IPY helps to overcome national and other borders and constraints towards better information access and management of precious natural resources worldwide. It carries promises of a sustainable global village. Beyond the polar regions, IPY will leave a global legacy, most of it is digital and can be expressed as new data and synthesized information. IPY will affect how we do and fund science, how we administer the globe, how we teach and evaluate, and eventually, how society lives and carries out business and democracy. IPY offers solutions in times of massive global resource pressures, and deserves our full support. However, it needs to be assured that IPY remains balanced in its economic, social and ecological concepts. Teaching is the key to its success.