Political-Free Interest May Lead to Loan Money
Antarctica is the least explored or understood of the continents. However, this year the southernmost continent is going to be part of a concentration of scientific interest. This is due to the announcement of 2007 being the beginning of the International Polar Year (which actually begins in March and runs through 2008). This will be the fourth International Polar Year (or IPY) in history. The first was in 1882-1883, the second in 1932-1933 and the most recent being 50 years ago in 1957-1958.The IPY is an international scientific investigation and study of the polar regions of the earth. Each participating nation’s scientific group is committing to a free exchange of research methods and findings. Rather than putting in individual scientists on loan to another team or nation, each group will operate with a common interest for all.
This current interest in the north and south poles is due in great part to the acknowledgement of global warming. Ice has become the main interest of much of the research involved in this IPY, as the current loss of ice (almost an unpaid loan of ice to the sea) has a direct impact on the entire globe. Many ice floats have been breaking free of the mass of Arctic ice, and the ice that surrounds the continent of Antarctica. This has produced alarm and interest in scientists due to the fact that life abounds in and around the ice that is breaking free from its former home.
The very ice supports a vast and rich ecosystem, beginning with the algae that live within the ice. These algae transform the sunlight to more algae growth. This growth, in turn, feeds larger organisms, up and up the food chain, eventually reaching polar bears, everyone’s favorite symbol of the polar world. As the ice breaks free from the polar ice sheets and floats out to sea, the algae production is effected. The scientists need to study the effects of this loan of ice to the sea and discover what the effect is on the polar ecosystem.
It is hoped that this IPY will help to bring more interest of the effects of global warming to the forefront of social and political thought. The free exchange of research across international lines will also hopefully bring about the effect of producing more grant and loan money, similar to a personal payday loan except on a larger scale, to further scientific research into the fragile ecosystem of the polar world. With greater knowledge into the effects of global activity on an ecosystem that has had relatively little direct contact with humanity, we should learn more about what we can do to help the earth as a whole.
Other articles of interest: