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Arctic Science Summit Week, April 23-30, 2015 (Toyama, Japan). The Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) is the annual gathering of the international organizations engaged in supporting and facilitating Arctic research. The purpose of the summit is to provide opportunities for coordination, collaboration and cooperation in all areas of Arctic science. The summit attracts scientists, students, policy makers and other professionals from all over the world.
Today's Congressional Action:
The House and Senate are in session and expected to consider non-Arctic legislation.
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 Icebreakers? Sure, But CG Boss Says Cutters Come First. Can two ships be called a "fleet"? If so, that's the size of the Coast Guard's ice-breaking fleet, plus one more that's in the shop and may never return to service. Still, Coast Guard Commandant Paul Zukunft says he has so few multi-purpose cutters that the Coast Guard can only stop 20 percent of the known drug shipments in the Caribbean and the Pacific. The admiral says that allows international crime, terrorism and human trafficking to flourish with relative impunity. Alaska Public Radio
Arctic Council Ministerial-Winners and Losers. Canada's chairmanship of the Arctic Council concluded on Friday in Iqaluit, Nunavut. With the dust now settled, it's time to review who did well, who fared poorly, and what actually resulted from the two years of the Canadian chairmanship. Winner: Arctic Council. In the past year the Arctic Council has been sorely tested, but it has passed -- staying true to its mandate and its values, proving resilient to the complications of external forces, and providing growing value in the policy domain. It's easy to forget that as recently as a few years ago, commentators were openly speculating that the Arctic Council could be pushed aside from challengers such as the Arctic Five coastal states, or the more inclusive Arctic Circle. But today, in 2015, no one is questioning the preeminence of the Arctic Council in circumpolar affairs anymore. Alaska Dispatch News
 DNA Suggests All Early Eskimos Migrated From Alaska's Northern Slope. Genetic testing of I?upiat people currently living in Alaska's North Slope is helping Northwestern University scientists fill in the blanks on questions about the migration patterns and ancestral pool of the people who populated the North American Arctic over the last 5,000 years. "This is the first evidence that genetically ties all of the I?upiat and Inuit populations from Alaska, Canada and Greenland back to the Alaskan North Slope," said Northwestern's M. Geoffrey Hayes, senior author of the new study to be published April 29, 2015, in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. eScience News
UAF to Play Central Role in US-Led Arctic Council. Now that the United States has assumed chairmanship of the Arctic Council, the University of Alaska Fairbanks will play a central role in carrying out the U.S. agenda in the region, UAF's top two administrators said Friday. UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers outlined that role Friday during a live webcast of the Arctic Council meeting at the Murie Building on the campus's West Ridge. During the meeting, Canada formally relinquished the presiding role to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Rogers told a group watching that as the nation's Arctic university, UAF has always been active in shaping and informing U.S. policy for the far northern regions. Rogers says UAF's role will increase during the nation's two-year term heading up the Arctic Council. KTOO
As [Alaskan] Legislature Wraps Up, What's Been Done and What's Still to Come? In a regular session dominated by money and marijuana, a policy debate about teaching medicine entered the Alaska Legislature this year through a plan by the state House to end a long-established collaboration with the University of Washington School of Medicine intended to boost the supply of Alaska doctors... Legislators approved a bill setting out guidelines for state policy on the Arctic. House Bill 1 defines the region as the waters from the Aleutian Islands north and the landmass north of the Arctic Circle, but "for the purpose of international Arctic policy, 'Arctic' means the entirety of the state." Alaska Dispatch News
 Whitening the Arctic Ocean: May Restore Sea Ice, But Not Climate. Some scientists have suggested that global warming could melt frozen ground in the Arctic, releasing vast amounts of the potent greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere, greatly amplifying global warming. It has been proposed that such disastrous climate effects could be offset by technological approaches. One such proposal is to artificially whiten the surface of the Arctic Ocean in order to increase the reflection of the Sun's energy into space and restore sea ice. Science Daily
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| Legislative Action No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday. |
| Future Events
Arctic Spring- Arctic Matters: A Smithsonian Festival of the North, May 8-10, 2015 (Washington, DC). The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History will host an educational weekend event celebrating Arctic peoples, cultures, and science. The event coincides with the launch of the United States' 2015-2017 chairmanship of the Arctic Council, the international governmental body coordinating Arctic policy. When the US last chaired the Arctic Council (1998-2000), the Arctic was considered to be at the edge of the world's concerns. Now it is front and center in terms of environmental change and geopolitical importance. Arctic Spring will feature educational programs including a symposium, science displays and interactives, family events, artifacts and art, cultural and musical performances, and films. Activities will occur throughout the museum over a three-day period. Museum scientists, cultural experts, Arctic residents, government agencies, artists and photographers will present research findings and engage visitors in exploring what is known and still needs to be known about the Arctic, its lands, ocean, animals, cultures, and peoples.
The US Arctic Research Commission is a cosponsor of this event.
Effects of Oil on Wildlife, May 18-22, 2015 (Anchorage, Alaska, USA). This event is co-sponsored by International Bird Rescue and "Aiuka," which is a Brazilian conservation organization. The event will focus on polar wildlife issues and integrating wildlife into oil response, etc. Alaska Clean Seas is also a sponsor. North Slope Borough will also be a part of this meeting.
