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Last September 12, 2008, the Human Development International headed by John Largo (Founder) and accompanied by Kjell Iversen (Chairperson of Philippine Norway Foundation based in Skjeberg) and Laida Quidato (HDI Youth Ambassadress) re-echoed the Call to Save the Mountains of the World at Mt. Galdhopiggen (2469 meters asl) - the highest summit in Scandinavia and the European Artic (North Pole Region), a mountain rock in Jotunheimen, Norway.
The Call was first made at the Philippines` highest summit at Mount Apo in 2002 during the International Year of the Mountains and since has been re-echoed in many places around the globe including at Mount Everest. Through the years it has gathered hundreds of supporters and slowly has become a global movement as it got the support and endorsement of the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2003, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Former President Fidel Ramos and other leaders and influential individuals as well as the multitude who have volunteered time, effort and resources for the cause.
For the said climb, HDI team selected Spiterstulen (1100 m asl) as the jump off based camp that goes north, crossing a river by a bridge and then climbing up the mountainside within the Juvasshytta route which has a gain of 600 meters and crosses the dangerous Styggedalsbreen (basic glacier), then follows the easy ridge (at first rocky, later snowy) to the summit. But the last part of the clacier before the summit has some ugly crevasses where some people died few years ago.
At the top, after the gruelling hours of threading across steep rocks and boulders, the team raised the "Call to Save the Mountains of the World Banner" and Largo on top of his voice said as quote, "From Galdhopiggen, the highest summit in the Scandinavia - Europian Arctic in Norway, we are calling upon all those who have the power, the opportunity and dedication to initiate, support and maintain local, national and global interaction where resources are collectively pooled, institutionally arranged and effectively utilized for a common direction to save the mountains of the world".
Largo said that the call at the top was of great significance for it further focuses attention of leaders and people worldwide on the alarming melting of the polar ice cap due to global warming. He further said, that aside from the fact that mountains provide us with the air we breathe, the water we drink and other life giving sustenance, it is also the habitat of forests which are the and natural sink of carbon dioxide that causes global warming. Thus he stressed that saving and restoring mountains help reduce carbon dioxide emission that significantly contributes in the all out effort to address climate change.
He further stressed that mountains are great water towers that provide water for trees and other vegetation to grow in the lowlands and in coastal areas, thereby increasing nature's ability to reduce carbon dioxide emission. The call at Mt. Galdhopiggen reinforces the inputs that the Human Development International contributed in the UN Resolution on Sustainable Mountain Development last year in partnership with the Philippine Mission to the United Nations - DFA and the Forest Management Bureau - DENR.
___________________________________________ HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL VANGUARD CORPS FOR PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT Website: www.humandevintl.org
Posts: 3 | From: Philippines | Registered: Sep 2008
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