Planet in Focus announces Spotlight Program: Polar Vision!

Planet in Focus 8th annual festival will run from Wednesday, October 24th - Sunday, October 28th, 2007. The venues have not yet been determined, we will continue to keep you posted and let you know about upcoming announcements. So hold those dates!!

2007 Festival Spotlight: Polar Visions

In celebration of the 125th anniversary of International Polar Year, an initiative that launched international scientific Polar research and exploration in the late 19th Century, Planet in Focus will spotlight works from and about the Circumpolar regions of the Arctic and the Antarctic. Special consideration will be given to works covering the themes of International Polar Year: atmosphere, ice, land, oceans, people and space. Though including research and findings carried out by teams from beyond the Circumpolar regions and the Antarctic, the nations and regions most impacted by the changing polar regions are Canada, Denmark/Greenland, the Russian Federation, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, United States, Norway and the Antarctic.

Beginning on March 1st 2007, events will be launched around the globe to kickstart a renewed international effort to understand and analyze the uniqueness of our polar regions and their vital importance to our own planet. From March 2007 to March 2009, International Polar Year organized through the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) will involve over 200 projects, with thousands of scientists from over 60 nations examining a wide range of physical, biological and social research topics. It is actually the fourth polar year, following those in 1882-3, 1932-3, and 1957-8. Planet in Focus 2007 will keep those regions in focus and we will contribute in building awareness of the ecological and social health of our polar world.