The big conference opened today with over 3,000 teachers, scientists, policy makers, and indigenous people gathered in one room and focused on polar knowledge! It’s a pretty cool site to be with so many people that you have something in common with. There are 47 countries represented here from the polar regions all the way to equator. Everyone has a huge interest in reviewing the latest research on climate change because everyone here understands that this issue will affect us all over the next several decades, and they all want to be part of the solution.
The Palais is a nice place to have a conference.
The conference is being held in the Palais de congres de Montreal. It is a very nice building that looks very colorful from the outside and has a convention center and an entire shopping mall inside. We can actually walk to the center from the hotel without every going outside. There is a series of walkways and malls that run under ground for several blocks, so we don’t have to walk out in the rain. And it has been raining a bunch! It is colder here than it was in Alaska when I left. The large main meeting room in the center was packed with people this morning when the director opened the meeting. We even had a speech given by the Premier of Quebec Province there. The room looked great all decked out in blue lights. After the opening, we had some time to walk around the displays put up by the sponsors of the conference. These are the organizations the helped to fund and organize the conference, and are the groups that work in both the Arctic and the Antarctic. I was able to pick up some nice stuff there that I’m sure I can award to those students that have been interested in the project and asked good questions during the expedition. I have a few people in mind.
There were over 3,000 polar people in the main room when the conference began!
Also today was my poster session. I was able to hang my poster in the correct space and then I spent my time block standing by it talking with folks and answering questions that the scientists had about my work and my students. It went really well with a lot of people coming by with good conversations and ideas. I also walked around a bit and spoke with other presenters about their work outlined in their posters. It’s a great way to share information with a large number of interested people in a short amount of time, in an informal way. And finally, today was my birthday! What a great way to spend this day enjoying new and old friends, talking about the poles and learning a bunch of science! We had a gathering later on where I was surprised by the group with cake, some small wonderful gifts, and a rousing round of singing. Science and life are good!
Mr. Wood is wearing the shirt the Dr. Natali gave him from the University of Florida