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Jack D. Ives
Jack Ives photographing in the Pamirs
Ives in 1993
Born(1931-10-15)October 15, 1931
Grimsby, England
DiedSeptember 15, 2024(2024-09-15) (aged 92)
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
NationalityCanadian
OccupationProfessor of geography
SpousePauline Angela H. Cordingley
Children4
Awards
Academic background
EducationUniversity of Nottingham, B.A,., (1953) McGill University, Montreal, Ph D., (1956)
Doctoral advisorBrian Bird (McGill)
Other advisorsCuchlaine King[1] (University of Nottingham)
InfluencesRagnar Stefánsson,[2][3] Carl Troll,[4][5] Walther Manshard[6]
Academic work
DisciplineGeography
Sub-disciplinemontology
InstitutionsMcGill University, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of California at Davis
Main interestssustainable stewardship of mountain communities and environment
Notable worksHimalayan Dilemma: Reconciling development and conservation
Notable ideasinstantaneous glacierization; debunking of so-called Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation; global prioritization of montological issues

Jack D. Ives (October 15, 1931 – September 15, 2024) was a British-born Canadian montologist, an honorary adjunct research professor of geography and environmental studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, an author, and a prominent advocate of mountain issues at the global level. He was formerly director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder, founding editor of two peer-reviewed journals, chair of the Commission on High Altitude Geoecology under the auspices of the International Geographical Union, and a senior advisor on mountain ecology and sustainable development for United Nations University.

Background and education

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Ives was born in Grimsby, England, on October 15, 1931. In 1947 and 1948, as a high school student, he traveled by trawler to Arctic Norway, his first exposure to the landscapes that would shape his career.[4] He studied geography at the University of Nottingham, and organized that institution's first undergraduate glaciological expeditions to Iceland, leading groups of students to Skaftafell and Vatnajökull in 1952, 1953, and 1954.[4][3] On 11 September 1954, immediately after witnessing a jökulhlaup (also known as a glacial lake outburst flood, or GLOF) at Skeiðará, Ives married Pauline Angela H. Cordingley. They then emigrated to Canada, where Ives obtained a doctorate in geography from McGill University, Montreal in 1956.[4] Since Jack retired from his position at the University of California in 1997, the Ives have lived in Ottawa; they have four adult children and five grandchildren.

Career

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Ives began his career as a geomorphologist, with particular interest in glaciated and periglacial landscapes. His focus broadened over the years, and he became an advocate for both conservation and for equitable policies regarding the interests of indigenous stakeholders. González-Trueba and García-Ruiz conclude that "The contribution of Professor Ives to the study, knowledge, protection and development of mountain areas is incalculable."[4]: 11 

Canada

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From 1956 to 1957 Ives served as a research associate at the McGill Subarctic Research Station (MSARS) in Schefferville, Quebec.[7] Along with his wife Pauline, he explored the Labrador-Ungava Peninsula, with the result that he was able to overturn the current hypothesis about the repeated growth and disappearance of ice sheets in northeastern North America during the Quaternary period. Specifically, Richard Foster Flint had argued that the North American ice sheet originated in the Torngat mountains, accumulating in the coastal zone and then spreading westward down the inland slopes of the Torngats; this scenario would have been a mirror image of the well-documented model of glaciation in northern Europe. Based on geomorphological evidence, as well as on his perception that the so-called Torngat Mountain Range is actually an escarpment on the edge of a tilted peneplain with almost no western slopes, Ives refuted the previous model, proposing instead that inception of glaciation occurred across wide areas of the plateau as climate change permitted year-round snow cover to accumulate, a process he refers to as instantaneous glacierization.[8][9]

On completion of his doctorate, Ives was appointed assistant professor in McGill's Department of Geography, and, from 1957 to 1960, he served as field director of McGill Subarctic Research Station, where he initiated field research programs on permafrost and on the glaciation and deglaciation of Labrador-Ungava.[7]

From 1960 to 1967 Ives was assistant director and then director of the Geographical Branch of Canada's Department of Energy, Mines and Resources in Ottawa.[7] In that capacity he coordinated seven interdisciplinary expeditions to Baffin Island.[7][10]

