HIS EXCELLENCY
BAN KI-MOON Secretary General
United Nations

Dear Mr. Secretary General:

Greetings! Every 5th of June since 1972 is commemorated by the United Nations as the World Environment Day. In 2010-2011, scientists report that there will be a solar maximum that has not occurred since fifty years ago as reported in this article from Science@NASA:

a (solar) storm is coming–the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). “The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one,” she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958. Read more about it here

This and other factors will result in major disasters during the period in question. Our group of professionals advocating environment protection and disaster damage diminution respectfully request the United Nations to support our effort to organize a Geo Hazard Mapping and Environment Summit in 2010 and we are determined that this gathering be convened in Manila, Philippines. In this connection, may we respectfully request the following:

1. United Nations and its concerned departments participate in the Summit and help in organizing said event
2. The Year 2010 be declared as the International Geo Hazard Mapping Year
3. The month of April 2010 be declared as the International Disaster Risk Reduction Month; and finally,
4. The date of April 17, 2010 be declared as the first World Hazards Awareness Day.

That these declarations be formally announced in Manila prior to the Summit.

Thank you ever so much! Mabuhay!!!

Respectfully yours,

Organizers HMES 2010

MANILA, JANUARY 8, 2007 (STAR) By Helen Flores – A retiring government scientist dreams of creating the Philippines’ first aeronautics and space agency that would bring much progress to Filipinos through science and technology.

Space science chief Bernardo Soriano of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said the proposed Philippine Aeronautics and Space Administration (PASA) would be similar to the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the acknowledged world leader in aeronautics and space exploration. More on this article here…

Of course the project would not prosper.  It will entail a lot of costs.  Someone on ABS CBN’s USAPANG KAPAMILYA FORUM even had the nerve to write this comment about the proposed PASA:

Am I missing something ?  This guy Soriano wants the Phil govt to spend countless BILLIONS of dollars for space exploration.  How can the country build a spaceship when it can hardly afford to maintain World War 2 vintage, propeller-driven planes for the Phil Air Force to DEFEND the nation? The country cant even produce a decent CAR, much LESS a plane….and NOW he wants to build a spaceship???

WTF is going on in these people’s coconuts?  And this reta rd  is THE space science CHIEF !!!!!   I can tell you WHAT SPACE he should start exploring – that VAST BASTION OF NOTHINGNESS BETWEEN HIS EARS !!!!

This govt is full of comedians!!!

 This is not the first time that a proposal like that was submitted to the Philippine Government.  Around 1988-1989, Gen. Batenga now retired, received from the same individuals that started Resource Recovery Movement, a proposal addressed to Her Excellency Corazon Cojuangco Aquino for the creation of a Philippine Satellite Communications, Research Research and Development Office or PHILSACOM.

No reaction was received from then Pres. Aquino.  Using space for environmental purposes has many advantages.  Using satellite extensively, has myriads of applications, solutions to many of our questions.

RP has a privately owned Satellite already.  Therefore, a Space Agency is already a doable affair.  It does not have to be as expensive anymore and the Madame Cory Aquino might even smile at us from where she is. A Thai wrote a Dissertation on an ASEAN Space Agency (ASA) similar in some way to the European Space Agency (ESA) or inspired therefrom, as well as NASA.

The concept for a Philippine space agency has come of age. It is high time, as retired PAG ASA pencil pusher Engr. Bernardo Soriano said to Miss Flores of the Philippine Star.  Onlt the use of space could increase our accuracy in predicting ecological disturbances, nature’s infirmities, climatic behavior, weather, storms, typhoons and hurricanes, among many, many others.

The Agila Satellite can be more maximized if only we had a really functional and driven, space agency. Those that immediately resist the idea of a space agency can think twice first…

The 2010 Hazard Mapping and Environmental Summit (HMES) is intended to develop better approaches to mapping risks and dangers to communities in the Philippines and other countries with tropical climates.

October 1, 2009

It takes a cue from the recent experience in China, Indonesia and the Philippines, notwithstanding the previous experiences in Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan where scores of people died due to unforeseen occurrences during the incidence of a natural disaster: earthquake, typhoon, tsunami and other calamities.

The databasing, mapping and full coordination of efforts towards use and sharing of a full function GIS on hazards, volcanoes, water, flood, forests in the Philippines and Asia, vulnerability areas, liquefaction potential, crisis and hot spots is long due because of the long-running phenomenon of Climate Change in the planet. This is also significant in that the Philippines, among other countries, lies in the Pacific Rim of Fire where a large number of earthquake faults lie.

The most important value of the conference is to determine the plan and the cost of implementing such a plan to make the Philippines and other participating nations safer from increasingly hazardous calamities.

Visit this site for updates about the Summit Conference.

Note: The organizers reserve the right to make minor changes in the Conference details prior to the actual Event.

HMES 2010 Organizers

Thank you for your post Archangel. Pity those people who drowned in the flood. Of course Sec. Teodoro is saying that no one drowned at sea this time.  But it will be the height of shamelessness if the Coast Guard allowed or dispatched ships in those conditions in September 26. This should actually have been done a long time ago.  It is ideal to localize.  If they think in terms of a network platform of staging operations, they can actually do it. This concept is readily and easily available even on the internet. Still and all, there is a problem in communications, in money matters — er, economics, a lot of politics (Liberal Party posturing with the leftists that government is to blame for the mess), a lot more corruption, the lack of equipment for forecasting and rescue be it for typhoons, floods, avalanche, log stampede, etc. at Pag-asa, Office of Civil Defense, Philippine Navy, Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine Air Force, the Maritime Group of the PNP, local government units, among others.  Yes, I vote for going local, after all nothing is truer than the doctrine of ideal time and motion: more results with less motion and less time.  Let’s only hope that our leaders try for once to think straight and forget about agendas.  Lives are at stake.  Who knows if they or their loved ones are next?

Source: http://girbaudz.wordpress.com

Exhibition Date/Venue:

exhibition opening and book launching
friday 5 September 2008, 4pm

exhibition and auction closing
saturday 20 September 2008, 4pm

viewing and auction hours

Monday to Saturday 9am to 4 pm

Sundays 1 to 5pm

Sala’am Conference Room, Romulo Hall of the Asian Center
R. Magsaysay corner Guerrero Road, UP Diliman, Quezon City