Quick Take
On September 18, I had the honor of giving closing reflections at a White House celebration of the 40th anniversary of the signing into law of the 1984 Arctic Research and Policy Act. ARPA is the cornerstone of an edifice of U.S. Arctic research and strategy that has been under construction ever since. The Act created the U.S. Arctic Research Commission and Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC), and it made the National Science Foundation the lead agency for Arctic research. It has played a signficant role in the remarkable trajectory over this period of the institutional arrangements for overseeing U.S. and internationally collaborative Arctic research, the advances in scientific understanding that have emerged from this work, and the parallel rise of Arctic issues on national and global policy agendas. While celebrating the achievements in Arctic research and policy over the past four decades, we must not forget the path forward - facing growing Arctic challenges, above all those driven or exacerbated by the rapid climate change being experienced across the region.
The Arctic is special to our nation in many ways. Arctic residents help feed, fuel, provision, protect, connect and inspire the world. Access to the Arctic begins first with knowledge. We can’t maintain biodiversity, productive oceans, stable climate, sustainable economic development and healthy Arctic communities without credible knowledge. The legacy of the 1984 ARPA is that the U.S. can pursue its goals in the Arctic, as varied as they may be, with a good and growing basis of knowledge and understanding.
- From "40 Years of Innovation in Arctic Research," Anchorage Daily News