Boulder, Colorado

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From 1967 to 1979 Ives served as director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, and professor of geography from 1967 to 1989.[4][7] In 1968 Carl Troll founded the Commission on High Altitude Geoecology under the auspices of the International Geographical Union, and invited Ives to join the organizing committee. In alternation with his collaborator Bruno Messerli, Ives served as president of that Commission from 1972 to 1980 and 1988–1996.[11]

While at Boulder, Ives founded and edited two peer-reviewed quarterly journals. Arctic and Alpine Research first appeared in 1969.[7] In 1980 Ives, along with Roger Barry, Misha Plam, and Walther Manshard, founded the International Mountain Society (IMS). The society's stated purpose was: "...to strive for a better balance between mountain environment, development of resources, and the well-being of mountain peoples.."[4] The IMS functioned as publisher of record for Mountain Research and Development, which 1981 Jack founded, and with Pauline edited, in 1981.[7] Jack served as president of the IMS from 1980 to 2000.[7]

In 1973 Ives participated in the first meeting of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) Project 6 - Mountains,[12] and was elected chair of the MAB-6 International Working Group, which started the ball rolling for the establishment in 1983 of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, Nepal.[4][5] In 1979 the INSTAAR alpine research area at Niwot Ridge was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

From 1978 to 2000, Ives served as Research Coordinator for the United Nations University's project on Highland-Lowland Interactive Systems, later to be renamed Mountain Geoecology and Sustainable Development, which entailed fieldwork in the Himalayas, northern Thailand, Yunnan (China), Tajikistan, and Ecuador.[4]

In 1982 and 1986, Ives was the primary organizer of the Mohonk Mountain conferences at Mohonk Mountain House in New York, sponsored by the UNU and the Mohonk Foundation.[5] One result of the conferences was the publication of The Himalayan Dilemma (Ives and Messerli, 1989), which challenged the popular theory according to which highland population growth and poor land management by uneducated farmers was leading to catastrophic deforestation of the Himalayas.[13][14][15][16][17][18]

Davis, California

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Beginning in 1989 Ives served as full professor and chair of the Department of Geography at the University of California, Davis.[7] In 1993, after the disestablishment of the Geography Department, he transferred to the UC Davis Division of Environmental Studies.

A chain reaction had been set in motion by the 1982 and 1986 Mohonk Mountain Conferences.[7] UN Under-Secretary General Maurice Strong, who had served as Honorary Chair of Mohonk II, became the Secretary General of the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, also known as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). Strong supported the proposals that had grown out of the Mohonk Mountain conferences, elaborated in publications by Jack Ives (notably The Himalayan Dilemma), and promoted by a group known formally as Mountain Agenda, but also referred to as the Mountain Mafia.[13][19][20] Their vision of a world awakened to the importance and fragility of mountains was shaped in part by the success of ocean advocate Jacques Cousteau (who was also invited to the Earth Summit), and by the UNU's semi-autonomous World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER).[11]

Mountain Agenda prepared for the Rio Summit a 400-page book, State of the World's Mountains: A Global Report[21] and a 44-page summary booklet, An Appeal for the Mountains.[22] Ives with Bruno Messerli and colleges organized the inclusion of "Chapter 13 — Managing Fragile Ecosystems — Sustainable Mountain Development" in its final publication, Agenda 21.[23][11][20][24]

The message of Chapter 13 has echoed for the ensuing three decades. A new hardcover volume was produced, Mountains of the World: A Global Priority ( Messerli and Ives, ed. 1997).[25] It was produced as the centerpiece of the review of Chapter 13 in 1997 at the Rio-Plus-Five at United Nations headquarters in New York City. Among the recommendations for mountain research and stewardship in the volume is Ives' proposal for the "creation of a montology — a science that is sensitive to mountain policy" — an "interdisciplinary, intercontinental, intersectoral" field (p. 464) responsive to the complexities of the challenges and opportunities inherent in mountains. Meanwhile, dozens of new governmental offices for mountain stewardship and non-governmental agencies, all focusing on the "people mountain interface" had been established around the world.[26] On 11 December 2001, Ives, representing Dr. Hans J. A. van Ginkel, Rector of United Nations University, delivered a keynote address to the United Nations General Assembly. The United Nations General Assembly declared 2002 International Year of the Mountain, in observance of the 10-year anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit, and December 11 itself was designated the annual International Mountain Day going forward.[11] Since then, the mountain agenda articulated in 1992 has become entrenched at all functional levels, from grassroots activism, to national policy and global programs.[27]

