation, materials science, law, politics, and journalism.
How is this project being funded?
It is being funded by grants and donations.
Would it be possible for the website to include more information about what people could do on an individual or family level to help solve environmental problems?
We intend to add much about this in the future.
This website seems to be missing a lot of important topics. When will it be complete?
We will be adding additional topics as quickly as possible, although it will take several more years until the site is reasonably complete.
Could you have more FAQs?
We definitely intend to. Providing frequently asked questions and their answers can be a very effective learning aid.
Why don't you have more footnotes and references?
Providing footnotes for every fact and references for every topic and subtopic would add much length and complication to our pages and also delay completion of this project. Also, footnotes and references are much less necessary now than in the past because it has become very easy for readers to search for additional information about specific topics by using search engines such as Google.
What is the ultimate size of this project?
Our goal is to have approximately one thousand English language articles, which would likely be sufficient to cover the vast majority of environmental topics. At present, the site contains about two hundred articles. Also, each of these articles will be available in multiple languages, with a target of about one hundred languages. With sufficient funding, it should be possible to reach these goals in about six to eight years.
Will the website ever be complete?
It will be nearly complete when we reach our goals of a thousand articles and a hundred languages. However, occasional revisions will be necessary for some of the articles because of the continuing changes in the environmental situation.
Isn't the content of some of these articles sort of a matter of opinion?
We are trying to provide only scientific facts and rational suggestions. Of course, some people will insist that it is even a matter of opinion whether there really is an environmental crisis.
Will you be engaged in lobbying or other political activities?
No. We are not a political organization. Rather, we are an educational organization. Our task is to provide facts and ideas in a convenient form and hope that they will affect attitudes and behavior by individuals and organizations who, in turn, can engage in lobbying and other political activities.
I am a teacher. Can I use some of this material in my classroom?
Yes. We encourage classroom use.
What are the appropriate grade levels for this material for use in schools?
The articles are being carefully written so that they will be easily understandable by ordinary adults who have the ability to read a newspaper. They should thus be easily understandable even by high school students.