News
IAP co-chairs wrote to the IAP membership (91 science academies) on 13 January 2005 asking them to participate actively in the post-tsunami relief efforts and stimulate academy scientific research to prevent such disasters happening in the future. A summary of their letter follows:
"... The tsunami, a deadly and dreadful event that effected hundreds of thousands - indeed millions - of people in South Asia, has aroused a sense of sorrow and solidarity worldwide. Assistance and donations from around the world will help care for the survivors and rebuild houses, schools, roads and harbours. These welcome efforts, however, will not prevent such huge tragedies in the future. The scientific community could and should make a unique contribution by providing expert knowledge and information to assist tsunami relief efforts and establish mechanisms for mitigating the impact of future tsunamis on both life and property. As a global network of world academies, IAP could play a key role in these efforts. As IAP co-chairs, we have written to the presidents of the IAP member academies asking them to encourage the scientific community to concentrate on doing everything possible to improve the forecasts of such natural disasters as earthquakes - a formidable challenge - and also to enhance the prompt dissemination of seismic information - a crucial endeavour that is much easier to attain. Because many science academies cannot launch their own research programmes on this subject due to a lack of resources and laboratories, the next IAP EC meeting in Stockholm, 26-27 February, will address such issues as effective monitoring networks, epidemic disease prevention, and GIS calamity assessment. We encourage IAP members, before the meeting takes place, to send us additional topics that they would like the EC to discuss ... "