Antarctica is managed internationally under the Antarctic Treaty. Each year, countries that have signed the treaty get together at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM). These meetings bring together a large number of experts, including lawyers, diplomats, scientists and logisticians. This year, the meeting is in New Delhi, India. Naturally, like attracts like, and I’ve been enjoying quite a few discussions with scientists over copious amounts of Indian tea and curry. Scientists who come to the ATCM for the first time definitely find it an eye-opening experience. The discussions at the meeting help you understand why you have to fill in so much paperwork for your research. They also make you realize that your science is only one miniscule elemen...

Tourism is the activity that brings the largest number of people to Antarctica nowadays. It is a topic that is hotly debated at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in New Delhi this week. In the last decade, tourism has swiftly emerged as the activity that is bringing the largest number of people to Antarctica. The number of shipborne visitors has increased by four-fold between 1995 and 2005. The 2006/07 season saw the largest tourist vessel ever to operate in Antarctic waters. The Golden Princess carried 3,700 persons: more people than the peak summer population for all Antarctic national programs. Up to now, Antarctic tourism is not regulated. There are some reporting obligations, voluntary guidelines relating to particular sites, and generic environ...

Did you know? - India began active scientific research in Antarctica in 1981. - India currently has two permanent research stations. Dakshin Gangotri was built in 1983 in Dronning Maud Land but is now buried under nice and completely non-functional. The second permanent station, Maitri, was built in 1989, and provides year-round accommodation to 25 people. - India will start building its third research station at Larsemann Hills in East Antarctica, in 2007-2008, propelling India into a small, elite group of countries which run three or more stations in Antarctica. - In recent years, Indian scientists fly from India to Cape Town and then down to Antarctica. They used to sail from Goa in India to Antarctica. The expedition would tak...

If you wanted to find a place that is the exact opposite of Antarctica, you would be hard pressed to find a place more appropriate than New Delhi in India. It is 32 degrees at New Delhi today and raining. At South Pole it is -49 degrees Celsius and snowing. Not only is the weather different, but the color of the sky and the earth, sounds and smells, and even fashion sense represent two distinct worlds. At the 30th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in New Delhi this week, delegates have been discussing environmental and legal issues over curry and copious amounts of strong tea. The IPY has also been an important item on the agenda. Yesterday, Professor Chris Rapley made a presentation to update the Treaty parties on the progress of IPY. I also made a presentation, as the...

The Government of India will be hosting the 30th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) at New Delhi from 30 April to 11 May. The ATCM is the annual occasion when the signatories of the Antarctic Treaty get together to discuss about the management of Antarctica. Usual topics on the agenda include environmental protection, tourism and legal issues. This year, IPY will also be an important item on the agenda. David Carlson will be representing the International Programme Office in New Delhi and will be providing updates on the IPY. For more information, please visit the sites for the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat site and the ...

One of the tasks of the endorsed project "Enhancing the environmental legacy of the IPY in Antarctica" is to look at the cumulative environmental impacts of the IPY. So far, the IPY Joint Committee has endorsed 99 projects with Antarctic or bipolar focus. These projects encompass at least 350 research activities, of which 82% plan to conduct fieldwork in Antarctica. Of these activities, 105 (37%) are planning to leave behind physical infrastructure. A large amount of activity has been planned around existing centers of research (e.g., the Antarctic Peninsula, Dronning Maud Land); a number of large-scale research activities has also been planned in areas which have, so far, been seldom visited (e.g., the Gamburtsev Mountains, subglacial lakes). Many of them...

The National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research (NCAOR), Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India & WWF-India organised a public lecture at National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa & Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi on March 1 2007 to celebrate the launch of IPY. Further information about the New Delhi launch can be found on the WWF-India website and the NCAOR website. As part of the IPY celebrations, the WWF-India with NCAOR, Ministry of Earth Sciences will be undertaking a series of outreach activities with schools as well as a series of public lectures t...

On March 1 2007, students at schools around the world marked the advent of International Polar year by conducting an ice experiment. They then told the IPY community and the world by pinning a virtual balloon onto a web-based map showing exactly where they were. It proved to be quite a success, with hundreds of schools contributing so far. IPY enthusiasts also joined in, turning the map into a riot of red balloons. See the whole map here. For technical reasons, browsers don't like it if you show too many balloons at one time, so only the most recent 200 balloons are shown. However, you can see all contributed posts directly by browsing the directory from ...

The International Polar Year has begun. What a week! With US and UK launches on the Monday stirring up media attention, followed by an event in Portugal on the Wednesday and over 20 more national events on the day itself, March 1st 2007, we definitely hit the news! While traveling to Paris with Nicola, to prepare for the international launch, the phone didn't stop ringing, both sides of the Channel Tunnel and even on the Paris subway system! I was contacted by journalists as diverse as New Zealand Radio, an In-flight magazine, BBC World Service, Vatican Radio, Al Jazeera English, an Italian science magazine, Chinese TV networks, and Scientific American to name a few. During the International Ceremony itself, my phone kept shaking, and afterwards, on a tour of Paris, I saw ...

Thank-you to everyone who was involved with launch events, who launched virtual balloons, who launched real balloons (see the Swedish launch web-cast!), those behind the scenes, and those on stage. IPY Celebrations around the world on March 1st, and throughout this week, have been a huge success. You can watch those you missed on the Arctic Portal, or still launch your virtual balloon now, and throughout IPY, to recognise the importance of the polar regions to the whole planet. Here is a map showing balloons that have been launched around the world (you can zoom in on where you live or zoom out to see the world map!): ...