The International Polar Year 2007-2008 is the largest international research program ever. 50,000 scientists and technicians from 60 countries were involved in 160 interdisciplinary projects under the program which ended on March 1, 2009.
Now that the data collection stage is over, the focus switches to analysis. The aim is to improve our knowledge of how changes in the polar areas affect the rest of the planet, and thereby our ability to predict and reverse climate change.
Norwegian-led polar expedition
Norway was among the biggest contributors to the International Polar Year (IPY), and directed a research expedition comprising eight Norwegian and four American scientists that traversed 2,300 kilometres of East Antarctica.
The Antarctic Traverse expedition arrives at Norway’s Troll Research Station in Antarctica. Photo: Ken Pedersen / Norwegian Polar Institute.
Along the traverse route via the South Pole the expedition investigated the impact of ice sheet melting on sea-level rise and collected data and samples from areas never before visited by humans.
Some of the samples contained ice up to 800,000 years old – providing new knowledge about past climate.
Ministers on study tour
The IPY research projects confirm that both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are melting. Although scientists are not certain how much ice may actually disappear, Norway’s Environment and Development Minister, Erik Solheim, emphasizes that even small-scale melting will have major repercussions for the rest of the world.
Government ministers from many countries on a study tour to Dronning Maud Land. Photo: Betran Kiil / Norwegian Polar Institute.
After the Annual Meeting of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in February, Mr Solheim and eleven other government ministers from across the world visited Norway’s Troll Research Station in Dronning Maud Land in Antarctica. Among the participants was Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
“The tour has given the participants an utterly unique insight into a large continent of importance for earth’s development, but which most people know very little about,” says Mr. Solheim to the NRK, Norway’s public broadcaster.
UK Secretary of State for Environment, Hilary Benn, and Norway’s Environment and Development Minister, Erik Solheim. Photo: Betran Kiil / Norwegian Polar Institute.
The visit was part of the preparations for the UN Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) in Copenhagen at the end of 2009 which aims to put in place a climate treaty to supersede the Kyoto Agreement.
On 28-29 April Norway’s foreign minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, and Nobel laureate Al Gore will host a conference on ice shelf melting in the Arctic city of Tromsø, also part of the run-up to the 2009 UNCCC.