JUN-15-85 SAT 13:10M 30554935376
JUNE 15, 1985
VIA FACSIMILE
FROM:
████████████████████, DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES, ██████████████████████████, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
TO:
████████████████ CHAIRMAN, NA████████████████████████████████S
████████████████ TREASURER, ████████████████████████████████████
██████████████, FINANCIAL SUBCOMMITEE, S████████████████████████████████████████████
RE: OSTROV VINER-NEYSTADT ANOMALY & ICICP FUNDING
I AM WRITING ON BEHALF OF A TEAM OF GEOLOGISTS AND CLIMATOLOGISTS WHO FOR THE PAST YEAR HAVE BEEN WORKING TOGETHER ON THE
INTERNATIONAL POLAR ICE CORE PROJECT (IPICP).
THE PURPOSE OF IPICP, AS YOU MAY ALREADY KNOW, ISTO OBTAIN ICE CORE SAMPLES FROM MULTIPLE LOCATIONS WITHIN THE ARCTIC
CIRCLE, IN AN EFFORT TO ACHIEVE A BROAD CROSS-SECTION OF DATA, TO BETTER UNDERSTAND LONG-TERM CYCLES OF GLBAL CLIMATE
CHANGE, AS WELL AS DETERMINE WHETHER HUMANKIND HAS HAD A MEASURABLE IMPACT ON THE ARCTIC ICE SHEET OVER THE PAST 100 YEARS
OF INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING PROCESSES. IT IS ESTIMATED THAT ICE CORE SAMPLES CAN YIELD VALUABLE DATA FROM 50 YEARS UP TO
200,000 YEARS DEPENDING ON LOCATION AND DEPTH OF THE SAMPLE TAKEN. ALTHOUGH A SINGLE ICE CORE SAMPLE CAN PROVIDE A LIMITED
BUT USEFUL DATA SET, THE BROAD SCOPE OF IPICP WOULD GUARANTEE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE ICE CORE DATA EVER GATHERED. WE ARE
AT A CROSSROADS AS A SPECIES AS WE HAVE ONLY RECENTLY BEGUN TO UNDERSTAND THE EFFECT HUMANKIND HAS ON THE GLOBAL CLIMATE -
"ACID RAIN" IN THE NEWS, NUCLEAR WASTE CONTAINMENT AND DISPOSAL PROBLEMS, THE EFFECTS OF CARBON DIOXIDE AND OTHER
POLLUTANTS, ETC. IPICP IS INTENDED TO BE THE VANGUARD OF THE NEW FIELD OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE.
FUNDING FOR IPICP WAS OBTAINED FROM A VARIETY OF SOURCES, INCLUDING INTERNATIONAL UNVIERSITY RESEARCH FUNDS, INTERNATIONAL
PRIVATE INVESTMENT, A SIZABLE AMOUNT OF SOVIET RESEARCH ASSISTANCE, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, U.S. GOVERNMENT GRANTS WHICH
PROVIDED THE BULK OF IPICP FUNDING, EQUIPMENT, FACILITIES & STORAGE, TRAVEL, COMMUNICATIONS, MAINFRAME COMPUTING TIME,
ETC. AS WELL AS THE "INTANGIBLE" SUPPORT OF INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY WITH THE U.S.S.R., TO HELP GARNER PERMITS AND ACCESS
TO LOCATIONS PREVIOUSLY RESTRICTED TO SOVIET SCIENTISTS ONLY.
