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‘From Knowledge to Action’ – Tides Canada participates in shaping the final International Polar Year conference
Tides Canada Program Officer Kim Hardy has returned from Montreal where she was helping to shape the content and agenda for the International Polar Year (IPY) closing conference that Canada will host in Montreal in April 2012. IPY is a global research initiative – actually several years in duration – focused on the Arctic and on Antarctica. It occurs infrequently (the last one took place in 1957/1958!) and the current effort involves over 80,000 scientists from 67 countries. The high-profile meeting will draw international attention to the polar regions, their varied roles in global change, and related environmental, social and economic issues.
The IPY has historically been oriented toward academic research and has sometimes been criticized for not linking the valuable findings it produces to practical applications for industry, non-government organizations (NGOs) and northern communities (unlike Antarctica, the Arctic has had human inhabitants for millennia). The IPY 2012 Conference aspires to rectify this and has been given the theme “From Knowledge to Action”.
The conference will bring together over 2,500 Arctic and Antarctic researchers, policy- and decision-makers, and a broad range of interested parties from academia, industry, government, NGOs, and circumpolar peoples to discuss the last 5 years of IPY research findings and their implications. The conference will also feature an Indigenous Knowledge Exchange with programming developed by Indigenous peoples to highlight areas of importance for Arctic community members, Indigenous Arctic decision-makers, researchers and youth. You can take a peek at the evolving conference program right here.
Photo | Andy Wright
