By Andrea Juan, Curator, "Polar South, Art in Antarctica" at the Museum of National University of Tres de Febrero in Buenos Aires, Argentina The light is so intense and bright that it modifies the colors throughout the day, while the horizon line blends into a white plane where the sun bounces and never sets. A deep and vivid feeling seizes us when, at the end of a long voyage, we step on Antarctic soil, a soil covered with fossils. As sea, rock, and time, Antarctica is today the largest natural freshwater reserve for humankind. Being there is to witness a different world on thi...

The Legacy of IPY must be a Circumpolar Arctic Park conserving Biodiversity, Habitats, People, Ecological Processes and Services for Global Sustainability Falk Huettmann PhD, Assistant Professor EWHALE lab, Institute of Arctic Biology, Biology & Wildlife Department, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Fairbanks AK 99775 USA, Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Phone 907 474 7882 IPY is a massive global research project that wants to provide huge progress, a quantum leap. However, looking at the sophisticated honey comb project scheme showing that all projects are connected, it gets obvious that SUSTAINABILITY and Biodiversity were actually left out in the major...

Summary: The complete story of all IPY focuspoints, expressed in one videoart clip. No words, only moving pictures. Showing a silent but dramatic process in nature and culture. produced by Ap Verheggen, 2007 --------------------------------------------------------- The video is recorded in Nunavut, Canada, as well as at Cap Nez, France. --------------------------------------------------------- My name i...

France Pinczon du Sel and Eric Brossier write: Three years ago, Vagabond left Brittany and sailed to Spitsbergen. There she has spent three winters, frozen in ice for about nine months at a time. This year also, summer will be short — sailing in the fjords in August, then supplying and maintaining the boat in September. Early October will already start the fourth wintering, still in Inglefield Bay, on the east coast of the island. This is where, with our three dogs, we are welcoming scientists, about twenty so far since 2004. They come to understand and forecast climate change in the Arctic, particularly the future of the pack ice, within the European project Damocles. Sport ...

Two articles about a new dog sledge route in Greenland from Sermitsiaq A real sledging expedition Now tourists can sledge all the way to Uummannaq By Poul Krarup 'It's going to be a tough ride,' says Ole Jørgen Hammeken of the new dog sledge route between Uummannaq and Ilulissat in north-western Greenland. Hammeksen recently completed the first voyage over the ice sheet in two weeks, but he believes he can cut it down to seven days, making it attractive for tourists. 'The proposed route has everything that's needed for a real expedition,' Hammeken says. 'It has all the elements a sledge ride could offer: sea ice, mountain sledging and i...

The early history of polar exploration leads, strange though it may seem, to space exploration. And the early history of polar exploration is firmly netted to cod fishing. Ergo, cod fishing took us to the moon! I first heard this interesting historical perspective from my arctic explorer father, Willie Knutsen. I was writing a book on his 30 plus years in arctic work, 1936-1969, that came out in 2005 via The Explorers Club as Arctic Sun on My Path: the true story of America’s last great polar explorer. As my Brooklyn-born father put it, albeit with a smile, "Space travel began with salted cod!" What he meant was that for centuries, Norway, where he was raised, had a lively trade with the Mediterranean dealing salted cod, the now famous baccalao of Spanish menus. Cod Fi...

I look deep into the water lapping at the bow of the ice breaker and find myself thinking of the books in my wife’s study at home. Shackleton, Amundsen, Scott. Tales of great heroism and courage. I thought: if it weren't for my wife’s keen interest in this continent, I wouldn't be here. The excitement is almost tangible. Photographers swarm over the boat, smiling, shaking hands, examining new kit. Maybe I should have hired a 500mm telephoto? Puzzlingly a dockworker rests on a ladder balanced in mid air. Why? Sailors, nonchalantly eating sandwiches, perch on a container high above the huge boat moored alongside us. ...