September 24th, 2008 marked the sixth quarterly International Polar Day, this time focusing on People.

The Day was a great success, including three live radio events streamed from the Arctic, a global on-line discussion forum, unprecedented virtual balloon launch, and media coverage around the world. For full details, please visit the Highlights of People Day page on the Canadian IPY site or read this blog.

Use the links at the bottom of this page to find out more about our live radio events, virtual balloon launch, local and global discussions, multi-lingual flyers, and to meet IPY participants and learn about their research.

photo: Amy Clapp

People have lived in the Arctic for many millennia, developing skills, strategies, and community knowledge to survive polar conditions. They succeeded by learning to use local foods from land and ocean, by learning to move safely across land, ice, and ocean, by circum-Arctic trade, and by perpetuating their knowledge through language and culture. In recent centuries resource exploitation and political activities imposed from outside the polar regions have changed the livelihoods and well-being of polar residents in good and bad ways. Climate change and renewed exploitation present urgent challenges to Arctic people.

Join us around September 24th in learning more about People and the Polar Regions. Using the sidebar on the left of these pages you can find many ways to get involved including having local and global discussions, tuning in to radio broadcast from Arctic Canada, and launching a virtual balloon.

Activity and summary sheets are available in many languages here.

photo: Livia Monami

The IPY International Programme Office thanks the Canadian IPY Secretariat and National Committee for their help organising and coordinating this event.

For more information about the People Day, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Many thanks to Livia Monami and Max Holmes for the images on these pages.

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