About IYPE
The overall theme for the Year is Earth Sciences for Society,
with a purpose to:
- Reduce risks to society caused by natural and human-induced hazards
- Reduce health problems by improving the understanding of the medical aspects of Earth science
- Discover new natural resources and make available in a sustainable manner
- Build safer structures and expand urban areas utilizing natural subsurface conditions
- Determine the non-human factors in climatic change
- Enhance the understanding of occurrences of natural resources in order to contribute to efforts to reduce political tension
- Detect deep and poorly accessible ground-water resources
- Improve the understanding of the evolution of life
- Increase interest in the Earth sciences in society at large
- Encourage more young people to study the Earth sciences at universities
Education & Research Themes
- Groundwater—Toward sustainable use
- Hazards—Minimizing risk, maximizing awareness
- Earth & Health—Building a safer environment
- Climate—The “stone tape”
- Resources—Toward sustainable use
- Megacities—Going deeper, building safer
- Deep Earth—From crust to core
- Ocean—Abyss of time
- Soils—Earth’s living skin
- Earth & Life—Origins of diversity
FAQs
What is the International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE)?
The International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE) is a global initiative of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to bring all nations together to focus on the geosciences.
Global efforts include:
- Science program—focused on complex interactions within the earth system and its long-term sustainability;
- Outreach program—includes earth science educational ventures at all levels.
What is the goal of the International Year?
The goal of the Year is to recognize and draw attention to the benefits of the earth sciences for society. The United Nations proclaimed the year 2008 as the official International Year of Planet Earth with science and outreach activities spanning through 2009. The IYPE initiative is the largest international effort of its kind to promote the Earth sciences.