RETROSPECT ARTICLE: POLAR YEAR

REMEMBERING THE INTERNATIONAL POLAR YEAR: THE PAST, THE

PRESENT AND THE FUTURE OF THE POLAR PROBLEM
When Austrian explorer Carl Weyprecht had passed away in 1881, he left
behind an legacy that would inspire many others after him and would make way
one of the greatest aspirations to understand and hopefully solve one of the
biggest problems that our planet is facing today. Weyprecht, inspired from his
experience of commanding Austro-Hungarian Polar expeditions of 1872-1874,
imagined a community, set apart from unprofitable national competitions, that
would field a series of coordinated expeditions dedicated to scientific research in
the Polar region. After his death, in 19th century, his inspiration was to lead largest
coordinated series of scientific expeditions of the century in the Arctic and would
become what is now known as the First International Polar Year.
The fourth polar year, IPY (International Polar Year) 2007-2008 was
organized following the 1882-3, 1932-3, and 1957-8 polar years, almost a decade
ago from today by the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO). Covering two full annual cycles from March
2007 to March 2009, the IPY involved over 200 projects, with thousands of
scientists from over 60 nations examining a wide range of physical, biological and
social research topics.
These international Polar expeditions hold a great importance and relevance
at a time when humans are exerting an increasing impact on the planet, and when
the human condition is increasingly affected by global changes since the polar
regions are integral components of the Earth system. These regions connect to
global climate, sea level, biogeochemical cycles, ecosystems, and human
activities. Through these connections, the Earths high latitudes respond to,
amplify, and drive changes elsewhere, as in what we call the butterfly effect.
The expeditions are collaborated internationally this does not only serve as
a symbol for the fact that the worlds nations suffer the imbalance of these regions
with the same urgency and emergency, but also emerge from a need for such
collaboration since the scope and scale of the polar research challenges lie beyond
the capabilities of individual nations or traditional scientific disciplines. Despite the
new technological and scientific advances that can heavily aid the polar
knowledge and science, the fruits of these advancements are not picked as
effectively due to the lack of urgency felt by the policy makers towards the issue.
So the bodies that exist to stimulate and coordinate multinational and
multidisciplinary polar research activities are deprived of a burst of effort,
something that IPY precisely seeks to stimulate and guide and thus accelerate
progress towards providing the required policy-relevant answers.
Arctic report card of the year 2006 gave warning along with mixed signals
in the Arctic. Overall, the observations indicated that the destabilizing warming of
the region continued, particularly evidenced by the summer sea ice extent
reaching its record minimum, yet there were other elements that were stabilizing
and turning to climatological norms. However, after about a decade of the fourth
IPY, how are our precious planets polar regions doing now? The answer, though
may not be very optimistic, is definitely thought-provoking. 2016s Arctic report
card revealed that the minimum sea ice extent at the end of summer 2016 tied
with 2007 for the second lowest. Yet unlike its rank-friend, the bad news of this
years report, was not accompanied with much good news. The average surface
air temperature for the was by far the highest since 1900. Spring snow cover
extent in the North American Arctic was the lowest in the satellite record.
Persistent warming trend and loss of sea ice were evidently triggering extensive
Arctic changes.
In his 2015 TED Talk, the arctic explorer David Barber talks about his
exhibitions and presented the listeners with data that is persistent with 2016
Arctic report card. He especially focuses on the loss of multi-year sea ice that is
thicker and older than the yearly sea ice and claimed that the results are implying
that soon northern Arctic will be completely deprived of summer ice. This is, he
claims, a very major change that has happened in our planet system ... what we
are seeing in the arctic right now is unique to our time-scale and what we are
talking about on the planet. Barber further underlines the global relevance of this
seemingly Arctic problem. For with the change in sea ice, along with the change
the light and heat environment, the bio-diversity of arctic also changes, since
those species are evolved to take advantage of the timing and the presence of the
sea ice. This results in species moving and replacing the Arctic species. Barber
reveals that though the scientists thought that the species are quite adaptable,
the changes that are happening in the Artic is so rapid that the marine system
cannot respond to it. And the same problem applies to human species. Barber
mentions that the people of the Arctic region are seeing these changes as much
more rapid then anything they have seen before as well, as they produce new
words such as bumble bee and sun burnt. As the ice cover over the pole is
reduced, the ocean loses its heat to the atmosphere. This causes the Polar Vortex
which is supposed to be able keep the cold air encapsulated in the Arctic, to break
down because of the increasing heat coming out of the ocean. Hence, the warming
climate causes colder temperatures at the lower latitudes of our planet. The take
home message is, according to Barber, that: It is very important that you
remember that you live on planet Earth and it is a unit. It functions as a unit ... and
unfortunately it doesnt come with a manual.
Is there no hope for the next decade then? Of course, there is! When talking
about the possible adaptation that human species can exhibit in the face of this
new climate Nicki Arroyo points out that: There are no quick fixes ... We're all
learning by doing. But the operative word is doing. The sustainability expert
Johann Rockstrm seems to agree that, we need nothing less than a new green
revolution, yet, he adds, we can list many, many examples of transformative
opportunities around the planet ... science indicates that, yes, we can achieve a
prosperous future within the safe operating space, if we move
simultaneously, collaborating on a global level, from local to global scale, in
transformative options, which build resilience on a finite planet. In fact, in his
2016 TED Talk, climate activist Al Gore points out recent developments and global
achievements in producing a sustainable lifestyles and energy sources and
reminds us that we, as human species, can change to evolve into a species that
are more understanding and conducive towards their planet. After that, Will we
change? seems to become the next important question. Al Gore answers: When
any great moral challenge is ultimately resolved into a binary choice between
what is right and what is wrong, the outcome is fore-ordained because of who we
are as human beings. Ninety-nine percent of us, that is where we are now and it is
why we're going to win this. We have everything we need. Some still doubt that
we have the will to act, but I say the will to act is itself a renewable resource.

REFERENCES:
Arctic Report Card. (2017). Arctic.noaa.gov. Retrieved 21 February 2017, from
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card
Arroyo, Vicki. (2012, June). TEDGlobal Talk: Let's prepare for our new climate
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://hls.ted.com/talks/1583.m3u8?
preroll=Thousands
Barber, David. (2015, January). TEDxUManitoba Talk: Seven surprising results
from the reduction of Arctic Sea ice cover [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofaoiHYKtlc
Gore, Al. (2016, February) TEDGlobal Talk: The case for optimism on climate
change [Video file]. Retrieved from https://hls.ted.com/talks/2441.m3u8?
preroll=Spotlight_UK&postroll=Spotlight_UK
Rapley, C. (2004). A framework for the international polar year 2007-2008 (1st
ed.). Paris, France: ICSU.
Rockstrm, Johan. (2010, July) TEDGlobal Talk: Let the environment guide our
development [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://hls.ted.com/talks/945.m3u8?
preroll=Spotlight_UK&postroll=Spotlight_UK
Wood, K. & Overland, J. The First International Polar Year. Pmel.noaa.gov.
Retrieved 21 February 2017, from http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/arctic-
zone/ipy-1/History.htm