International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

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IPY 20 07–20 08
Box 1 Neumayer Declaration
A 175th IGY Program:
Scientific Themes:
Using new technologies to determine:
1. Causes and effects of climatic
variability (air-sea-ice interactions)
2. Lithospheric dynamics (evolution
and history of crust and sedimentary
cover)
Bad Dürkheim, 26.06.2001
instead, pushed firmly towards the ‘fourth’ IPY. New
electronic communication and website technologies
helped disseminate the message and increased the
speed of exchange across the international science
community (Berkman, 2003). 8 In addition, those
nexuses often included many of the same people
wearing different ‘hats’ in different settings, so that
the idea was talked through and vetted repeatedly in
meetings, papers and resolutions.
PRB/AOSB/EPB nexus. On 9 April 2002, Leonard
Johnson gave a talk at the 84th meeting of the Polar
Research Board (PRB) of the U.S. National Academies
titled Origins and Content of Proposal to Conduct
International Polar Year, which was the development
of the plan drafted at the Neumayer symposium of
2001. His talk was followed by substantial discussion,
at which several players in the future U.S. IPY planning
were present, such as Robin Bell and Chris Elfring (PRB),
Karl Erb (NSF), John Calder NOAA) and Pat Webber
(IASC). The shared feeling was that the PRB should put
‘some energy’ into it. Chris Elfring, the PRB Executive
Director, recalled that feeling: “There should be one!
There should be one!” (C. Elfring, interview, 11 April
2008). The PRB agreed to run a special session on IPY
at its next meeting in November 2002.
A much broader audience was briefed on the new
IPY concept at the ASSW annual meeting in Gröningen,
the Netherlands 21–26 April 2002. Johnson delivered
his paper on IPY at the meeting of the Arctic Ocean
Sciences Board (AOSB) and referred to positive reviews
of the new IPY proposal by IASC and SCAR (Fig. 1.2-7).
The AOSB response was measured and Johnson was
encouraged ‘to develop the IPY 2007 concept,’ as
further identification of costs and benefits for Arctic
science was deemed necessary (AOSB, 2002:21). IPY
was also discussed at the IASC Council meeting during
ASSW (Chapter 1.4).
The IPY proposal received a more enthusiastic
response at the 27th Meeting of SCAR Delegates
in Shanghai, China 22–26 July 2002 (Chapter 1.4).
The Delegates supported the motion for a new IPY
program ‘to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the
IGY’ and tasked a small group, chaired by Heinz Miller
from AWI, to produce a report to the SCAR Executive
Committee by its meeting in July 2003. It was also
suggested that enquiries be made to ICSU and IUGG
about their IPY plans. Chris Rapley, Vice-President of
SCAR and Director of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS),
agreed to act as a liaison to ICSU and IUGG. 9 Though
the decision was short of formal endorsement, many
people instrumental to the future IPY planning
attended that meeting (Rapley, Thiede, Miller, López-
Martínez, Orheim, Kotlyakov, Eflring, Allison and Erb).
A smaller Antarctic meeting, the 9th West Antarctic
Ice Sheet (WAIS) workshop in Sterling, Virginia 18–21
September 2002 also endorsed the plan for a new
International Polar Year following the presentation by
Robert Bindschadler from NASA.
By far the most substantial deliberation on the new
IPY took place at a special session of the U.S. PRB in
Washington, DC on 25 November 2002 (Fig. 1.2-8). The
full-day meeting titled “How Might the Polar Science
Community Commemorate the Upcoming Anniversary
of the International Polar Year” attended by more than
40 scientists and agency representatives and chaired
by Robin Bell, new PRB Chair, featured several invited
talks 10 and five discussion panels. It advocated joining
forces with the European Polar Board (EPB) to bring
the idea of a new IPY into the public domain and to
marshal support from scientists and funding agencies.
One of the workshop recommendations was to
organize a scholarly session and a ‘town-hall’ meeting
on the new IPY at the joint meeting of the AGU/ESF/
EGU in Nice, in early April 2003 to be prepared jointly
by the PRB and EPB. A small ad hoc organizing group
for that session was quickly formed made of Elfring,
Bell, Johnson and Paul Egerton, the EPB Secretary
(Elfring to Edgerton, 23 December 2002; Egerton to