The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) seeks an Executive Officer to assist in the running of the SCAR Secretariat. SCAR is a body of the International Council for Science (ICSU). It facilitates and coordinates Antarctic research and identifies issues emerging from greater scientific understanding of the region that should be brought to the attention of policy makers. Its objectives and activities are described on the SCAR web site at http://www.scar.org. The primary tasks of the Executive Officer are: - to assist the Executive Director in the day-to-day operation of the Secretariat including supervising staff, coordinating programmes, analysing scientific issues concerning the A...

The University of Texas at Austin Office of Public Affairs is providing the following news release from the recently held West Antarctic Links to Sea-Level Estimation (WALSE) Workshop. The article will also be posted in the "News Releases" section of the Office of Public Affairs Web site. 28th March, 2007 Statement: Thinning of West Antarctic Ice Sheet Demands Improved Monitoring to Reduce Uncertainty over Potential Sea-Level Rise AUSTIN, Texas-Polar ice experts from Europe and the United States, meeting to pursue greater scientific consensus over the fate of the world's largest fresh water reservoir, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, conclud...

I-TASC FOR THE INTERNATIONAL POLAR YEAR Friday March 30, 2007 : I-TASC settles for two years at Espace Mendes-France, Poitiers, France I-TASC is a decentralized network of individuals and organisations working collaboratively in the fields of art, engineering, science and technology on interdisciplinary development and tactical deployment of renewable energy, waste recycling systems, sustainable architecture and open-format, open-source media. I-TASC is a lichen-like structure sharing and integrating local knowledge, resources and skills across six continents in order to symbiotically engage with common issues concerning the air, ocean, earth and space. The science centre Espace Mendes-France and Ellipse join the I-TASC project to ...

On March the 22nd, at the University of Alaska Anchorage, there will be an IPY launch and presentation of results from IPY project "Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA)". SLiCA is an endorsed IPY project (# 386) and presenting results from SLiCA has been seen as an opportunity to focus both on the peoples of the Arctic and Northern communities and the start of the International Polar Year. This is the first release of results from SLiCA comparing living conditions among the Inuit in Northern Alaska (the Inupiat settlement region), the four Inuit Settlement regions in Canada and Greenland as well as the indigenous peoples of Chukotka, Russia. For more information, please see the related ...

Ian McEwan & John Schellnhuber - a Conversation about Climate Change Moderator: David Buckland 22 March 2007, Bucerius Law School, Hamburg During March and April, Cape Farewell - in collaboration with the British Council - travels to the vast industrial space of Kampnagel Cultural Centre in Hamburg with Cape Farewell - Art and Climate Change, the exhibition developed in collaboration with the Natural History Museum in London in 2006. Climate change is the most serious challenge facing the world in the 21 st century and the British Council's focus on the issue in Germany reflects a commitment to addressing sharedglobal challenges together with European partners. One of the highlights is a discussion between novelist Ian McEwan and Profes...

International Polar Year (IPY), which extends from March 2007 through to March 2009, is a worldwide initiative involving thousands of scientists from over 60 countries and focuses on both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Although it is called

Historical background. Although Poland is not an Arctic country, we have a long tradition in polar research. Its roots lie in the 19th century when Polish scientists started to participate in the research on both polar regions. At that time, Poland did not exist on the maps of Europe. Polish scientists (as political prisoners in Siberia and in far North) explored and studied of unknown areas of the Russian Arctic. Henryk Arctowski and Antoni B. Dobrowolski were the members of scientific group of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition on s/v “Belgica” and wintered there (1897-1899). Poland as an independent country took part in the 2nd International Polar Year initiated by the geophysical expedition wintered on Bear Island, Norwegian Arctic (1932-1933). In the thirties a number of Polish sci...

Children in Kent will be the first to take part in a unique educational project to link schools in Britain with those in the Arctic. The project, called "Arctic Voice", aims to teach children at both primary and secondary level about the effects of climate change and the impact it is having on the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of the Arctic. Schools will be linked through the Internet, allowing children in Kent and elsewhere in the UK the opportunity to talk directly to Inuit school children in Greenland and Arctic Canada, and so begin a dialogue between their communities. The project is supported by Jonathon Porritt, the head of the government's sustainable development commission, who describ...

Gretel Ehrlich, award-winning author, has received a National Geographic Expeditions Grant for the International Polar Year 2007 during which she will make a circumpolar journey to talk with indigenous Arctic people at the top of the world about how their lives are being affected by the climate crisis. Ehrlich will travel from Arctic Alaska, across Nunavut, to NW Greenland, northwestern Russia, and Chukotka in NE Siberia, traveling by skin boat, fixed wing plane, helicopter, reindeer, and dogsled, gathering traditional and ecological knowledge from elders, hunters, and village people as they face the crisis of extinction of a culture and an entire ecosystem. Farthest North: THE END OF ICE will be a book, a magazine piece, a website, and a documentary film...

Watch IPY launch events on-line at the Arctic Portal and elsewhere. Throughout this week, over twenty nations around the world are celebrating the launch of the International Polar Year 2007-2008. New Zealand, Indigenous People, Argentina, and the Ukraine have already held extremely successful events. This week, Monday will see Press and Participants gathering in London, Strasbourg, and Washington DC, and Portugal will be holding their kick-off event on Wednesday. Thursday is the big day, with the Global Launch occurring in Paris at 1000 UTC (1100 local Central European Time) and national celebrations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greenland, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Norway, ...