International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

oth ICSU and WMO in 2003 referred to the need to
include ‘human dimensions’ in IPY 2007–2008 (Chapter
2.10) and many early IPY champions considered
expanding the new IPY program into the social/
human field (Chapter 1.2). To ensure its contribution,
in July 2003, two IASSA members, Gérard Duhaime,
past President (1998–2001), and Igor Krupnik, were
invited to join the ICSU Planning Group (PG) and the
U.S. National IPY Committee, respectively. 1 Later,
other social scientists were placed on national IPY
committees in 11 other countries. 2 Two national IPY
programs, in Canada and Greenland, advocated a
strong focus on societal issues and Arctic residents
since their inception in early 2004. Also, since 2003,
IASSA regularly published information on the IPY
planning in its semi-annual newsletter ‘Northern Notes’
(Krupnik, 2003).
Nonetheless, five main science themes proposed
for new IPY by the ICSU Planning Group (‘frontiers,’
‘change,’ ‘’snapshots,’ ‘teleconnections’
and ‘vantage points’ – Chapter 1.3) were
not very conducive to socio-cultural
and human research. The share of proposals
for social/human studies in IPY
2007–2008 submitted by early 2004 was
minuscule, the fact acknowledged by the
IPY planners (ICSU PG, 2004b) and at the
Arctic Council’s meetings in April and October
2003, and May 2004 (Chapter 1.3).
At the special session dedicated to
IPY at the 5th IASSA Congress in May
2004 (International Polar Year 2007–2008:
Opportunities for Northern Communities
and Social Sciences – see Krupnik, 2004;
www.icass.gl; www.iassa.gl/icass5/
program.htm) G. Duhaime advocated for
the increased role of IASSA and the more
active presence of Arctic residents in IPY.
Two resolutions related to IPY and drafted
by Duhaime and Krupnik were adopted
by IASSA’s General Assembly on 23 May,
2004 (IASSA, 2004; Fig. 1.4-7). Another
critical step was the establishment
of a special IASSA ‘IPY task-group’ of
scientists from 10 nations, (www.iassa.gl/
ipy/alaska/ipy_taskgroup.htm), including
IASSA current and all past Presidents. It
was charged to ‘facilitate cooperation between IASSA
and ICSU PG’ (Peter Schweitzer to C. Rapley, 15 June,
2004).
Following Duhaime’s suggestion, the IASSA-IPY
team offered its expertise to PG to expand the sections
of the ‘Framework’ document (Rapley et al.,
2004) focused on social issues and polar residents.
The proposal developed by the IASSA team 3 in summer
2004 eventually became the sixth science theme
and additional ‘observation initiative’ in the ICSU PG
‘Framework’ plan (Rapley et al., 2004; Chapter 1.3). Two
scientists nominated by IASSA, Grete Hovelsrud (Norway)
and Igor Krupnik (U.S.A.), were invited to serve on
the ICSU-WMO Joint Committee (JC) and to represent
the field of social/human studies (Chapter 1.5).
In late 2004, IASSA launched its ‘IPY Facilitation Initiative’
to encourage researchers in social sciences and
the humanities to become involved with the IPY science
program. IASSA offered a pool of social science
Fig. 1.4-7. Two
resolutions in support
of IPY adopted by
the IASSA General
Assembly, 23 May
2004.
P l a n n I n g a n d I m P l e m e n t I n g I P Y 2 0 0 7–2 0 0 8 79