International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

1.4. Planning for IPY: A Collaborative Venture
Coordinating editors:
Paul Cutler and Igor Krupnik
The purpose of this section is to demonstrate
and capture the broader scope of community
involvement in the initiation and early
planning for IPY 2007–2008 in the years prior
to the beginning of the ‘operational’ phase of IPY and
the establishment of the IPY Joint Committee in 2005
(Chapter 1.5). The short sections below provide a more
granular look at the truly bottom-up development
of IPY that can be captured in Chapters 1.2 and 1.3. It
offers perspectives on the contribution of ten major
international polar agencies and organizations to the
IPY process, in addition to ICSU and WMO. The role
of each organization in IPY initiation and planning is
described up to late 2004–early 2005; the information
relevant to the later period is presented in other
sections. Also, we decided to concentrate only on the
role of international organizations, since the stories of
many national groups and agencies involved in IPY
2007–2008 are to be covered in the respective national
IPY reports that are currently under preparation.
Ten sections below are placed according to a rough
chronological order of each organization’s entry in the
IPY process, starting with eight science organizations
and followed by two major inter-governmental
bodies, the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Treaty
Consultative Meeting. This account of the early IPY
2007–2008 history is far from being complete, as many
more agencies and groups were instrumental in the
preparation of IPY. We hope that the short summaries
of the activities of the lead international champions of
IPY presented here will encourage other organizations
to develop the accounts of their respective
contributions to IPY for subsequent publications.
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Contributing authors:
Keith Alverson, Sara Bowden, Jerry Brown, Yvon Csonka, Paul Egerton, Barry Goodison,
Johannes Huber, Gérard Jugie, Igor Krupnik, Jerónimo López-Martínez, Helena Ödmark,
Volker Rachold, Chris Rapley, Manfred Reinke, Vladimir Ryabinin, Odd Rogne, Colin
Summerhayes and Jörn Thiede
International Arctic Science Committee
(IASC)
Volker Rachold and Odd Rogne
The first informal e-mail correspondence about
a possibility of the new ‘International Polar Year’
between Odd Rogne (then Executive Secretary of IASC)
and a few individual early champions started in the
late 1990s. A key correspondent was Leonard Johnson
(former division head at the U.S. Office of Naval
Research – Chapter 1.2). During those early exchanges,
Rogne argued that any initiative for a new IPY had to
be taken by international organizations and required
a forward-looking science vision. The IASC Executive
Committee was made aware of the correspondence,
but did not decide to take any further actions.
The possibility of a new IPY was briefly discussed
during the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) in April
2001 by the European Polar Board (EPB) and by the
Forum of Arctic Research Operators (FARO). The IASC
Executive Committee did not decide on any actions
related to IPY, but had agreed to test the idea within
FARO. Overall, a new IPY was seen as a major logistical
challenge that would require complex and, perhaps,
painful re-allocation of funding. Nonetheless, IPY was
also viewed as a tremendous opportunity, for which a
compelling science vision had to be developed.
An important step towards IPY planning was taken at
the Symposium, Perspectives of Modern Polar Research
in Bad Dürkheim (Germany), 24-26 June, 2001 (Chapter
1.2), on which IASC was informed. In November
2001, the IASC Executive Committee discussed the
development of ideas for IPY and noted that a major
project in the Arctic Ocean as a prospective theme for
IPY had been suggested (Johnson, 2001). Nonetheless,
it was again agreed that a new IPY should be major
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