The House of Sweden Conference, May 19-20, 2015 (Washington, DC, USA). A two day conference focusing on changes, adaptations and opportunities for a changing Arctic. The conference will be divided into separate, but intertwined thematic segments - policy, science, climate change and green technologies. The conference is organized by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, the Embassy of Sweden in Washington, DC and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and is aimed at Arctic oriented policy-makers, researchers, business representatives and NGO's in the lead-up to the U.S. chairmanship of the Arctic Council.
The European Union and Arctic (2015 EU-Arctic Conference), May 29, 2015 (Dundee, UK). The School of Law, University of Dundee, UK and the K. G. Jebsen Centre for the Law of the Sea, University of Troms?, Norway are pleased to announce the registration open for "The European Union and the Arctic" (2015 EU-Arctic Conference). This conference will bring together academics and practitioners from relevant disciplines such as international law, international relations, political science and marine biology, NGOs, representatives from EU institutions and international organizations to discuss the EU's potential contribution to enhance Arctic governance. A roadmap for increasing the effectiveness of the EU's action in the Arctic will be drawn at the end of the conference.
7th International Conference on Arctic Margins, June 2-5, 2015 (Trondheim, Norway). The next meeting, the 7th International Conference on Arctic Margins (ICAM VII), previously announced to be arranged in St. Petersburg, will be held in Norway. ICAM VII is hosted by the Geological Survey of Norway. The International Conference on Arctic Margins (ICAM) was founded by the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, formerly the Minerals Management Service, in 1991 with the underlying two-point theme of 1) Arctic understanding, 2) international cooperation in Arctic research. To these ends, ICAM has provided a successful forum for the exchange of information, collaboration in research, and presentation of results. ICAM is organized, hosted, and conducted by scientists for scientists which makes it a unique forum.
16th International Congress on Circumpolar Health: Focus on Future Health and Wellbeing, June 8-12, 2015 (Oulu, Finland). The congress will focus on human health and well-being in the Arctic and northern areas. It is open for everyone interested in Arctic issues, especially scientists, researchers, health care professionals, policy analysts, government agency representatives and community leaders. The congress is organized by the Thule Institute, University of Oulu in collaboration with the International Union of Circumpolar Health (IUCH), the Nordic Society for Circumpolar Health, the Society of Arctic Health and Biology, and the Rokua Health & Spa. The InternationaI Congress on Circumpolar Health (ICCH) series are arranged every three years in Arctic countries or countries related to Arctic issues. First congress of the series was arranged in 1967, and it was previously hosted by Oulu in 1971.
52nd Annual Conference of the Animal Behavior Society, June 10-14, 2015 (Anchorage, Alaska, USA). The Animal Behavior Society was founded in 1964 to promote the study of animal behavior in the broadest sense, including studies using descriptive and experimental methods under natural and controlled conditions. Current members' research activities span the invertebrates and vertebrates, both in the field and in the laboratory, and include experimental psychology, behavioral ecology, neuroscience, zoology, biology, applied ethology, and human ethology as well as many other specialized areas.
2015 ESSAS Annual Science Meeting, June 15-17, 2015 (Seattle, WA, USA). This symposium, to be held at the University of Washington, is intended for interdisciplinary scholars who will be prepared to discuss their research in the sub-arctic North Atlantic, sub-arctic North Pacific, and the Arctic Ocean that bears on the issue of how changes in sea ice are likely to affect these marine ecosystems. The symposium will also consider the people who depend upon these ecosystems and how they may be able to cope with the changes in the ecosystem goods and services that are coming. These goods and services include the availability of transportation corridors, the availability of subsistence foods, and the opportunity for commercial fishing. To put the present day in a longer perspective, the symposium will include a session on the paleo-ecology of people in sub-arctic and arctic regions that were forced to adjust to changing sea-ice conditions in the past. 6th Symposium on the Impacts of an Ice-Diminishing Arctic on Naval and Maritime Operations, July 14-16, 2015 (Washington, DC, USA). Program in development...check back soon. To see the programs from prior symposia, click here.
Polar Law Symposium (8th) will be held in Alaska (
Sept. 23-24, UAF; Sept. 25-26, UAA). It's sponsored by UAF, UAA (and ISER), UAA Justice Center, UW Law School. Abstracts due 3/15/15. This year's conference theme is, "The Science, Scholarship, and Practice of Polar Law: Strengthening Arctic Peoples and Places."
2015 Arctic Energy Summit, September 28-30, 2015 (Fairbanks, Alaska, USA).The Institute of the North's 2015 Arctic Energy Summit builds on our legacy efforts to address energy as a fundamental element of the sustainable development of the Arctic as a lasting frontier.Central to this concept is a focus on providing pathways for affordable energy development in the Arctic and for Arctic communities.
The Polar Oceans and Global Climate Change, November 3-6, 2015
(La Jolla, California USA.) The American Polar Society will host this Symposium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. A flyer with a partial list of presenters is available on the Society's website (
americanpolar.org
) and from the Society's Membership Chairman by
email.
Due North: Next Generation Arctic Research & Leadership, November 5-8, 2015 (Calgary, Alberta, Canada).
The Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies (ACUNS) will convene an interdisciplinary conference of early career scientists working on Arctic issues. The organizers have issued a call for abstracts, due 5/31/15, on the following topics, full descriptions of where are available
here
, Arctic Communities, Arctic Sustainable Development, Arctic Wildlife, Ecosystem and Biodiversity, Arctic Food Security, Arctic Landscapes, Climate Change and Adaptation, Disaster Risk Management, Policy, Politics and Leadership, Arctic Environment (Data and Techniques), Arctic Resources, and Future of Arctic.
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