[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 76 (Wednesday, May 21, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1031]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CELEBRATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL GEOPHYSICAL YEAR 
     AND SUPPORTING AN INTERNATIONAL GEOPHYSICAL YEAR-2 IN 2007-08

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 21, 2003

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, today I introduce legislation 
calling for a worldwide program of activities to commemorate the 50th 
anniversary of the most successful global scientific endeavor in human 
history--the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58. I am pleased 
that my colleague Representative Ehlers--the Chairman of the 
Environment, Technology, and Standards Subcommittee of the Science 
Committee--is joining me as an original cosponsor of this legislation.
  Indeed, it is hard to imagine not commemorating the historic global 
undertaking that was the International Geophysical Year, popularly 
known and remembered as the IGY. Yet such may occur unless steps 
proposed in this resolution for an ``IGY-2'' in 2007-2008 are not taken 
soon.
  The 60 nations and 60,000 scientists who participated in the IGY left 
an ongoing legacy that is beyond measure. Satellite communications, 
modern weather forecasting, modern natural disaster prediction and 
management, from volcanic eruptions to El Nino--they are all legacies 
of IGY scientific activities that girdled the globe and breached the 
space frontier.
  The space age itself is a child of the IGY. The program of events 
included the launching of the first artificial satellites, Sputnik and 
Vanguard. The IGY also produced the pathbreaking decision to set aside 
an entire continent--Antarctica--for cooperative study. This IGY 
program alone--which was permanently institutionalized by the 
Antarctica Treaty--made the year a scientific triumph. Six of my 
colleagues on the Science Committee recently returned from Antarctica 
and have testified to the ongoing organizational effectiveness and 
scientific payoff of this remarkable IGY legacy.
  In a still broader context, the IGY marked the coming of age of 
international science. Globally coordinated activities that save 
millions of lives today--such as the campaigns to contain and find 
cures for SARS and AIDS--owe their inspiration and working model to the 
unprecedented number of scientists from throughout the world who banded 
together to implement the IGY. Scientific findings from thousands of 
locations, ranging from world research centers to remote field 
stations, were collected and organized by this global team. The result 
was an unprecedented range of discoveries for human benefit. The great 
British geophysicist Sydney Chapman, who helped conceive the IGY, 
called it ``the greatest example of world-wide scientific cooperation 
in the history of our race.''
  My resolution calls for an ``IGY-2'' that would be even more 
extensive in its global reach and more comprehensive in its research 
and applications. After all, science never stands still. Its frontiers 
are continually expanding. The biological sciences, genetics, computer 
sciences, and the neurosciences, among others, have made tremendous 
advances worldwide during the half century since the IGY. At the same 
time, new integrative linkages are being established among mathematics, 
physics, the geosciences, the life sciences, the social sciences, and 
the humanities as well.

  As a consequence, there is a coming together in the study of our 
planet and its diverse inhabitants whose potential scope and 
significance is only beginning to be perceived even among those 
directly involved. In addition to promoting research, IGY-2 would 
provide a stage for showcasing these new developments and a forum for 
presentation and discussion of their continually unfolding cultural as 
well as scientific significance.
  Indeed, one of IGY-2's most important contributions would be to 
enhance public awareness of global activities that provide hope and 
example in an era when conflict and strife occupy the foreground of 
public policy and public attention. George Kistiakowsky, science 
adviser to President Dwight Eisenhower under whose presidency the IGY 
occurred, said at the time: ``Science is today one of the few common 
languages of mankind; it can provide a basis for understanding and 
communication of ideas between people that is independent of political 
boundaries and ideologies [and] that can contribute in a major way to 
the reduction of tension between nations.''
  Those words spoken more than 40 years ago resonate with special 
significance today when the web of global ties among scientists is so 
much more extensive yet still largely unrecognized. We are catching a 
glimpse of its saving potential in the inspiring worldwide response of 
scientists and public health professionals to the SARS outbreak--a 
response inconceivable without the collaborative lines of communication 
established during the past half century. At a minimum, the work of 
these unsung heroes deserves greater recognition than it has received--
and IGY-2 would do that.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, it is entirely fitting that the United States 
take the lead in launching an IGY-2 and that Congress provide the 
impetus. The IGY of 1957-58 was conceived in 1950 only a few miles from 
here, in Silver Spring, MD, at a dinner hosted by Professor James Van 
Allen and attended by scientist-friends from Europe, including Sydney 
Chapman. They discussed the International Polar Years that had been 
held at 50 year intervals--first in 1882, then in 1932. The next one 
was scheduled for 1982. Over a barbecue in Van Allen's backyard, these 
visionary scientists came up with the idea of accelerating the schedule 
to a 25-year interval, which would occur in 1957, and expanding its 
coverage to the entire globe, so as to take full advantage of rapid 
advances in research and instrumentation. They took their idea to 
governments and scientific organizations and they made it happen. 
Fittingly, James Van Allen won the Nobel Prize for discovery during the 
IGY of the radiation belts that bear his name.
  Subsequently, in 1985, Congress passed a resolution calling for a 
year of globally coordinated space activity in 1992, to mark the 
simultaneously occurring 35th anniversary of the IGY and 500th 
anniversary of Columbus' voyage of discovery. The bipartisan resolution 
for this International Space Year, or ISY, was introduced by Senator 
Spark Matsunaga and endorsed by President Reagan. At the President's 
direction, the United States led a worldwide planning effort that 
culminated with the implementation of an ISY in 1992 that made major 
contributions to international scientific cooperation, notably in the 
field of global environmental monitoring.
  So we have both scientific and Congressional precedent for the United 
States to take the lead internationally in calling for an IGY-2. I urge 
my colleagues to join me in promoting this initiative in support of 
modern science and the inspiration to our troubled planet that its 
global outlook can provide. I have no doubt that the contributions to 
humanity of an IGY-2 will be remembered with gratitude both in the near 
future and for generations to come.

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