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International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
Established in 1987, the International Geosphere-Bisophere Programme (IGBP) is a research program dedicated to studying the phenomenon of global change. The program originally began with 500 international scientists and the programs first activity consisted of five projects in the early 90s. The IGBP has grown into one of the most prominent international environmental organizations. The IGBP is mainly government by the Scientific Committee (SC-IGBP), which creates core projects, which are often co-sponsored by other organizations. Within over 75 countries, there are a variety of National Committees that help coordinate studies, link research and create funds. The IGBP received funding from 37 counties with the United States, Sweden and Germany being its three top contributors. Funds are split among paying secretariat salaries, scientific activities, communication actives, operating expenses and IGBP publications and websites.
By looking at a variety of different aspects of the sciences, the program hopes to understand the causes and possible solutions of the environmental changes that the world has been witnessing. In its research IGBP intends to analyze the interactive, physical, chemical and biological processes that define Earth System dynamics. Within these dynamics, IGBP wants to understand the changes that are occurring and the role of human actions in the changes. IGBP feels that it has a unique outlook on the process of global change. While many other environmental research groups look at a variety of issues such as climate change, water resources, etc. as separate problems with individual solutions, IGBP takes a different approach. By rejecting the environmental issues as separate and looking at them as a product of Earth as a system, they believe that they can reach a more complete understanding of the environment.
In addition to its goal of gaining understanding, IGBP has recently begun a new focus in the realm of global sustainability research. According to the program's official website, "IGBP's vision is to provide essential scientific leadership and knowledge of the Earth system to help guide society onto a sustainable pathway during rapid global change." By looking at the planet, the planet under pressure and transformation in an ear of rapid global change, the program hopes to identify the different socio-economic influences that have led to changes in the Earth's biological, chemical and physical processes. By understanding these intricate relationships, IGBP hopes that they can communicate them to the public. IGBP has a plan to increase cooperation between international partners and agencies to develop research projects and increase environmental understanding.
IGBP carries out a variety of projects that are intended to meet their vision of global change understanding and progress. The program has eight current projects: Analysis, Integration and Modeling of Earth Systems (AIMES), which is intended to understand and quantify the influence of human choice on environmental change; the Global Land Project (GLP) is designed to measure, model and understand the coupled human-environmental system; International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC), which attempts to understand the role of atmospheric chemistry in the Erath System; the Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study (ILEAPS) was created to increase the understanding of how interacting physical, chemical and biological processes transport and transform energy and matter through the land-atmosphere interface; the Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) intends to study the sensitivity of marine biogeochemical cycles and ecosystems to global change, on time scales ranging from years to decades; the Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coast Zone (LOICZ), which provides the knowledge, understand and predication needed to allow coastal communities to assess, anticipate and respond to the interaction of global change and local pressures which determine coastal change; the Past Global Changes (PAGES) in intended to support all paleo-environmental and paleo-climate research efforts directed at securing a quantitative understanding of natural and human-induced variation of the Earth Systems in the past; and the Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) which intended to achieve quantitative understanding of the key biogeomechanical-physical interactions and feedbacks between the ocean and the atmosphere. IGBP has already completed six projects and also runs a variety of fast-track initiatives, which are focused activities designed to advance knowledge of Earth System functioning.
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