PER THE ATTACHED PROJECT STATUS REPORT INCLUDING TOTAL COSTS TO DATE, OVER THE PAST THREE MONTHS, IPICP HAS CONDUCTED ITS
FIELD RESEARCH SYSTEMATICALLY WITH A TEAM OF 18 SCIENTISTS AND GRADUATE STUDENTS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE, LED BY AN
INTERNATIONAL STEERING COMMITTEE (CC'D BELOW). WE HAVE OBTAINED 15 ICE CORE SAMPLES TO DATE:
--U.S.: ALASKA SAMPLE 1: BONA-CHURCHILL
--U.S.: ALASKA SAMPLE 2: NORTH SLOPE, BARROW
--CANADA: BAFFIN ISLAND SAMPLE 1: PENNY ICE CAP
--CANADA: BAFFIN ISLAND SAMPLE 2: DEVON ICE CAP
--CANADA: ELLESMERE ISLAND: AGASSIZ ICE CAP
--GREENLAND SAMPLE 1: DYE 3
--GREENLAND SAMPLE 2: HUMBOLDT
--NORWAY: SVALBARD SAMPLE 1: AUSTFONNA ICE CAP
--NORWAY: SVALBARD SAMPLE 2: VESTFONNA ICE CAP
--NORWAY: SVALBARD SAMPLE 3: LOMONOSOVFONNA ICE CAP
--U.S.S.R.: SEVERNAYA ZEMLYA SAMPLE 1: VAVILOV ICE CAP
--U.S.S.R.: SEVERNAYA ZEMLYA SAMPLE 2: ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ICE CAP
--U.S.S.R.: FRANZ JOSEPF LAND SAMPLE 1: ZIEGLER ISLAND
--U.S.S.R.: FRANZ JOSEPF LAND SAMPLE 2: GLACIER NO. 1, HALL ISLAND
--U.S.S.R.: FRANZ JOSEPF LAND SAMPLE 3: KUPOL VYETRENIY, GRAHAM BELL ISLAND
PLANS WERE IN PLACE TO CONTINUE GATHERICE ICE CORE SAMPLES FROM FURTHER LOCATIONS OVER THE COURSE OF EIGHT ADDITIONAL
MONTHS, FOR A TOTAL OF APPROXIMATELY 45-50 SAMPLES, ALL TO BE STUDIED AT A COLD STORAGE FACILITY AT COLUMBUS, OHIO.
HOWEVER, OUR RESEARCH WAS ABRUPTLY HALTED WHEN ALL U.S. AND SOVIET GOVERNMENT FUNDING WAS PULLED FOLLOWING AN ANOMALOUS
DISCOVERY IN THE FRANZ JOSEF LAND ON OSTROV VINER NEYSTADT.
THE ANOMALY DETECTED ON APRIL 26 1985 BY AN ADVANCE LOCATION SCOUT TEAM WAS AN ICY BULGE PROTRUDING FROM A SMALL,
BOWL-SHAPED VALLEY IN THE INTERIOR OF THE ISLAND, MEASURING APPROXIMATELY 110 METERS LONG BY 60 METERS WIDE, RISING ABOUT
20 METERS ABOVE THE SURROUNDING TERRAIN. ALTHOUGH THE ENTIRE FRANZ JOSEPH LAND ISLANDS ARE VOLCANIC IN ORIGIN, THE BULGE
WAS NOT PERCIEVED TO BE PART OF A CALDERA, AND THEREFORE WAS NOT A VOLCANIC BULGE. ADDITIONALLY, SEVERAL UNIQUE FEATURES
OF THE ANOMALY LED OUR ADVANCE TEAM TO BELIEVE THAT THIS WAS NOT A NATURAL FEATURE OF THE ISLAND. THESE FEATURES INCLUDED
SEVERAL SMALL (LESS THAN 5 METERS) BUT SIGNIFICANT ROCKY PROTRUSIONS FROM THE ICE SHEET THAT CLEARLY DID NOT MATCH THE
SURROUNDING TERRAIN. OUR INITIAL ANALYSIS WAS SOME TYPE OF METEORITE, HOWEVER WE MERELY DOCUMENTED THE BULGE FOR THE
PURPOSE OF NOTIFYING SOVIET SCIENTISTS.
IT WAS NEVER OUR INTENTION TO FURTHER INVESTIGATE THIS ANOMALY; THE SCOPE AND BUDGET OF OUR CURRENT RESEARCH DOES NOT
ALLOW FOR DEVIATION FROM OUR SCHEDULE. WE DID, HOWEVER, PREPARE A BRIEF REPORT OUTLINING THE ABOVE, AND MAILED IT ALONG
WITH 1 UNDEVELOPED ROLL OF 35MM COLOR STILL FILM AND 1 UNDEVELOPED 400FT ROLL OF 16MM COLOR FILM ON APRIL 28 1985 FROM THE
WEATHER STATION AT ZEMLYA ALEKSANDRY TO ███████████████ IN MURMANSK. HOWEVER, NEITHER THE FILM NOR THE REPORT REACHED MR.
███████.
IT IS MY PERSONAL BELIEF THAT THESE FILMS AND OUR ADVANCE TEAM'S INITIAL REPORT ON THE ANOMALY WERE INTERCEPTED. WHY AND
BY WHOM, I CANNOT POSSIBLY SPECULATE. HOWEVER, ON MAY 7 1985, WE RECEIVED A TERSE COMMUNICATION FROM AN IMMIGRATIONS
OFFICER IN MURMANSK, REVOKING OUR PERMITS TO CONDUCT SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN THE SOVIET UNION AND REQUESTING THAT WE RETURN
TO OUR COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN IMMEDIATELY. NO REASON WAS GIVEN. FURTHER, ON MAY 20 1985, AS SEVERAL OF OUR TEAM REGROUPED IN
UPPSALA, SWEDEN, TO PLAN NEXT STEPS, WE THEN RECIEVED A FASCIMILE FROM █████████████, CHAIRMAN OF THE IPICP STEERING
COMMITTEE, NOTIFYING US THAT ALL FINANCIAL SUPPORT PREVIOUSLY GRANTED BY THE ████████████████ OF SCIENCES AND SEVERAL
OTHER PROMINENT U.S. AND SOVIET RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS, HAD BEEN REVOKED, AND THAT WE WERE TO DISPERSE OUR RESEARCH TEAM.
