Detailed program now available on website, over 70 confirmed speakers.

Impacts of an Ice- Diminishing Arctic on Naval and Maritime Operations.

July 17-18, 2019, in DC.

Researchers Detect Bromine Atoms in Springtime Arctic. For the first time, researchers at the University of Michigan have detected bromine atoms in the atmosphere, and in doing so, have confirmed the reaction pathway through which mercury is removed from the atmosphere and enters the ecosystem in the springtime Arctic. Mercury is a particularly toxic pollutant largely emitted through human activities such as coal-burning power plants. Because it's long-lived-meaning it does not react with many compounds in the atmosphere-it collects in remote regions such as the Arctic, according to U-M chemist Kerri Pratt. Phys.org  

 

Reviewing Stockholm's Strategy for Sustainable Regional Development in the Arctic. With global warming on the one side and fast-expanding business opportunities on the other, devising and implementing a sustainable (economic) development strategy is simply a must - indeed a matter of national security - for each of the Arctic 8. Failure to do so could have negative repercussions well beyond national boundaries thereby jeopardizing both national and regional growth prospects. In this second article on Sweden's Arctic strategy, therefore, we provide a detailed and critical account of Stockholm's approach to and priorities for sustainable regional development in its Northernmost regions. The series will continue with two more articles covering Sweden's approach towards a Common EU Arctic policy, and a Stockholm's perspective on hard security in the North. The Arctic Institute  

 

Melting Ice May be a Boon for Some Arctic Whales-then a Bust. On a bright May morning, a helicopter lifts off the Esperanza, a Greenpeace ship, and heads north, tracking the edge of the sea ice east of Greenland. Below us is Fram Strait, a deep ocean channel and one of the Arctic's richest feeding grounds, where narwhals, bowhead whales, and beluga whales gather each spring to feast at the ice edge. We're on the lookout for these ocean giants. It's day three of a two-week expedition, and so far, there's no sign of any whales. National Geographic

 

Scientists "Speechless" After Fox Makes 2,176-mile, 76-Day Trek From Norway to Canada. A 1-year-old explorer made an epic journey from Norway to Canada, covering 2,176 miles in 76 days. That young explorer was an Arctic fox. Scientists were left "speechless" by the fox's journey, Greenland's Sermitsiaq newspaper reports. Researchers from Norway's Polar Institute had been tracking the young female fox on a GPS, according to BBC News. They freed her into the wild on the east cost of Spitsbergen, the main island of the Svalbard archipelago of Norway. CBS News

 

Alaska University System Braces for 'Devastating' Budget Cuts. University leaders in Alaska are scrambling to prepare for a 41 percent cut in state funding and mobilizing a last-ditch lobbying effort to try to persuade legislators to overturn the governor's decision. "Simply put, if not overridden, today's veto will strike an institutional and reputational blow from which we may likely never recover," University of Alaska System President James R. Johnsen said in a statement following a Board of Regents emergency meeting after Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) used a line-item veto Friday. The Washington Post

 

Thawing Arctic Peatlands Risk Unlocking Huge Amounts of Carbon. The Arctic landscape is changing at an unprecedented pace: in Sweden, Alaska and elsewhere entire towns and villages, houses half sunken into the ground, risk being moved to more stable ground, as the permafrost they had been built on shifts and melts. In the Canadian north, suitable houses have become so rare that apartment prices have skyrocketed, triggering a housing crisis. All around the Arctic, homes lay abandoned, the damage too severe. Roads and other vital infrastructure are at risk, too. UN Environment