Later life and death

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After retiring from UC Davis, Ives returned to Ottawa, Canada, where he was appointed honorary research professor of geography and environmental studies by Carleton University. In his last two decades, Ives authored five monographs and numerous shorter works.

Ives died in Ottawa, Canada on September 15, 2024, at the age of 92.[28]

Major works

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The following is a list of books either authored or edited by Jack D. Ives.

  • (with Roger Barry) Arctic and Alpine Environments, London and NY: Methuen, 1974, ISBN 0-416-65980-2[29][4]
  • Geoecology of the Colorado Front Range: A Study of Alpine and Subalpine Environments, Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980, ISBN 0-89158-993-7
  • (with Bruno Messerli) The Himalayan Dilemma: Reconciling development and conservation, London and NY: Routledge, 1989, ISBN 0-415-01157-4[30]
  • (with Bruno Messerli) Mountains of the World: A global priority, New York and Carforth (UK): Parthenon, 1997, ISBN 1-85070-781-2; also published hardcover in German, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese
  • Himalayan Perceptions: Environmental Change and the Well-Being of Mountain Peoples, London and NY: Routledge, 2004, ISBN 978-1-13886-713-0[31]
  • Skaftafell in Iceland: A thousand years of change, Reykjavik, Iceland: Ormstunga, 2007, ISBN 978-9979-63-055-5[32]
  • Skaftafell Í Öræfum: Íslands þúsund ár, Reykjavik, Iceland: Ormstunga, 2007, ISBN 978-9979-63-055-5
  • The Land Beyond: A Memoir, Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press, 2010, ISBN 978-1-60223-077-4
  • Environmental Change and Challenge in the Himalaya: A historical perspective[33]
  • Sustainable Mountain Development: Getting the Facts Right, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science, 2013, ISBN 978-9-937-26195-1[34][6]
  • Baffin Island: Field Research and High Arctic Adventure, 1961-1967, Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary, 2016, ISBN 978-1-55238-829-7; 2017 PubWest Book Design Silver Award Winner for Historical or Biographical Book[35]

