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1957 saw an explosion of activity in the Arctic under the banner of the International Geophysical Year. Scientists poured into the frozen and unforgiving landscape to study ice, weather, magnetism and glaciers among a wide variety of disciplines with the aim of increasing our knowledge of the region and its implications on the so-called civilised world. At the time, when scientists were making their tortuous journeys north and fighting to erect their heavy canvas tents, I was barely a year old. In the same year the launch of Sputnik heralded the beginning of an entire new era of technology. It was a time of optimism and the future looked bright, we could be forgiven for not understanding the sinister fate that awaited the Arctic – a fate that would be studied by a whole ...
The Yacht Tara has just set sail for a two year arctic expedition during IPY. Tara is now home to only a handful of people taking the expedition into the ice where they will become frozen in over winter. They are then intending on drifting across the arctic during which time they will carry out a huge range of science including meteorology, nivology (snow density, thickness and water content), glaciology, oceanography, atmospheric and oceanic chemistry, marine biology, zoology and physiological studies of the crew. The UN Environment Programme is provid...
Argentina. Ah! Argentina. yes, I'm beginning to understand. It is quite something to meet people so proud of their country, yet sometimes so humble in their opinion of the world elsewhere. This is a great place. And every day that I have been here has held a special treat. Dave and I have been invited here to attend the ECO-POLAR 2006 conference about IPY in Ushuaia. Although I had only one night in Buenos Aires en route, I somehow found myself in a large, packed, concert hall, surrounded by crying, exclaiming, mesmerised fans of Mercedes Sosa. Elderly, and not too stable on her feet, but when she sang, solo, the voice of ten choirs erupted and the soul of the nation filled the air. Her last piece was the nationa...
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I have a new job. As an acronym, it is IPYIPOEOCC. International Polar Year, International Programme Office, Education Outreach and Communication Coordinator. I could, just as feasibly, be IPYIPOECOC, which I think I prefer as it expands to IPY International POECOC, which to me sounds a lot like IPY International Peacock. Which actually isn't such a bad description. Once we get the new IPY website up and running, I might make that my blogging nickname. In a nutshell, IPY is a huge, international, collaborative, collection of simultaneous, interdisciplinary, mainly scientific, research that focusses on polar regions. Oceanography, Space Science, Anthropology, Glaciology, Atmospheric Science, Earth Science, Sociology, Policy Studies, Geology, Linguistics,.. the list goes on. ...
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