U.S. Arctic Research Commission Report on Goals and Objectives for Arctic Research for the U.S. Arctic Research Plan, 2007

摘要

Our stewardship of the Arctic and the policies that we establish require an underpinning of knowledge that can come only from scientific research. As such, this report identifies and conveys to President Bush and to Congress the nations high-priority goals and objectives for Arctic research. In short, the goals are to renew our mission in Arctic research through novel investments and by reorganizing, revising, and reprioritizing existing assets and opportunities. We must strengthen Federal Arctic research programs, and initiate a few new ones. In so doing, we must also engage and encourage the cooperation and collaboration of Federal, State, local, and Native governments and international partners. The Commissions five specific research foci for the U.S. Arctic Research Plan in 2007-2009 are: Environmental Change of the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea; Arctic Human Health; Civil Infrastructure; Natural Resource Assessment and Earth Science; Indigenous Language, Identity, and Culture. These themes span a wide range of basic and applied research topics, from earth system science, to human health initiatives, to the social sciences, and to engineering and technology development. Arctic changes and their relation to global climate change is the thread that weaves together all five. This goals report coincides with the beginning of the first International Polar Year (IPY) in 50 years. From March 2007 to March 2009, the IPY will concentrate the efforts of scientists from over 60 nations to initiate, conduct and share the results of polar scientific research, and to create a legacy of human resources and infrastructure that will provide an enduring benefit to mankind. The IPY will demonstrate that while the poles are geographically far from centers of global population, they are proximal in terms of consequence. For example, only eight nations directly ring the Arctic, but all nations are affected by global sea level rise from the melting of polar ice sheets. If, for example, Greenlands ice sheet melts completely, how will humanity respond to a global sea level rise of 21 feet. Scientific research, and dissemination and use of the results, will determine our options for preventing, mitigating, or adapting to changes in the Arctic.