2007 # 01 Tigoriannguaruk! Tag suluk med hjem! Your personal copy!

Committee for the International Polar
Year. This means that DKK 100-120
million is needed for Danish activities
in connection with IPY from 2006-
2008.
She also points out that many of the
consortia are fighting with heavy and
expensive logistical challenges in remote
and hard-to-reach regions. They
need to know in advance whether
they will receive support so they can
complete plans and enter into binding
agreements.
The right timing
The initiative for the International Polar
Year 2007-08 came from the international
research network ICSU (International
Council for Science) and WMO
(World Meteorological Organization),
and the short version says that the
purpose is to coordinate efforts to
acquire new knowledge about polar
processes and their interaction with
the global environment.
Air Greenland inflight magazine 69
ASS./FOTO/PHOTO: IS- OG KLIMAGRUPPEN
■ Kalaallit Nunaata sermersuani
qillerinerni qallunaanit siulersorneqartuni
sermimik 3 kilometerinik
takissusilinnik qaqitsisoqarsimavoq.
Taamaalilluni
silaannaap pissusiisa ukiuni
kingullerni 120.000-ini qanoq
pissuseqaleriartorsimanerat
sukumiisumik ilisimasaqarfigineqalerpoq.
It is the fourth time that an international
polar year has been organised.
They have previously taken place in
1882-83, 1932-33 and 1957-58, so
the initiative-takers have of course
taken into account that that in 2007-
8, it will be 50 years since the last
polar year took place in the scientific
world.
However, these years there has been
no shortage of good reasons to speed
up research in arctic regions. It appears
that these regions are most sensitive to
global climate changes and that the
consequences of warming are first and
most-easily discernable here.
During the past 50 years the highest
rises in temperature have taken place
in parts of the Arctic. Significant melting
is taking place along the edge of
the inland ice, sea ice in the Arctic
Ocean has shrunk 15% over the past
25 years and the oceans’ »cold heart«
east and south of Greenland, which
pumps energy into the Gulf Stream, a
■ De dansk ledede iskerneboringer
på Grønlands Indlandsis
har boret tre kilometer lange
kerner op af isen. Det har
givet en detaljeret viden om
klimaets udvikling de sidste
120.000 år.
■ The Danish led ice core project
on Greenland’s inland ice has
drilled three kilometres of
cores out of the ice. These
have provided detailed information
about the development
of the climate over the
last 120,000 years
prerequisite for the temperate climate
of North West Europe, has been reduced
by 25-30% in later years.
It is plain to see that noticeable changes
are under way in the Arctic.
Furthermore, climate experts’ model
calculations predict a rise in arctic temperatures
of between 8-10 degrees
Celsius in the next hundred years
which will result in a series of dramatic
consequences.
At the same time, there is consensus
that climate development in Polar
Regions could be a catalyst for increasing
global temperatures, with consequences
for people all over the
world. Seen in this perspective, the
International Polar Year is not only an
event that affects inhabitants in the
Arctic. It affects us all.
ASS./FOTO/PHOTO: IS- OG KLIMAGRUPPEN