FAIRBANKS, Alaska --
It's not the environment, but our environment.
That's the approach of the 2007-2009 International Polar Year.
The multinational scientific effort, the fourth IPY since 1882, will join
Alaskan and Illinois researchers with thousands of their peers in more than 60
countries, working on more than 200 scientific projects. Areas of focus
include atmosphere, ice, land, oceans, space and people.
It's the last category -- people -- that often gets overlooked, said
Michael Sfraga, director of University of Alaska's Geography Program.
"We're the canary in the coal mine when it comes to climate change. We're
living it, where most other people are reading about it. We're very interested
in the quality of life, related to history, to geography," Sfraga said. "It's
not just measuring ice thickness."
IPY visits Chicago on Tuesday when the Field Museum hosts a program for 260
elementary school students. Researchers tracking changes in Arctic water flow
will call in by satellite phone for a question-and-answer session.
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Polar plans
Here's a sample of projects related to the International Polar Year,
including some headed by Illinois academics.
Drilling at the McMurdo Ice Shelf
Northern Illinois University's Ross Powell acts as one of the co-chief
scientists in obtaining sediment cores from beneath Antarctica's McMurdo Ice
Shelf to understand climate change in the past. Findings from this project
could help refine models that predict future changes. Web site:
www.andrill.org
South Pole Telescope
The 75-foot tall, 280-ton telescope will "give astronomers a powerful new
tool to explore dark energy, the mysterious force that may be causing the
universe to accelerate," according to the project's Web site. University of
Chicago professor John Carlstrom heads the South Pole telescope team. Web
site: spt.uchicago.edu/
Arctic Human Health Initiative
This interagency project will, according to its Web site, "coordinate
research in the areas of infectious disease; the effects of anthropogenic
pollution, ultraviolet radiation, and climate variability on human health." It
represents an important part of the new International Polar Year, as past
research efforts focused chiefly on physical sciences. Web site:
www.arctichealth.org/ahhi/
Penguin science
Biologist/ecologist David Ainley continues his research into the Adelie
penguin, "bellwether of climate change," as described in his book of the same
name. With funding by the National Science Foundation, Ainley tracks migration
patterns of this species, said to be barometers of climate change effects. Web
site: www.penguinscience.com
For more information about International Polar Year: www.ipy.org and www.
ipy.gov
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