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, Poland, South Africa, and Sweden. The following week, the Netherlands celebrates followed by other countries still planning their events.
Several of these will be web-cast., as well as live connections to both polar regions. You can view these events at the Arctic Portal both as they occur on March 1st, and in the future.
The US event will be available live on Monday Feb 26 (10 am - 1 pm ET = 1500 - 1800 UTC) at this webcasting site. For more details, please see the US media advisory.
To view the UK event, please visit the British Antarctic Survey and Royal Society webpages.
For all other webcasts, including the international launch and events in Sweden, Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Ny Alesund (arctic), Finland, and the Indigenous People's Opening Ceremony, please visit the Artic Portal.

For more information about launch events, visit our launch page or read this article by the International Polar Foundation.