Polar Year ‘hailed as a success’

Policymakers and scientists marked the official end of the International Polar Year (IPY) on Wednesday at the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva.

The 60-country, $1.2bn (£830m) effort has seen knowledge about the poles - and their influence on the rest of the planet - increase hugely.

That knowledge is not just about ice and polar bears, but also about Arctic peoples and global climate systems.

The WMO has released its preliminary report "The State of Polar Research".

The summary of results outlines what has been learned so far from IPY projects: sea level rises due to the melting of ice sheets, sea-ice decreases in the Arctic, anomalous warming in the Southern Ocean, and the storage and release of methane in permafrost.

The IPY effort is the largest international science collaboration since the International Geophysical Year, which took place 50 years ago - and comes at a critical time.

"The International Polar Year 2007 - 2008 came at a crossroads for the planet's future," according to Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the WMO.

"The new evidence resulting from polar research will strengthen the scientific basis on which we build future actions."

And although the IPY officially comes to a close on Wednesday, the wheels have been set in motion for a great many projects that will continue on.

Broadly speaking, European countries signed up to and began their IPY projects straight out of the starting gate, with North American projects starting later and still ongoing.

"Everyone's excited about what they've been able to do," says IPY international programme office director David Carlson.

"But they're still very much in the 'discovery phase'; it's way too early to say we've concluded this or that."

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Source: BBC News