President's Page
DANIEL A. BENNETT, EXPLORERS CLUB PRESIDENT
This month marks the launch of the fourth International Polar Year (IPY), an intense program to study the Arctic and Antarctic in a coordinated manner. The first IPY took place in 1882 in an attempt to put aside 19thcentury nationalistic land grabbing in favor of a concerted effort to study the regions north of the Arctic Circle. Eleven nations established 14 research stations where more than 700 men endured service in these extreme environments.
Members of The Explorers Club should remember that our roots start deep in the polar regions. Our roster includes polar giants: Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen, Cook, Peary, Henson, Byrd, Ronne, and many other less-known names. You may have seen the painting in the library of our New York headquarters depicting the rescue of our first president, Lt. Adolphus W. Greely, and his fellow survivors on June 22, 1884, after their extended suffering and the deaths of 19 comrades in the service of IPY-1. The Explorers Club is the proud repository of the large bronze bell from their rescue vessel, the Bear. To this day, we clang the bell to announce the start of our lectures and to ring in our famous annual dinners.
In 1886 Greely wrote, “The scientific work of these stations must be justly measured by the final result.”Yet, few essential new scientific discoveries were actually made as a result of the first IPY. The information these men had suffered so hard to bring back was never properly coordinated and analyzed. In the end, each country independently published its observations, and the International Polar Commission quietly dissolved.
Today, according to the NOAA, the three fastest-warming regions on the planet are Alaska, Siberia, and parts of the Antarctic Peninsula. Since the polar regions are highly sensitive to climate change, results generated from the current IPY will have relevance and interest to all members of society. Fortunately, the ability for scientists and researchers to communicate and share information instantly will far exceed the limited reach of Greely’s day.
The Explorers Club is proud of its members who served in that first IPY and those that followed. Once again, the Club can claim that its members have been there since the time when the modern world first began to invest in the importance of polar places.
