International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

and of the growing focus on ‘change’ in modern interdisciplinary
research. Change, both environmental and
social, was addressed in many IPY social science and
humanities projects, including the impact of oil and
gas development, polar ice, community integration
and well-being, and new threats to the continuity
of indigenous economies, languages, and cultures
(nos. 46, 82, 157, 166, 187, 227, 247, 335, 399, 408, 436,
462). Several IPY projects in history and archaeology
explored past changes in the polar regions (nos. 6, 10,
100, 151, 276) and studied early forms of commercial
exploitation of polar resources, such as whaling, sealhunting
and mining, as models to the present and
future development (Hacquebord, 2009). Significant
effort was put into researching Arctic social change via
the creation of long-term comparative datasets (nos.
227, 386, 462).
Linkages and global connections (Theme 3). Two major
outcomes of broad relevance emerged from the IPY
social science and humanities research. The first relates
to the multi-level and adaptive nature of governance of
the ‘international common spaces,’ such as Antarctica,
the Central Arctic Basin, High Seas and Outer
Space (Antarctic Treaty Summit, 2009; Shadian and
Tennberg, 2009; Chapter 5.5). Though few IPY projects
ventured explicitly into the policy and governance
field (nos. 27, 100, 342), the overall awareness of such
issues has grown substantially during the IPY thanks,
in large part, to the historical studies of IGY 1957-
1958, the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the
Antarctic Treaty in 2009 and the new role of the United
Fig. 2.10-11. IPY ‘People Day’
webpage, 24 September
2008. www.ipy.org/index.
php?/ipy/detail/people
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in
the Arctic Policy debate. Significant effort was made
to integrate law, economics and governance with
more traditional research areas such as resource use,
climate science and minority rights issues (nos. 46, 157,
310, 335, 436, 462), and more is to be expected by the
Montreal IPY conference in 2012 (Chapter 5.6).
Another major input of social science research to
IPY is the recognition of complex relationships among
various drivers of change and the inclusion of local
communities, their voices and perspectives in the
interdisciplinary studies of climate change. Several IPY
projects have demonstrated that, although climate
warming and changing bio-physical conditions have
direct consequences to the communities that depend
upon local resources, more immediate challenges
stem from the many social agents, such as local
system of governance, economic development, breakup
in community support networks and culture shifts
(nos. 46, 157, 166, 247, 335, 399, 408). In certain areas
in the Arctic, the purported ‘threat’ of climate change
is being used to mask or distort the impact of more
immediate factors, such as the alienation of property
rights, appropriation of land, disempowerment of
indigenous communities and more restricted resource
management regimes (nos. 46, 335, 399, 408; Forbes et
al., 2009; Konstantinov, 2010).
A broader implication of this perspective is that environmental
change (‘global warming’) should be considered
an added stressor to the already challenging
local conditions that can be assessed by working with
the communities on the ground rather than from gen-
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