Honors and awards

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References

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  1. ^ "Professor who scaled heights that few can hope to equal", The Northern Echo, 26 January 2020, retrieved 17 April 2020
  2. ^ Ives, Jack (2007). Skaftafell in Iceland: A thousand years of change. Reykjavik, Iceland: Ormstunga. ISBN 978-9979-63-055-5.
  3. ^ a b Benediktsson, Karl (1 August 2008). "Skaftafell in Iceland—A Thousand Years of Change (review)". Mountain Research and Development. 28 (3): 335–336. doi:10.1659/mrd.mm040. S2CID 128811069.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j González-Trueba, J.J.; García-Ruiz, J. M. (2012). "Jack Ives and the geoecology of mountain areas". Pirineos. 167 (5): 7–13. doi:10.3989/Pirineos.2012.167001. hdl:10261/50100. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  5. ^ a b c Messerli, Bruno (2016). "Foreword". In Mainali, Kumar; Sicroff, Seth (eds.). Jack D. Ives, Montologist: Festschrift for a Mountain Advocate. Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science. pp. xvii–xl. ISBN 978-9937-0-1567-7.
  6. ^ a b Stadelbauer, Jörg (2014). "Ives, Jack D.: Sustainable Mountain Development. Getting the Facts Right". Erdkunde (review). 68 (3): 223. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barry, Roger (2016). "Jack Ives — A personal memoir". In Mainali, Kumar; Sicroff, Seth (eds.). Jack D. Ives, Montologist: Festschrift for a Mountain Advocate. Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science. pp. 27–34. ISBN 978-9937-0-1567-7.
  8. ^ Ives, J. (1957). "Glaciation of the Torngat Mountains, Northern Labrador" (PDF). Arctic. 10 (2): 67–87. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  9. ^ Ives, Jack; Andrews, John; Barry, Roger (1975). "Growth and Decay of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and Comparisons with Fenno-Scandinavia". Naturwissenschaften. 62 (2): 118–125. Bibcode:1975NW.....62..118I. doi:10.1007/BF00623272. S2CID 33873909.
  10. ^ Ives, Jack (2017). Baffin Island: Field Research and High Arctic Adventure, 1961-1967.
  11. ^ a b c d Ives, Jack (2013). Sustainable Mountain Development: Getting the facts right. Kathmandu, Nepal: Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science. ISBN 978-9-937-26195-1.
  12. ^ a b Messerli, Bruno (1 November 2015). "The Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal 2015". Mountain Research and Development. 35 (4): 416–418. doi:10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-15-00104. S2CID 131221908.
  13. ^ a b Alford, Donald (2016). "The Sleeping Dragon of the Pamirs: A major hazard faced by mountain villagers". In Mainali, Kumar; Sicroff, Seth (eds.). Jack D. Ives, Montologist: Festschrift for a Mountain Advocate. Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science. pp. 34–43. ISBN 978-9937-0-1567-7.
  14. ^ Forbes, William; Katkins, Sylvia-Linda. "Chapter 23: Rural Development". In Gaile, Gary; Willmott, Cort (eds.). Geography in America at the dawn of the 21st century. p. 101. The ability of geographers to challenge development myths using non-geographers' research is also important. Geomorphologists Messerli and Ives found forest regeneration rates so different from World Bankreports that they were forced to reevaluate a widely held concept that severe Himalayan deforestation directly influenced catastrophic flooding in Bangladesh...
  15. ^ Shrestha, Nanda; Lewis, Martin; Cohen, Shaul; McDonald, Mary. "Chapter 39: Asian Geography". In Gaile, Gary; Willmott, Cort (eds.). Geography in America at the dawn of the 21st century. p. 631.
  16. ^ Harden, Carol (2016). "Another Himalayan Dilemma". In Mainali, Kumar; Sicroff, Seth (eds.). Jack D. Ives, Montologist: Festschrift for a Mountain Advocate. Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science. pp. 98–115. ISBN 978-9937-0-1567-7.
  17. ^ Kreutzmann, Hermann (2016). "From Himalayan Dilemma to Climate Change Dilemma? Challenges for High Mountain Development". In Mainali, Kumar; Sicroff, Seth (eds.). Jack D. Ives, Montologist: Festschrift for a Mountain Advocate. Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science. pp. 115–136. ISBN 978-9937-0-1567-7.
  18. ^ Rao, Kottapalli S (March 1991). "The Himalayan Dilemma: Reconciling Development and Conservation by Jack D. Ives; Bruno Messerli". Book Reviews. Forest & Conservation History. 35 (2): 95. doi:10.2307/3983952. JSTOR 3983952.
  19. ^ Borsdorf, Axel (2016). "Peace through Climate Change Adaptation? Experiences in the Cinturón Andino Biosphere Reserve, Colombia". In Mainali, Kumar; Sicroff, Seth (eds.). Jack D. Ives, Montologist: Festschrift for a Mountain Advocate. Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science. pp. 44–60. ISBN 978-9937-0-1567-7.
  20. ^ a b Hamilton, Lawrence (2016). "A personal tribute to Jack Ives". In Mainali, Kumar; Sicroff, Seth (eds.). Jack D. Ives, Montologist: Festschrift for a Mountain Advocate. Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science. pp. 94–97. ISBN 978-9937-0-1567-7.
