Bambang S. Tedjasukmana, Deputy Head of Scientific Study and Aerospace Information, National Aviation and Outerspace Agency (Lapan), mentioned that in year 2012 there will be no doomsday such as predicted by the Maya civilisation. He explained that in 2012 what will occur is the increase of sunspots. That year will be the peak of sunspots in its eleven year cycle. “It’s true that in 2012 the sun will increase activities, but not too high, so we shouldn’t be worried,†said Bambang, Wednesday (10/2/2010) in a general lecture in Faculty of Geography, UGM.
Further he said that the increased sunspots would not directly affect the Earth but that activity can destroy high-tech equipment. Aeroplane communication systems, global positioning system (GPS) signals, and telecommunication network can be affected. “We should still be on alert of all natural phenomenons because our country is very vulnerable to disasters,†he said.
Meanwhile, Sri Budiastuti, a staff of Economic and Poverty Reduction department in the Ministry of Environment, explained applications of geography in managing the environment. Geography can help make decisions in many fields such as spatial planning, disaster area identification, disaster mitigation, and natural resource inventarisation.