Role of the polar regions in global change. Fairbanks, Alaska, 11–15 June 1990

The International Conference on the Role of the Polar Regions in Global Change was hosted by the Geophysical Institute and Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. This was a timely multidisciplinary meeting drawing on almost all aspects of the physical and natural sciences in polar regions. Well over 300 scientists attended and this necessitated division of the programme into seven technical sections; titles ranged from “Detection and Monitoring” to “Paleoenvironmental Data’ ’ . There was a series of informal workshops too, and the meeting closed with an attempt to summarize the proceedings in a series of panel discussions.