International Year of Planet Earth

2008 International Year of Planet Earth, Global Launch Event

• © UNESCO
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The United Nations General Assembly in New York has proclaimed 2008 International Year of Planet Earth. The Year's activities will actually span 2007-2009 and support research projects within defined themes focusing on Earth Sciences in the service of society.

The International Year of Planet Earth was officially launched at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on 12–13 February 2008. Initiated jointly by UNESCO and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), the Year will demonstrate over the next 24 months just how important Earth sciences are for society.

The themes of the Year are:

• Hazards: reducing vulnerability to natural and human-induced hazards;
• Earth and Health: improving understanding of the medical aspects of Earth science;
• Resource Issues: discovering new natural resources and making them available in a sustainable manner;
• Soil: getting under Earth's living skin;
• Megacities: going deeper, building safer;
• Climate change: determining the longer term variations in climate change;
• Groundwater: detecting deep and poorly accessible groundwater;
• Earth and life: removing some of the question marks surrounding the evolution of life;
• Oceans: abyss of time;
• The Deep Earth: how it influences our environment.

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