**Director Mark Myers Talking Points**

**USGS International Polar Year Kickoff**

**March 30, 2007**

**USGS Auditorium**

-   **I'd like to welcome all of you to the USGS Kickoff of the
    International Polar Year.**

-   **IPY brings scientists from more than 60 countries and across
    disciplines together to conduct coordinated research programs in the
    Arctic and Antarctic - - offering a tremendous opportunity for
    scientific collaboration and discovery.**

-   **Global climate change is one of the most complex and formidable
    challenges facing society today. While climate change is in part a
    natural, continuous Earth process, changes to the Earth's natural
    climate are related to human activities as well.**

-   **Understanding changing conditions in the polar regions of our
    planet is critical in enhancing our knowledge of the global climate
    system and its effects on planet Earth and its inhabitants.**

-   **Since the last IPY, we have seen that:**

    -   **The Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers world wide are thinning
        and retreating;**

    -   **Permafrost is thawing; and**

    -   **Arctic sea-ice cover is decreasing**

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-   **As the former state geologist and a long-time resident of Alaska,
    I have seen some of this happening firsthand and the direct impact
    it is having on the wildlife, ecosystems, infrastructure and local
    population. \[Mark you may want to add more of your personal
    experience\]**

-   **The International Polar Year provides USGS a great opportunity to
    showcase our longstanding science work in the Arctic and Antarctica
    and highlight our science research planned during this 2-year period
    and beyond.**

-   **It also provides us an opportunity to engage the public in polar
    science discovery and hopefully inspire a new generation of young
    scientists.**

-   **The USGS has a long-standing history of conducting research,
    monitoring and modeling of climate change and its physical and
    biological impacts in the polar regions including the Antarctica,
    the Arctic and sub-Arctic.**

-   **Previous activities include:**

    -   **Topographic mapping and geodetic control in Antarctica;**

    -   **Satellite and ground-based monitoring of glaciers and ice
        caps;**

    -   **Research on movements, distribution patters and adaptation of
        polar wildlife;**

    -   **Operation of the seismic array at the South Pole**

    -   **Estimations of energy resources of the circum-Arctic;**

    -   **Mapping of the distribution of circum-arctic vegetation; and
        the**

    -   **Development of Paleoclimate records from Alaskan sediments and
        polar ice cores.**

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-   **Our participation in IPY allows us to continue to conduct research
    and long-term monitoring of the polar regions.**

-   **During IPY, our activities will focus on:**

    -   **Documenting planet wide changes in glaciers**

    -   **Arctic sea ice change and its impact on animals and
        ecosystems**

    -   **Completion of the Arctic Petroleum Resource Assessment**

    -   **Mosaic of Antarctica from more than 1,200 Landsat scenes**

    -   **Permafrost thawing in the Yukon and other impacts due to
        climate change**

    -   **Providing access to more than 400,000 aerial photos dating
        back to the 1940;s**

    -   **Intensive research and monitoring at three benchmark U.S.
        glaciers in Washington and Alaska**

        -   **You will be hearing shortly from some of the scientists
            who will be carrying out these activities.**

        -   **I encourage all of you to visit the USGS IPY web site - -
            [www.usgs.gov/ipy](http://www.usgs.gov/ipy) - - to learn
            more about our ongoing activities.**

        -   **Thank you.**