2007 International Polar Year

Various: The UN will launch tomorrow the 2007 International Polar Year. The research project, which will cost $350-million to $1.5-billion, involves more than 60 countries and 10,000 scientists studying climate, geology, and biology of the two polar regions. Nearly every major media outlet is reporting the start of the IPY, including the Christian Science Monitor, the BBC, the New York Times, and the Middle East Times. The IPY is the fourth such integrated Artic and Antarctic science effort since 1882 says the New York Times. The last such effort, the International Geophysical Year was fifty years ago. Unlike the IGY, the IPY "is a very grass-roots effort," says Robin Bell, a senior scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y to the Christian Science Monitor.