The New 7 Wonders of Nature

     When I woke up two hours ago and was scouting the web for interesting read, I stumbled upon this wonderful news and just thought that I'd like to share it with you guys.  Yep, a little out of line from my blog's theme but I remember asking for your support when I featured Jeb's visit to Palawan last August and he saw for himself how amazing Puerto Princesa's Underground River is.

     Today, November 11, 2011 GMT, Bernard Weber, founder and president of the New7Wonders announced the Provisional New 7 Wonders of Nature.

     Here's Mr. Weber's full speech which I transcribed from YouTube:

     "Ladies and gentlemen, adults and children, citizens of the world, welcome to the announcement of the first count and provisional results of the global vote to elect the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

      Firstly, I would like to thank the many champions, citizens, voluntary organizations, public bodies, and governments that have rallied and promoted the participants in this New 7 Wonders of Nature campaign over the past four years starting with over 440 locations from over 220 countries all the way into the 28 finalist candidates from whom the New 7 Wonders are chosen.

      We have seen huge interaction and participation on every continent of our globe with different levels of motivation and styles of campaigning across countries and supporters.  Like in any other voting campaign, the winning candidates reflect the ones that knew best how to stimulate the most votes.  And in terms of votes, we have significantly beaten the record set by our first campaign to elect the manmade new 7 wonders of the world that were declared in 2007 by a big multiple and many hundreds of millions of votes.

      The results that I’m about to announce are provisional and based on the first count of votes completed today since voting closed at 11:11 GMT.  Starting from today this voting calculation will be checked, validated, and independently verified over the coming weeks.  It may be the case that one or more of the provisional winners announced today is not confirmed during this process and we will issue an update should this happen.  Once the voting validation process is completed, in early 2012 we will then work with the confirmed winners to organize the official inauguration events during which each winner will receive the official plaque and become officially confirmed as one of the new 7 wonders of nature.

     The moment has come, and I now proceed to announce the Provisional New 7 Wonders of Nature in alphabetic order:

1. Amazon, South America
2. Halong Bay in Vietnam
3. Iguazo Falls in Argentina, Brazil
4. Jeju Island in South Korea
5. Komodo in Indonesia
6. Puerto Princesa Underground River in the Philippines
7. Table Mountain in South Africa

Picture taken from N7WN's Facebook page.

      We congratulate each of these participants on achieving their provisional new 7 wonders of nature status and look forward to completing the confirmation process to celebrate each one in their own official inauguration ceremonies early in 2012.

     When the new seven wonders of nature are confirmed, they will join the manmade new 7 wonders of the world in becoming part of global memory for humankind forever.  Finally I invite you all to join us in our third campaign, the global election of the new 7 wonder cities.  Nominations are now open and we invite both the supporters and the world's most interesting and exciting cities as well as the official authorities and organizations to cast your nominations to choose the seven cities that will become part of history forever.

   I thank you all again for having been great champions and active voters.  It is thanks to you and to your participation that all of this is possible.  Good evening or good morning from wherever you’re watching.  All my best wishes."

     Congratulations to all the Provisional New 7 Wonders of Nature and the countries where they're from.  Hopefully my country's very own Puerto Princesa Underground River will be among those that will be confirmed when they declare the Official New 7 Wonders of Nature on 2012. 

     Thanks for reading and see you on my next post!

Note (April 22, 2012) :  This list also makes up the official New 7 Wonders of Nature.  Read my update HERE.

 *Video courtesy of YouTube.
tags: announcement of the provisional new seven wonders of nature