Dr. Foresman presents ISDE5 vision in China

On the occaision of the official launch of International Society for Digital Earth and World Digital Earth Forum ‘06 May 21-22, 2006 Beijing, China.



Thank you honored and distinguished Chinese hosts, members of the new International Society for Digital Earth and fellow citizens of planet Earth.

We live in interesting times, as Dr. Lu Yongxiang has well articulated in his address.
I had the great privilege of being witness to the birth of Digital Earth and now I am proud to be here to witness the first steps taking by this new Society. Indeed, it is a great honor to be a member of the Executive Committee.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan just recently, last Friday, recognized China’s role in promoting world peace and development. And he expects China to play an even greater role in international affairs.

Just as China has recognized a great vision, early articulated in a famous speech by former US Vice-President Al Gore, importantly, China has raised the leadership banner.

The challenges, as echoed by Dr. Lu, from climate change, rapid population expansion, rapid loss of biodiversity, increased pollution, and in attempts to establish a framework for sustainable development will require the best of applications from advanced technology and facilities to communicate with and network all people in all nations.

The Digital Earth Vision and the principles of the Beijing Declaration, establish admirable and lofty goals for addressing the challenges of the future. The formation and founding of the International Society for Digital Earth represents the first great step for a journal of a thousand miles.

I pledge to embrace these goals and principles, as the director-general of the 5th Symposium for Digital Earth to be convened in San Francisco on World Environment Day in 2007. I welcome each and every one of you to come and join with me, or watch via a web-cast here in China, in San Francisco next year.