International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

Box 4 Third Open Consultative
Forum: Hobart, July 2006
This OCF was held in Hobart, Australia on 8 July 2006
in conjunction with the XXIX biennial SCAR meeting
and the second SCAR Open Science Conference. This
collection of Antarctic meetings (8-19 July) had about
900 participants from 32 countries and provided an
excellent opportunity to disseminate IPY information.
It also allowed participants in many SCAR-led IPY
projects to discuss and coordinate their activities.
The OCF was attended by over 70 people including
nine representatives from the JC and the IPO. It
included an update on IPY implementation (Rapley
and Allison), a report of IPO activities (Carlson)
and a presentation about Antarctic research within
IPY and the role of SCAR (Summerhayes). There
was broad discussion from the floor on issues of data
management, IPY observations, young researchers
and EO&C. The state of national funding for IPY
projects was a concern for many.
IPY was well promoted at the opening of the SCAR
Open Science Conference. Dave Carlson gave a
Plenary Keynote on IPY and the other eight keynote
presentations also referred to the IPY. An Information
Paper (IP 17) reporting IPY developments and SCAR
participation on IPY projects was tabled at the XXIX
SCAR Delegates Meeting on 18 July.
the JC evaluation; that practice was repeated at several
further JC meetings. 17 The JC also held a short joint
session with the hosting Norwegian IPY committee.
The JC approved a ‘mid-program’ IPY science
meeting in Russia in 2008 and a full IPY ‘science
conference’ in 2010. The SCAR open science conference,
scheduled for July 2008 in St. Petersburg, Russia (and
for the first time to be organized as a joint event with
IASC) was suggested as a suitable high-profile bipolar
forum for the first IPY conference. In response to a
solicitation by the IPO (August 2006), the Norwegian
and Canadian national IPY committees expressed
their interest in hosting the 2010 IPY conference.
At JC-4, the Norwegian IPY Committee presented a
formal proposal for an IPY Science Conference to be
held in Oslo in 2010, with a prospective attendance of
between 2000 and 3000 scientists. Thus the trajectory
of IPY activities was advanced to 2010, more than a
year after completion of the observational period in
March 2009.
Box 5 Eco Polar Ushuaia 2006: an initiative to promote IPY in South America
From 26 to 28 May 2006, a series of activities to
disseminate information about IPY were held in Ushuaia,
the southernmost city of the world and the capital of
Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina. Named Eco Polar
Ushuaia 2006, this event attracted primarily participants
from South American countries, with the great majority
coming from Argentina (Fig. 1.5-8).
The residents of Tierra del Fuego and its authorities have
strong polar interests. Ushuaia is less than 1,000 km
from the Antarctic Peninsula and a key access point to
Antarctica. Eco Polar Ushuaia 2006 was hence supported
by many national and local organizations. Among the
key objectives of Eco Polar Ushuaia were bringing IPY
objectives to local people and spreading the message of the
importance of polar regions to issues like climate change,
especially to the southernmost regions of South America.
The activities also included a focus on IPY education,
outreach and communication to the many tourists using
this gateway to Antarctica.
Over 1,200 participants attended lectures, workshops
and exhibitions during the event. They included the main
Argentinean Antarctic representatives and the Executive
Secretary of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat in Buenos
Aires (Jan Huber, an observer on JC). David Carlson,
Rhian Salmon and Jerónimo López-Martínez were
invited to share the objectives and scope of IPY 2007–
2008 from the perspectives of JC and IPO. They gave
public lectures, met with several groups of teachers and
joined other activities open to the public. The three were
named Honor Guests of Tierra del Fuego and received a
certificate from the Governor.
Fig. 1.5-8. Logo
of the Usuhuaia
meeting.
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