2006 Annual Meeting and Arctic Forum | Abstracts

Beyond 2009: Broadening the Legacy of International Polar Year

Karen Kraft Sloan^1
1Foreign Affairs Canada, Canadian Federal Government, 125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0G2, Canada, Phone 613-944-0784, Fax 613-944-1304

The first International Polar Year (IPY) in 1881 was built on the rationale that research of certain global phenomena must not only be polar based, but must also be achieved through international cooperation. That spirit, which served the first IPY so well, continues to inform polar research.

IPY 2007 will build on the legacies of its three predecessors. It will also illustrate the enormous energy and resources required to scale up for such international efforts, and thereby challenge us to sustain the momentum and enhance the benefits that it will create.

IPY 2007 can serve to focus attention on the value of international Arctic science cooperation, inspiring a discussion of practical measures to formalise and insitutionalize that collaboration.