Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Celebrating the Launch of the International Polar Year.
An opportunity for Inquiry in Arts and Sciences

The Ice Fest, a community-wide event to celebrate the beginning of the International Polar Year, was held March 8th to the 11th, 2007 on the CU-Boulder campus. With a wide variety of activities around the theme of ice and snow, polar research and climate studies, Ice Fest included science talks, films, presentations and a range of demonstrations and activities.

Highlights included presentations by National Geographic photographer James Balog and Antarctic photographer Rosemarie Keough of their spectacular images of polar regions, Astronaut Don Pettit's keynote talk comparing and contrasting experiences on the International Space Station and in Antarctica, and Boulder filmmaker of Serac Adventure films Michael Brown sharing his experience and showed the BBC film The Climate Crisis.

Two key events on the weekend were held in the new ATLAS building to involve the community:

FAMILY DAY on Saturday, March 10th, which began with a live video conference with the NOAA Barrow Station and included numerous presentations by world renown experts.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY on Sunday, March 11th, which included a presentation on the climate crisis by 14 year old Alex Budd and a panel discussion by climate and energy experts.

The International Polar Year, or IPY, which began March 1 and runs to March 2009, builds on a 125 year legacy of intensive, international collaboration and cooperation. The first IPY was in 1882-83. The most recent was expanded into the International Geophysical Year 1957-58.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Event Blogs
Ice Fest, Mark McCaffrey

Concurrent Events
Polar Regions: Images & Tales
Nederland Winter Festival

Event Flier: PDF