MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS?: The hidden Gamburtsev Mountains, buried beneath the Antarctic ice sheet and imaged here, have inspired scientists and science fiction writers, like H. P. Lovecraft.
Courtesy of Robin Bell

International Polar Year--Why?
When I first heard of the concept of an International Polar Year (IPY), I rolled my eyes and gave one off those stupid "this is a boring idea" looks I had learned from my teenage son. How could an idea hatched by a military officer in the 1880s have any use in our age of hyper connectivity? The images from previous IPYs were filled with grimy men wrapped in parkas launching balloons, recording numbers in notebooks in small shacks and shooting off explosives. I simply could not see past the frost edges of the IPY parkas.

But then, something changed. It was July and I was sitting in the back of a steamy conference room in Shanghai, having just given a talk about lakes beneath two miles of ice. I was eager to see more of Shanghai on my first trip to China and had thought I might sneak out early until, that is, I heard Heinz Miller, a German glaciologist with a large mustache and an elflike twinkle in his eye, outline a bold concept for studying the interior of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet during the International Polar Year in 2007. I listened intently, like a teenager who suddenly realizes that calculus has some redeeming value. I began to see past the grimy faces and appreciate how global collaboration in the polar regions may produce remarkable insights that would otherwise be impossible. The only way we were ever going to understand the subglacial lakes was with an improved framework for international science in the polar regions. The IPY had the potential to provide this framework.

The first IPYs were planned by groups of scientists in close collaboration with the military. The current International Polar Year is a huge, interdisciplinary research program focusing on the polar regions from March 2007 to March 2009. In the modern age of science, this IPY has been the result of an almost organic effort of ideas bubbling up through the community. Working with a structure outlined by an international scoping committee, groups of scientists have come together and new programs have blossomed. This grassroots effort has entrained tens of thousands of scientists from 30 countries. Driven by the urgencies to understand the rapid change in the poles and reach the unexplored terrains, the past 18 months have seen an unprecedented level of international collaboration. Networks of instruments have been installed in both polar regions to monitor the changes in these remote areas. New records of past climate change have been recovered from the ice sheet and sediments. The theme of change is woven into science programs from anthropology to geophysics.

What are the results so far from the Fourth International Polar Year? Asking what we have learned is from the IPY is a little like asking baseball players the outcome of a game before the final inning. As with any large endeavor, there have been some setbacks: A key satellite crashed into the ocean shortly after launch, a helicopter has crashed with tragic loss of life, and one aircraft has been seriously damaged. The polar regions remain a challenge to work in. A most perplexing setback has been the crushing impact of the rapidly rising cost of fuel. Nations, large and small, have been forced to modify and delay their plans. Even the most carefully planned expeditions have been shortened or delayed. In general, most programs have been postponed, not canceled, and field programs planned of the IPY may just take a little longer.