PROMOTION OF INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION:
A DECLARATION
The Representatives,
Recommend to their Governments that they approve the following declaration on scientific research in Antarctica:
The Governments participating in the XVth Consultative Meeting:
Deeply aware of the role that Antarctica and the Southern Ocean play in interactive physical, chemical and biological processes that regulate the total Earth System;
Recognizing that,
(a) the Antarctic region has a high negative radiation budget and so acts as one of the Earth’s "refrigerators". Any changes in the budget will have global consequences on atmospheric and oceanic circulation;
(b) conditions beneath the ice shelves and the girdle of sea ice promote the formation of cold bottom water that drains northward;
(c) polar seas play an especially important role in the exchange of CO2 between ocean and atmosphere since they may be large sinks for CO2. These processes are controlled by the sea-ice formation, thermohaline convection and biological productivity;
(d) Antarctica provides unique conditions for investigating the impact of man-made pollutants on atmospheric ozone;
(e) a detailed record of past global climate and atmospheric chemistry extending over hundreds of millennia is preserved within the Antarctic ice sheet, and in the sediments of the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic continent;
(f) because climate change is predicted to be largest at high latitudes, detection of such change above the background of high natural variability is best sought in the polar regions;
(g) plant communities existing under polar conditions are sensitive to changes in temperature, and may be good indicators of climate change;
(h) the Antarctic ice sheet contains enough water to raise global sea level world-wide some 60 metres. Any greenhouse climate warning which makes even a small change to this volume of ice will have a significant impact on sea level:
Recognizing, with appreciation, that the contribution that Antarctic science can make to these scientific questions is the subject of intensive work within the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and that they have identified the following five major, interconnected, interdisciplinary research thrusts for the purpose of defining and encompassing research priorities :
(a) Detection of Changes of Global Importance Best Observed in Antarctica;
(b) Processes Linking Antarctic Ice and Biological Systems to the Global Ocean and Atmosphere;
(c) Antarctic Sources of Palaeoenvironmental Information;
(d) Ecology in the Changing Antarctic Environment;
(e) Monitoring Changes in Antarctica;
Recognising, moreover, that other scientific programmes which are not so directly relevant to issues of global change are of no less value to science;
Conscious of the need to ensure that all Antarctic activity is based on information adequate to ensure that informed judgements can be made about their environmental consequences;
Renew their commitment to the pursuit of scientific research in the Antarctic; and
Declare their intent:
1. Vigorously to pursue scientific research programmes in Antarctica in a manner which makes the most productive use of the resources available.
2. To ensure that their scientific endeavors contribute as much as possible to programmes of global significance being undertaken or being prepared by the International Council of Scientific Unions and by other international organisations.
3. To ensure that research results and observations are, in accordance with Article III of the Antarctic Treaty, made freely available and that the results of Antarctic programmes of global significance are brought to the attention of the international scientific community as rapidly as possible.
4. To ensure that activities in the Antarctic take full account of the global importance of the Antarctic as a scientific laboratory and as a place where aspects of global changes can most readily be monitored.
5. To ensure, in conformity with the declaration in Recommendation IX-5 on the Antarctic environment, that all Antarctic activity is based on information adequate to ensure that informed judgements can be made about their environmental consequences
A DECLARATION
The Representatives,
Recommend to their Governments that they approve the following declaration on scientific research in Antarctica:
The Governments participating in the XVth Consultative Meeting:
Deeply aware of the role that Antarctica and the Southern Ocean play in interactive physical, chemical and biological processes that regulate the total Earth System;
Recognizing that,
(a) the Antarctic region has a high negative radiation budget and so acts as one of the Earth’s "refrigerators". Any changes in the budget will have global consequences on atmospheric and oceanic circulation;
(b) conditions beneath the ice shelves and the girdle of sea ice promote the formation of cold bottom water that drains northward;
(c) polar seas play an especially important role in the exchange of CO2 between ocean and atmosphere since they may be large sinks for CO2. These processes are controlled by the sea-ice formation, thermohaline convection and biological productivity;
(d) Antarctica provides unique conditions for investigating the impact of man-made pollutants on atmospheric ozone;
(e) a detailed record of past global climate and atmospheric chemistry extending over hundreds of millennia is preserved within the Antarctic ice sheet, and in the sediments of the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic continent;
(f) because climate change is predicted to be largest at high latitudes, detection of such change above the background of high natural variability is best sought in the polar regions;
(g) plant communities existing under polar conditions are sensitive to changes in temperature, and may be good indicators of climate change;
(h) the Antarctic ice sheet contains enough water to raise global sea level world-wide some 60 metres. Any greenhouse climate warning which makes even a small change to this volume of ice will have a significant impact on sea level:
Recognizing, with appreciation, that the contribution that Antarctic science can make to these scientific questions is the subject of intensive work within the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and that they have identified the following five major, interconnected, interdisciplinary research thrusts for the purpose of defining and encompassing research priorities :
(a) Detection of Changes of Global Importance Best Observed in Antarctica;
(b) Processes Linking Antarctic Ice and Biological Systems to the Global Ocean and Atmosphere;
(c) Antarctic Sources of Palaeoenvironmental Information;
(d) Ecology in the Changing Antarctic Environment;
(e) Monitoring Changes in Antarctica;
Recognising, moreover, that other scientific programmes which are not so directly relevant to issues of global change are of no less value to science;
Conscious of the need to ensure that all Antarctic activity is based on information adequate to ensure that informed judgements can be made about their environmental consequences;
Renew their commitment to the pursuit of scientific research in the Antarctic; and
Declare their intent:
1. Vigorously to pursue scientific research programmes in Antarctica in a manner which makes the most productive use of the resources available.
2. To ensure that their scientific endeavors contribute as much as possible to programmes of global significance being undertaken or being prepared by the International Council of Scientific Unions and by other international organisations.
3. To ensure that research results and observations are, in accordance with Article III of the Antarctic Treaty, made freely available and that the results of Antarctic programmes of global significance are brought to the attention of the international scientific community as rapidly as possible.
4. To ensure that activities in the Antarctic take full account of the global importance of the Antarctic as a scientific laboratory and as a place where aspects of global changes can most readily be monitored.
5. To ensure, in conformity with the declaration in Recommendation IX-5 on the Antarctic environment, that all Antarctic activity is based on information adequate to ensure that informed judgements can be made about their environmental consequences
