Polar Exposition

Simon Constable

	White Out

When professor Stephanie Pfirman tells her students at Barnard College what it takes to succeed as a polar explorer, she does so with the deep knowledge of one who has triumphed. Still, she acknowledges that it's tougher for women.

The veteran of arctic adventuring points to an episode when she spent one month as the lone female aboard a small boat with 30 explorers as an example of just how much males dominate the discipline.

It can be difficult for women to even get into the field, which adds another obstacle en route to either pole.

But on March 10, when Pfirman helps kick off New York City's two-day celebration of International Polar Year (IPY), she'll be hoping at least a few more femmes follow her lead. The event, which will be held at Manhattan's American Museum of Natural History, includes lectures, performances and film shows by top Arctic and Antarctic scientists, as well as an interactive science fair.

"I'm really trying to get them to be more adventurous," says Pfirman of her women students. "What I'm trying to teach them is leadership, and how to make the most of different situations."

So how will aspiring adventurers know if they've got the stuff to be the next Ernest Shackleton, the famed (but thwarted) explorer of the South Pole from the early 20th century?

Well, they could take the short 30-question quiz offered at the polar fair, says Debika Shome, assistant director at the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at New York's Columbia University. Perhaps not coincidentally, Shome was one of Pfirman's former Barnard students.

The test, which Shome will be administering both days of the fair, measures attitudes toward risk in several facets of life.

"People who do polar exploring are usually recreational risk takers," Shome notes.

To view Simon Constable's video take of today's Good Life segment, click here.

Global Effort

Whether IPY as a whole succeeds in fostering more junior explorers remains to be seen, but its frequency can't be helping that much. The last such IPY took place half a century ago from 1957-58, and the current one marks only the fourth ever.

Bavarian scientist Georg von Neumayer proposed the first International Polar Year as a cost-efficient way to record geophysical measurements at different locations around the globe. After seven years of preparation, 12 countries participated in the first IPY undertakings from 1882 to 1883.

Some of the past IPY activities have actually lasted more than a year, as the poles recieve only six months' worth of sunlight per year (although some of that is for 24 hours a day). This IPY, too, will last 24 months, until March 2009.

At the center of this IPY is an effort to discover what exactly is happening at the poles -- in particular, the wider impact of climate change, most notably the significant effects of global warming.

For instance, TheStreet.com readers might be interested to know whether the retreating Arctic icecap could positively affect global trade.

And perhaps it could -- as the ice melts, shipping lanes could widen. This could open up a more viable northern route for commercial shipping, notes Pfirman, who is also chairwoman of the department of environmental science at Barnard. In turn, that might reduce energy costs associated with hauling goods that previously were moved via the Panama Canal.

In addition, less ice in the Arctic could mean greater access to certain mineral resources in Siberia, northern Norway, Alaska and Canada's Northern Territories.

It remains to be seen, but climate change could even open the way for more extensive mineral exploration. That could be good news for basic industry firms such as Exxon Mobil(XOM Quote), BP(BP Quote), BHP(BHP Quote) or Rio Tinto(RTP Quote).

Pfirman is careful to point out she's not advocating such a plan, and adds that business-led exploration is not something that will likely happen any time soon in the Antarctic, thanks to an international treaty banning commercial exploration at the South Pole.

Cold-Weather Culture

Presentations at the polar weekend event will also look at softer sciences such as anthropology, a discipline that got its start thanks to the combined efforts of both polar exploration and the AMNH, explains Dave Thomas, curator of anthropology at the museum. Thomas now holds the same position as Franz Boas, the man considered the father of modern anthropology.

	Subglacial Exploration in Antartica
	Photo: Michael Studinger, Columbia U.

"In Boas' time, during the 19th century, polar Inuits [Eskimos] were viewed as living fossils," says Thomas. Boas wasn't convinced and "sent out his own researchers to see if that was true."

Boas' discoveries changed the way scientists look at mankind -- from a paradigm where "race was destiny," to a world where biology was only one of a number of factors in how people lived -- says Thomas.

Not to be left out, the Inuits themselves will be providing the welcome music for the weekend celebration, with traditional throat-singing performances set for noon for both days -- Elaine Charnov, director of education at AMNH, describes else what to expect in our on-location video.

Those wishing to learn more about global climate change or contribute to International Polar Year activities can contact the World Meteorological Organization.

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