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magazine / jf10
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January/February 2010 issue |
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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
Polar prospects
It’s been almost three years since the latest
International Polar Year (IPY) began. Covering two years
worth of field research, from March 2007 to March 2009,
the largest program of Arctic and Antarctic science ever undertaken
has been a period of intense international cooperation
generating volumes of technical data, reams of handwritten
observations and Facebooks full of fieldwork friendships.
IPY’s organizers, the World Meteorological Organization and
the International Council for Science, have overseen more than
200 projects in the planet’s polar regions, with thousands of
scientists from more than 60 nations examining a wide range
of physical, biological and social-science subjects. Canada, a
nation with vast territory north of the Arctic Circle, has fittingly
played a lead role: the federal government dedicated more than
$150 million to the task, more than most other nations.
The flurry of funding and fieldwork may be winding down
and some are concerned that momentum could be lost, but
Canada’s IPY investment should continue to pay dividends.
A new generation of polar scientists will blossom, and the
results of all the study will inform cutting-edge research into
the northern atmosphere, oceans, lands, ice, flora, fauna and
people for decades to come.
Although he didn’t live to see it, the first IPY was the brainchild
of Karl Weyprecht, an Austrian explorer, naval officer and
the co-leader of a North Pole expedition. In 1875, he suggested
that a network of Arctic observation stations should be established
to measure weather and ice conditions with identical devices at
regular intervals. Consisting of 15 polar expeditions by 12 countries,
this happened in 1882-83, and it transformed the modus
operandi of Arctic and Antarctic exploration from a race to reach
the poles to a model of international scientific collaboration.
A second IPY took place in 1932-33, with the main goal
of investigating the newly discovered jet stream, and it led to
advances in magnetism and meteorology. The effort in 1957-58 was, in essence, an IPY, but in keeping with its focus on geophysics,
it was titled International Geophysical Year. Its highlight
was the Oct. 4, 1957, launch of the Soviet radio-signal-emitting
satellite Sputnik 1, the event that started the Space Race.
Climate change, permafrost melt, glacial retreat and a yearround
navigable Northwest Passage were virtually unconsidered
concepts back then. But what a difference a half-century makes.
With this IPY, the science is all about measuring change and
anticipating adaptations at a latitude — call it polar, arctic or
northern — where the land, ice, water and air are incredibly
sensitive to the impact of increasing temperatures and human
encroachment. The stories in this issue are a mere sampling of the
52 Canadian IPY projects at more than 100 study sites across
the North and aboard five Coast Guard icebreakers. They give
a flavour of, for example, what life is like for research scientists
at a base camp near the glaciers of Kluane National Park in the
Yukon. Or what’s on the mind of an up-and-coming Labradorian
geographer who wants to apply what he’s learning on a student
exchange program in Norway to the icefields of his home. Or the
healing effect of the largest ever Inuit health study in Canada.
Produced in partnership with the IPY Federal Program Office,
this issue also includes several online offerings: an interactive
map that explains each of those projects; a batch of extra reports, photo essays and videos; and a new IPY-themed module for the
Canadian Atlas Online. And we’ve published a similarly focused
edition of our French sibling, Géographica, which will be distributed
to some 75,000 readers in Quebec. It’s a polarpalooza!
— Eric Harris
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