  21. ^ Stone, P.B., ed. (1992). State of the World's Mountains: A Global Report. London and New Jersey: Zed Books. ISBN 978-1856491167.
  22. ^ Mountain Agenda 1992 (1992). An Appeal for the Mountains. Berne, Switzerland: Mountain Agenda 1992.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Agenda 21 : Programme of Action for Sustainable Development ; Rio Declaration on Environment and Development ; Statement of Forest Principles: The Final Text of Agreements Negotiated by Governments at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), 3–14 June 1992, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. New York, NY: United Nations Dept. of Public Information, 1993.
  24. ^ Gurung, Nira (17 March 2010). "Knowledge Forum with Prof Jack D. Ives: Lessons Unlearned and Problems of Scholarly Research within a Political Arena". ICIMOD.org. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  25. ^ Messerli, Bruno; Ives, Jack, eds. (1997). Mountains of the World: A global priority. London and NY: Parthenon. ISBN 1-85070-781-2.
  26. ^ Basset, Thomas; Zimmerer, Karl. "Chapter 8: Cultural Ecology". In Gaile, Gary; Willmott, Cort (eds.). Geography in America at the dawn of the 21st century. p. 101. The people-mountain interface was widely promoted and publicized as a top-level priority for global environmental institutions and organizations including the follow-up to Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference/Environment and Development that was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992...
  27. ^ Friend, Donald. "Chapter 6: Mountain Geography". In Gaile, Gary; Willmott, Cort (eds.). Geography in America at the dawn of the 21st century. pp. 72–77.
  28. ^ "In Memorium, Jack D. Ives". Geography. 2024-10-02. Retrieved 2024-10-03.
  29. ^ White, Sydney (September 1976). "Arctic and Alpine Environments. Jack D. Ives and Roger G. Barry (Editors)". Quaternary Research. 6 (3): 463–467. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  30. ^ "The Himalayan Dilemma". archive.unu.edu.
  31. ^ Metz, John (2005). "Himalayan Perceptions: Environmental Change and the Well Being of Mountain Peoples by Jack D. Ives (review)". Himalaya. 25 (1–2): 50–52. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  32. ^ Blake, Weston (June 2008). "Skaftafell in Iceland: A thousand years of change". Book Reviews. Arctic. 61 (2): 212–213. doi:10.14430/arctic54.
  33. ^ Ives, Jack D. (May 2012). "Environmental Change and Challenge in the Himalaya: A historical perspective". Pirineos. 167. Zaragoza, Spain: Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología: 29–68. doi:10.3989/Pirineos.2012.167003. ISSN 0373-2568. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  34. ^ Debarbieux, Bernard (May 2014). "Sustainable Mountain Development—Getting the Facts Right, by Jack D Ives (review)". Mountain Research and Development. 34 (2): 175–176. doi:10.1659/mrd.mm135. S2CID 131238000. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  35. ^ "2017 Book Design Award Winners". Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  36. ^ "Jack D. Ives". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  37. ^ a b Butler, David (2003). "Chapter 5: Geomorphology". In Gaile, Gary; Willmott, Cort (eds.). Geography in America at the dawn of the 21st century. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. p. 64. ISBN 0-19-929586-7.
  38. ^ a b Hurni, Hans (August 2000). "Two Distinguished Awards for MRD Founding Editor Jack D. Ives". Mountain Research and Development. 20 (3): 282. doi:10.1659/0276-4741(2000)020[0282:TDAFMF]2.0.CO;2. S2CID 129293355.
  39. ^ "Albert Mountain Awards: Jack Ives". King Albert I Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  40. ^ "Jack Ives and Bruno Messerli Win King Albert I Memorial Foundation Award". Mountain Research and Development. 22 (4): 401. 1 November 2002. doi:10.1659/0276-4741(2002)022[0401:JIABMW]2.0.CO;2. S2CID 198152867.
  41. ^ "Medals and Awards: Gold Medal Recipients". Geography and Environmental Studies. Royal Geographical Society. 2 September 2015. Archived from the original on 30 October 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2020. Patron's Medal - Professor Jack Ives: For his role internationally in establishing the global importance of mountain regions
  42. ^ "2015 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner: Dr. Jack D. Ives". Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal. Mountain Legacy. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  43. ^ "Dr. Jack D. Ives receives the world's highest award for mountain advocacy: the Lifetime Achievement edition of the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal". Geography and Environmental Studies. Carleton University. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
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