IPY 2007–2008: Where Threads of the Double Helix and Sputnik Intertwine

Abstract

Although the data-gathering phase of International Polar Year (IPY) 2007–2008 has ended and many people have declared success, more stringent criteria for success should include data shared freely, widely, and openly and the development and wide dispersal of useful polar prediction and protection strategies and products. Several barriers hinder progress toward data sharing and prediction, including individual resistance to sharing, the absence of incentives for such sharing, the absence of prediction frameworks appropriate to polar systems, and inadequate interactions with “customers” of the prediction services or protection recommendations. Surmounting these barriers would represent a powerful and enduring impact of this IPY. Several examples and developments described in this chapter provide hints and possibilities of real progress. This IPY stimulated an unprecedented convergence of satellite and genetic data. With energy, collaboration, innovation, and common purpose in the best IPY traditions, we can weave skillful predictions and strong protections from the threads of the double helix and Sputnik.