International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

‘human dimension’ in the science outline and called
it inadequate. They stressed the need to generate
substantive input by social and human sciences,
engage indigenous and other local communities in
IPY research, and to develop mechanisms for sharing
IPY science results and other outcomes with polar
residents (Chapter 1.4). As far as the Arctic Council
members were concerned, the IPY planners still had
homework to do.
An even more heated debate about the status of
social science and polar residents in IPY took place two
weeks later, at the 5th International Congress of Arctic
Social Sciences (ICASS-5) in Fairbanks, U.S.A., 19–23
May 2004 (Chapter 1.4). At a special IPY panel and at
the Congress plenary session, Arctic social researchers
argued for more input from social scientists, Arctic
indigenous organizations and polar communities
regarding the objectives, themes and issues in IPY.
They asked for more active engagement of those three
constituencies in the IPY planning process and on
equal terms with physical and natural scientists (IASSA,
2004a). Though they eventually offered their help and
voted unanimously in support of IPY, it was obvious
that the issues of polar residents’ participation and of
the social themes in broader sense (including social
sciences, humanities, human health and community
well-being) would require a radical revision of the
existing IPY documents. A solution had to be found
within a few months remaining until September 2004,
the official end of the PG-led planning process.
June–September 2004: Planning for JC and
the Social Science Theme
Boreal summer months (June-August) of 2004
witnessed several new developments crucial to
the success of the early preparation phase for IPY.
Firstly, the merger of the two planning processes for
IPY started by ICSU and WMO in early 2003 became
official. Following the ICSU Executive Board meeting
in February 2004, Thomas Rosswall sent an official
letter to WMO and later met with Michel Jarraud
to discuss the co-sponsorship of IPY by the two
organizations. The two sides agreed on all issues. On
1-2 June 2004, the ICSU Officers meeting formally
approved the merger of the two processes and on
14 June 2004 the WMO Executive Council in Geneva
similarly endorsed the joint co-sponsorship of IPY with
ICSU and the establishment of the ‘Joint Organizing
Committee’ (later renamed to Joint Committee) for
further planning and coordination of IPY activities. The
WMO Secretary-General was tasked to define Terms of
Reference, composition and funding for the new joint
team to replace the Planning Group in coordination
with ICSU and other interested organizations, such as
SCAR, IASC, IOC and others.
On 26 June 2006, Rapley gave a presentation on
the preparation for IPY 2007–2008 at the 37th session
of the Executing Council of Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission (IOC). The Council agreed
to contribute to IPY through several existing programs
co-sponsored by IOC and expressed its interest in
having IOC represented on the proposed IPY Joint
Committee (Chapter 1.4).
Another critical milestone was the SCAR Open
Science Conference in Bremen, Germany 25–31 July
2004 that was run parallel to the 16th meeting of
COMNAP. The joint event attended by about 1,000
participants featured two IPY sessions, four keynote
IPY presentations (by Bell, Rapley, Karsten Gohl
and Terry Wilson) and two IPY ‘discussion forums’
led respectively by Ian Allison for SCAR and Anders
Karlqvist for COMNAP (Chapter 1.4). 15 Outside of the
meetings, Rapley, Sarukhanian and Leah Goldfarb
(for ICSU) held intensive discussions about the
composition of the future Joint Committee for IPY.
Thirdly, social scientists associated with IASSA
(International Arctic Social Sciences Association –
Chapter 1.4) had been working closely with Rapley and
Bell to provide input to the IPY Outline Science Plan. In
fact, they were revising and editing the Outline sections
relevant to the social issues and polar residents. 16
By mid-August 2004, the IASSA team submitted its
proposal to the PG arguing for additional sixth theme
and a new observational initiative in the IPY Science
Plan to cover social science research and to encourage
the participation of polar Indigenous peoples and their
organizations, with their specific research themes and
agendas. This proposal was formally approved at the
last PG meeting in September 2004 (see below).
On 5-6 August 2004, Rosswall visited the WMO
Secretariat to discuss with Jarraud, Sarukhanian and
Manaenkova the proposed Terms of Reference and
the composition of the future IPY Joint Committee.
It was agreed that the new ‘Joint Committee’ be
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