Why an International Polar Year Now?

The polar regions play key roles in our global environment. Many important broad and interlinked research challenges involving both polar regions exist today. To name just one example, how and why are the changes in polar regions occurring and how can we predict and mitigate the outcome? Changes in ice mass are linked with regional and global environment and atmospheric and oceanic processes; implementing polar observation systems would help document the changes. Clues for understanding how and why similar changes occurred in the past remain stored in polar earth and ice; sediment and ice coring would help us understand past changes. Polar changes are interlinked with the behavior and survival of ecosystems, from microbial life to large life forms including humans; studies in polar biology are needed. Polar regions play key roles in understanding impacts of ever-changing space weather on technologies for modern communication and power distribution. Keys to fundamental discoveries for understanding change may spring from new modes of exploration, from using autonomous underwater vehicles under the ice to the use of genomics for investigating adaptation; exploration reveals surprises. Communications technologies such as television and the internet, combined with changes in the environment, are challenging traditional human lifestyles in our cold regions and elsewhere. Yet these same technologies hold potential for sharing ideas and experiences in both polar regions and promoting global understanding; internet-based efforts in global data collection, sharing, and education are needed. Significant compelling scientific challenges exist today that warrant increased focus on the polar regions.