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 Today's Congressional Action:
The Senate is expected to consider non-Arctic legislation. The House is expected to consider a number of legislative provisions including H.R. 810 - National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2015.
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Media
 As Alaska Warms, Climate Change An Awkward Subject for Lawmakers. The last time legislation specifically focused on climate change was in 2006. There have since been energy efficiency bills, and air quality bills, and resolutions pushing back on air quality regulations, but nothing that gets at the massive, complicated issue of climate change. So, it was a bit unusual to hear legislators air their opinions on the matter last week. The discussion kicked off when Sen. Lesil McGuire, an Anchorage Republican, led a press conference on a new report on Arctic policy. Alaska Public Radio
Norway, Russia Committed to Barents Cooperation, Despite Divisions Over Ukraine. Norwegian and Russian politicians at last week's Kirkenes Conference said they fully agree about Barents regional cooperation. Organized in the borderlands between Norway and Russia, the Kirkenes Conference has a long tradition as arena for dialogue between the two countries. This year, the conflict in eastern Ukraine cast dark shadows over the event and discussions ran high both on the podium and in the conference corridors. "We have to distance ourselves from Russia's actions in Ukraine," Norwegian Foreign Minister B�rge Brende underlined in his speech at the conference. "Russia, whose border is just few kilometers from here, is the same country which is using force against its neighboring people of Ukraine [...] We cannot accept such policy," he added. Alaska Dispatch News
 Report Warns More Arctic Shipping Will Increase Warming, Affect Health. A new report on air pollution from ships in the high Arctic warns of huge increases in air pollution from shipping. Although the report by the the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) is called "Air pollution from marine vessels in the U.S. High Arctic in 2025," its findings are of concern to the entire Arctic region. The report estimates that because of Arctic ice melt, shipping could increase in the next 10 years anywhere from 150 percent to 600 percent. Alaska Dispatch News
Global Warming: The Arctic Meltdown. Asleep on my bunk in the bow of the polar research ship RV Lance, I awoke to a jarring crash. The vessel shuddered with the impact, and its metal skin shrieked as the hull scraped past an obstacle seemingly inches from my head. "Ice," I thought. "Finally." After sailing nearly 350 kilometers north from the Arctic port of Longyearbyen in the Svalbard archipelago, and traveling through open water in the Greenland Sea and central Arctic Ocean for almost three days, we had finally reached the rapid-receding edge of the melting sea ice. Life on Thin Ice
 EU Seal Ban Changes Don't Go Far Enough, Hunters Say. Changes to EU seal-product regulations issued on Friday do not do enough to repair the damage caused by the 2010 ban, say Inuit hunters. Brussels has given itself until October to modify its ban on seal products after the World Trade Organization in May expressed concern that two exemptions permitting the sale of certain types of sealskin products could be misused. Ole �rum, a spokesperson for Inuit Sila, a hunters' interest group, was grateful that the revised rules will continue to include an Inuit exemption and that they commit Brussels to finding ways to approve Canadian sealskin for import. Arctic Journal
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Legislative Action
No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.
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Future Events
Alaska Forum on the Environment, February 9-13, 2015 (Anchorage, Alaska, USA). The Alaska Forum on the Environment (AFE) is Alaska's largest statewide gathering of environmental professionals from government agencies, non-profit and for-profit businesses, community leaders, Alaskan youth, conservationists, biologists and community elders. The diversity of attendees and comprehensive agenda sets this conference apart from any other. Each year there are over 80 technical breakout sessions and sensational Keynote Events. There will be a full week of sessions on climate change, energy, environmental regulations, cleanup and remediation, fish & wildlife, solid waste, and of course much more. The event will continue to present expanded content on Marine Debris, Coastal Issues and Tsunami's in order to address the pressing concerns from Alaska rural coastal communities.
International Symposium on Northern Development, February 25-27, 2015 (Quebec, Canada). The Qu�bec government, in collaboration with Universit� Laval, will co-chair with the Nordic Council of Ministers the International Symposium on Northern Development. The event will allow for the pooling of knowledge, experience and perspectives in the realm of northern development. It will assemble representatives of the northern countries, the universities and local populations, including the Aboriginal nations, and businesspeople and enterprises. The key themes will be the North as a living environment; the North as a physical territory; the North as a hub of economic development; and, the North as a hub of knowledge training and research.
2015 Public Policy Forum: Predicting and Preparing for a Changing Arctic. March 4, 2015 (Washington, D.C.). The Consortium for Ocean Leadership will host a forum on a changing Arctic. One panel will discuss the state of knowledge in predicting major changes occurring in the Arctic as well as identifying research and observational gaps. The second panel will consider the science needs of commercial and community stakeholders living and working in the Arctic.
US Arctic Research Commission's 103rd Meeting, March 4-5, 2015 (Washington, DC, USA). More information to come.
PNWER...Pacific NorthWest Economic Region's Arctic Caucus meeting, March 5, 2015, (Washington, DC, USA). More info to come.
Arctic Summit 2015, March 12, 2014 (Oslo, Norway) The Economist is hosting the Arctic Summit 2015 where discussions will focus on whether commercial interest in the Arctic is a bubble about to burst. There are discounted registration fees are available for NGOs, government, academics, charities and students. There are also discounts for groups of 3 or more people.
Polar Shelves and Shelf Break Exchange in Times of Rapid Climate Warming, March 15-20, 2015 (Lucca, Italy). The GRCs provide an international forum for the presentation and discussion of frontier research in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences, and their related technologies. The guiding principle of a GRC is to encourage communication and discussion of ideas and new unpublished results at the very frontier of a particular field of research, by bringing together outstanding scientists from academia, industry, and government, ranging from senior experts to Ph.D. students. With the increasing impacts of reduced sea ice and warming seawater conditions in both the Arctic and Antarctic, this conference can act as a forum for potentially transformative discussions for interdisciplinary, international and compare/contrast evaluation of polar sciences. In addition, the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will precede the GRC to provide a forum for graduate students and post-docs to present and exchange new data and cutting edge ideas with experts in the different polar fields of science.
Sweden-U.S. Planning Workshop on Joint Arctic Research Using the I/B Oden, March 30- April 1, 2015 (Stockholm, Sweden). The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Arctic Section is supporting a 'Planning Workshop on joint Arctic Research using the Swedish Class 1A Icebreaker Oden.' This workshop is held in collaboration with the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat (SPRS) and the Swedish Research Council (Formas and VR). The US delegation will be led by Drs. Patricia Matrai (Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences) and Peter Minnett (RSMAS, U. Miami), as workshop co-organizers with Dr. Caroline Leck (Stockholm U.). This workshop will bring together those with research and operational/ logistical interests in the Arctic and will discuss a baseline for establishing a new, longer-term collaborative relationship among U.S. and Swedish scientists for Oden-based research in the Arctic Ocean.
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.
The Polar Geography and Cryosphere, April 21-25, 2015 (Chicago, IL, USA). The Polar Geography and Cryosphere Specialty Groups of the Association of American Geographers will host its annual meeting in Chicago to consider: current topics in human-environment interactions; current topics in politics, resource geographies, and extractive industries; current topics in Antarctic research; advances in cryosphere research; high latitude environments in a changing climate; an mountain ice and snow.
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.
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.
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