THIS WAS SUCH A FINANCIAL SETBACK THAT WE WERE FORCED AMONGST OURSELVES TO USE OUR OWN PRIVATE MONEY TO PAY OFF FOUR
MONTHS OF COLD STORAGE IN MURMANSK, AND FINANCE THE SHIPMENT OF SAMPLES BACK TO COLUMBUS, OHIO. AT THIS TIME, IT IS NOT
CLEAR WHETHER OR WHEN ANY FUTURE FUNDING WILL ENABLE US TO CONTINUE OUR RESEARCH, EVEN TO THE POINT OF ANALYZING THE
SAMPLES WE NOW HAVE ON HAND.
THUS I AM WRITING TO YOU IN HOPES OF AN EXPLANATION AS TO THE REVOCATION OF OUR FUNDING, AND FOR YOU TO REINSTATE SUCH
FUNDING AND SUPPORT IMMEDIATELY. WE ARE, AS AN ORGANIZATION, MORE THAN PREPARED TO OFFER AN APOLOGY TO THE SOVIETS IF WE
IN ANY WAY OFFENDED OR CROSSED ANY SORT OF NATIONAL SECURTY LINES. SINCE THERE SEEMS A DIRECT CONNECTION BETWEEN OUR
DISCOVER OF THE VINER NEYSTADT ANOMALY AND OUR FUNDING "PROBLEMS" (TO PUT IT MILDLY), I REPEAT, NONE OF US IS INTERESTED
IN THIS ANOMALOUS FINDING. NONE OF US IS INTERESTED IN GATHERING ANY TYPE OF SENSITIVE INFORMATION. WE ARE NOT A POLITICAL
GROUP, WE ARE SCIENTISTS SEEKING ANSWERS TO SOME OF THE MOST PRESSING AND IMPORTANT QUESTIONS OF OUR AGE: HOW DOES THE
EARTH'S CLIMATE CHANGE OVER TIME, HOW MIGHT WE AS HUMANS BE AFFECTING THIS CHANGE IF AT ALL, AND HOW MIGHT THESE CHANGES
AFFECT US.
I CANNOT EXPRESS ENOUGH THAT YOUR ORGANIZATION'S ACTIONS HAVE HAD A DEVASTATING EFFECT ON OUR RESEARCH; HAVE, IN EFFECT,
SHUT US DOWN COMPLETELY. WE ARE NOW SEEKING MORE PRIVATE MONEY, BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT BIG SCIENCE REQUIRES GOVERNMENT
FUNDING AND SUPPORT. WITHOUT YOUR SUPPORT, WE CANNOT CONDUCT OUR GLOBAL SCALE CLIMATALOGICAL RESEARCH AND MUST MOVE ON TO
OTHER, SMALLER PROJECTS. THE UNFORTUNATE SIDE EFFECT OF TOUR DECISION MEANS THAT THIS RESEARCH FOR ALL SCIENCE (NOT JUST
OUR GROUP) HAS BEEN SET BACK BY YEARS, IF NOT DECADES.
I EAGERLY AWAIT YOUR RESPONSE.
SINCERELY,
██████████████████
CC:
█████████████ (STEERING COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN), ██████████████████████████ AND DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGICAL SCIECNES, ██████████
██████████, COLUMBUS, OHIO 43210-1002
███████████████████ (MANAGEMENT GROUP CHAIRMAN), █████████████████████████ FOR POLAR AND MARINE RESEARCH, BREMERHAVEN,
GERMANY
██████████████, ████████████████████████████████████████ AND DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES, ██████████████████████,
BOULDER, COLORADO 80309-0450
███████████████, █████████████, AND █████████████████, ████████ MARINE BIOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, ██████████████████████,
MURMASK, RUSSIA 153023
████████████, █████████████████████████████████████████████████████, ███████████████████, STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305, USA
████████████████ DEPARTMENT OF EARTH SCIENCES, █████████████████████, UPPSALA, SWEDEN [rest of page is torn]
██████████████████ [rest of page is torn]
|