Message from UNESCO
MR KOÏCHIRO MATSUURA DIRECTOR-GENERAL
One of the major goals of the International stimulating exploration. It is thus urgent to
Year of Planet Earth is to demonstrate the promote Earth sciences, and quickly.
enormous benefi ts the Earth sciences have In Germany, university
brought and can bring to society. enrolment in Earth sciences
This is not the truism some might assume. had been declining when it
When people consider the tsunami that initiated its own National Year
killed a quarter of a million people around of Earth Sciences in 2002. This
the Indian Ocean four years ago, how many was a great success; university
associate that staggering death toll with a enrolment rose across the
lack of seismological monitoring stations to country, even quadrupling at the
alert countries to the underwater earthquake University of Tubingen. Since
that was its cause? When people think of the then, long-term funding for Earth
devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in the sciences has grown, universities
USA over three years ago, how many associate have been reorganised and
the massive fl ooding with the poor maintenance interdisciplinary ‘geocentres’
of levees, which might not have been breached launched at several universities.
by the storm surge had an effective water Over the next year and a half the
drainage system been in place? International Year of Planet Earth will continue
Thus the International Year of striving to replicate this success story on a
Planet Earth will aim to ensure global scale. The Year aims to encourage
greater and more effective use political leaders around the world to act in a
by society of the knowledge concerted way to correct what will otherwise
and skills accumulated by the become a dangerous imbalance.
world’s 400,000 Earth scientists By means of an outreach programme
scattered around the globe. designed for the general public that includes
Unfortunately, their numbers are contests, events and publications like this
dwindling worldwide, which is a and previous volumes, the Year will display
very worrisome trend. Indeed, the exciting side of Earth sciences and
rich and poor countries alike the remarkable contribution they make to
are witnessing a decline in the sustainable socio-economic development.
number of young people studying One of UNESCO’s windows to the public
the Earth sciences, a situation is its Global Network of National Geoparks.
that will inevitably lead to the Consisting of 56 geoparks in 18 countries,
closing of geology departments the network aims to develop geotourism
in many universities. and high-quality local geoproducts for the
This is short-sighted to say the least. The benefi t of local economies. Each geopark has
quest for energy and raw materials will be of a strong educational component that helps
no lesser importance to society in the 21st visitors understand the evolution of the local
century than it was in the 20th. This quest landscape. The fi rst ever International Summer
may assume even greater importance as the School on Geoparks, concerned with Geopark
human population reaches nine billion and Management and Geotourism, was organised
sparse resources drive up market prices, further on the island of Lesvos in Greece in September
4 PLANET EARTH www.yearofplanetearth.org
PE2.welcome.kj.mw.indd 4 12/2/09 5:04:51 pm
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