SENAT
Report n° 230 (2006-2007) by M. Christian GAUDIN, Senator (for the parliament office for the evaluation of scientific and technological choices)
Disponible au format Acrobat (12 Moctets)
II. OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE INTERNATIONAL POLAR YEAR IN FRANCE BY MR. CHRISTIAN PONCELET, PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
Your Highness, and, I would like to add, my dear friend,
Honourable Ministers,
President of the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices, my dear colleague and friend,
Honourable Members of Parliament,
President of the CNRS and of the International Council for Science,
Addressing all of you without distinction, let me say simply and sincerely, my dear friends,
I would like to offer all of you the warmest of welcomes to the Senate of the French Republic. It is my pleasure to welcome you here on behalf of the entire Senate. I hope you look back with the fondest of memories to your participation in this event and your visit to the Senate.
It is an honour and a pleasure for me to now solemnly open here in France an event of great scientific consequence: the fourth International Polar Year, which will come to an end on 1 March 2009.
A place for projections and dialogue between political, scientific and economic representatives, our High Assembly, the very incarnation of political power, is pleased to gather together here for the very first time such a learned gathering of scientists, researchers, personalities and experts directly concerned with research at the poles, where most of the questions the world is currently asking itself with regard to its changing environment are to be found.
The extreme quality of this assembly confirms the realization of the importance of studying our planet's poles with regard to such urgent and fundamental societal issues as climate change, the evolving ozone layer and the modification of biodiversity. Progress in the polar sciences is greatly indebted to this succession of International Polar Years - which, you should remember, began in 1882.
A veritable turning point in the history of scientific research, these events gave birth to and later reinforced the spirit of international cooperation. Thus, the second IPY, which was held from 1932 to 1933, allowed for progress to be made in the fields of meteorology, geomagnetism and the atmospheric sciences, as well as in the mapping of ionospheric phenomena.
However, excepting perhaps the exploits of Captain Cook, there has been no event of greater significance in the history of polar research than the International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958, which gathered together no less than 61 nations.
It allowed American physicists to measure the potential of radar and other technologies developed during the Second World War. It also allowed for the setting up of an international research programme for the collecting of data on such diverse subjects as the upper atmosphere, the ice caps and the theory - for a long time controversial - of continental drift. It met with such success that it led to the drawing up of first the Antarctic Treaty, signed in 1959, and then the 1991 Madrid Protocol for the protection of this exceptional environment.
The planning of this fourth International Polar Year, which we are inaugurating today, has found a great echo at a particularly critical moment in the Earth's history, due in particular to the emergence of global warming. It should generate large-scale international programmes, as much in the northern as the southern hemisphere. All of the sciences, including the social sciences, are concerned by this set of issues.
An Inuit circumpolar conference gathers together the various populations of the Arctic regions, for the native populations of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Scandinavia and Russia are the first victims of climate change, the effects of which are greater above the polar circle.
Thus, for the very first time, an International Polar Year will be devoted to better understanding social and human specificities. Whether for climate change or the conservation of biodiversity, the polar regions are exceptional research sites which considerably amplify what can be felt in our lower latitudes. It is at the poles that our planet's archives are to be found: their evolution anticipates future changes for the rest of the planet.
In the coming months, under the aegis of the ICSU and the WMO, various events will place the poles, as well as the men and women studying them, in the news.
In addition to these geophysical considerations, the polar regions - both terrestrial and marine, areas of the most amazing contrasts and superlatives - have long fascinated man, whether for their grandiose, icy landscapes or for the emblematic animals that live there.
For its part, the Senate couldn't let such an opportunity pass it by. That is why the railing of the Luxembourg Gardens - a privileged site for outdoor art exhibitions, that I had the opportunity of inaugurating for the first time - could exhibit, I hope, in 2008, wonderful images and photographs of the poles thanks to Nicolas Mingasson.
Just as opportunely, the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices - currently presided over by my colleague and friend, Senator Revol - has just published the excellent report on polar research prepared by our friend Christian Gaudin. Christian Gaudin, it should be remembered, is the first member of the French Parliament to have visited the Antarctic continent.
I would therefore like to take this opportunity to pay particular tribute to the quality of the work carried out by this office common to both the National Assembly and the Senate and to warmly congratulate its coordinators, to whom we also owe the initiative for today's meeting.
I'm particularly delighted at the link that has thus been established between the political world and the diffusers of scientific culture, at this alliance between the French Republic and its scientists that I have hoped and prayed for ever since I became President of the Senate in 1998. Finally, this International Polar Year provides the various research fields with an exceptional showcase, through numerous exhibitions, books, films, conferences and debates throughout France.
France has always managed to occupy an important place in the scientific and technological research of the polar regions. It has had, in the recent past, its famous explorers: Dumont d'Urville, Charcot and, even more recently, Paul-Emile Victor. Its presence in the austral and Antarctic lands of Adélie Land allows scientists to work in the best possible conditions at permanent bases well suited to the carrying out of their research, in particular thanks to the regular service to these sites provided by our large ships, such as the Marion Dufresne .
In the coming months, our country will participate in 55 of the 200 scientific projects selected by an international committee. The CNRS and IPEV are called upon to play a decisive role in this early-21st-century adventure. In addition, thanks to their know-how, acquired over decades of on-site expeditions, this indispensable "spotlighting" directed by the polar-based activities has an excellent chance of shedding light on such emerging research fields as astronomy (in particular with regard to infrared observations) or the behavioural study of researchers in a confined environment (in preparation for future space missions).
The international scientific community can therefore realistically hope to make a considerable leap forward during this period that opens today, here at the Senate. We are indeed proud to be able to host this event.
Meaningful and productive exchanges should also be prompted by this afternoon's conference, which Prince Albert II of Monaco, whom I very respectfully salute once again, was eager to honour with his presence. I would like to offer him the warmest of welcomes and present him with my sincerest thanks.
We thank you, Your Highness, for your presence here today and for your having renewed your family's great tradition that was begun by your great-great-grandfather Albert I, a pioneer of modern oceanography, with a passion for the social sciences and anthropology - the very incarnation of an ecological conscience well before its time. It should be pointed out that from the very beginning of your reign, you have personally committed yourself to protecting the environment. The expedition you led from Barneo to the North Pole in April 2006 is a lesson in humility and respect. Therefore, allow me to conclude my speech with a quote by Your Highness: "Man must not go against the forces of Nature, but rather draw from it his strength".
Ladies and gentlemen, my dear friends, I solemnly declare open in France, here at the Senate, the fourth International Polar Year. May it allow for much progress to be made and may it be rich in those values common to all of Earth's inhabitants.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Bruno ROUGIER
Thank you, Mister President, to have officially opened this International Polar Year with your habitual good humour. I am sure that the scientists present at this assembly have been deeply touched by the favour you have done us by coming here to open this IPY.
Now that this IPY has been officially opened, let us begin the scientific portion of this meeting. We will now welcome the Minister of Ecology and Sustainable Development, Nelly Olin, who, by way of an introduction, will explain to us the main issues of this International Polar Year, in particular with regard to climate change and biodiversity.