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December 1, 2016
 
Alaska Ocean Acidification 'State of the Science' Workshop, November 30 - December 1, 2016 (Anchorage, Alaska USA). This  2-day workshop will discuss the latest monitoring, research, findings. Workshop goals include educating the broader Alaska community on the processes and consequences of OA, creating connections between researchers and stakeholders, and developing new ideas and partnerships to enhance monitoring, community engagement, and future adaptation efforts. The workshop is free and will be broadcast via webinar to satellite locations and personal computers. For more information and registration, please visit the Alaska Ocean Acidification Network. 

Today's C ongressional Action:   
The House will consider the conference report to accompany S. 2943, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2017 for military activities of the Department of Defense for military construction and for defense activities of the Department of Energy. The Senate is expected to consider non-Arctic legislation.
Media   
 
Scientists Have Long Feared This 'Feedback' to the Climate System. Now They Say It's Happening. At a time when a huge pulse of uncertainty has been injected into the global project to stop the planet's warming, scientists have just raised the stakes even further. In a  massive new study published Wednesday in the influential journal Nature, no less than 50 authors from around the world document a so-called climate system "feedback" that, they say, could make global warming considerably worse over the coming decades. Washington Post
 
Is All Fur Bad Fur? Recently a giant billboard went up in Midtown Manhattan. It is 29 feet high and 13 feet wide, and shows a naked Alicia Silverstone in a grassy field peeking coyly over her shoulder and holding a sheep's mask. The message: "I'd rather go naked than wear wool: Wear your own skin. Let animals keep theirs." When  PETA pops up, you know it's that time of year, with temperatures dropping, gift guides proliferating and fur (or, in this case, sheepskin) once again becoming a topic of  debate, setting activists against enthusiasts, man against nature, indulgence against ethics. New York Times
 
Trump Administration's Climate-Change Skeptics Worry Researchers, Advocates. President-elect Trump made it clear throughout his campaign that he's a climate change skeptic, as in an  exchange with Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly a year ago. U.S. Arctic Research Commission Chairwoman Fran Ulmer also believes it's too soon to draw conclusions, because Trump has said little if anything specifically about the Arctic or research on changes under way in the region. "I am not aware of President-elect Trump making any comments about the Arctic, or issues that may arise during his administration in terms of Arctic research, Arctic policy," Ulmer said. KUAC
 
Modern Cartographers Breaking Arctic Ice. Modern day explorers from Arctic nations  are setting their sights north to map the seabed and establish sovereign rights to resources in an icy area that just over a decade ago was virtually inaccessible. Coastal nations have sovereign rights to ocean resources that extend 300 miles past the country's coastline. Under the Law of the Sea treaty, coastal nations may also claim resources discovered if the extended continental shelf (ECS) of the nation extends past the 300-mile exclusive economic zone. gCaptain
Legislative Action futureevents   

No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.
Future Events
 
ArcticNet annual Scientific Meeting 2016, December 5-9, 2016 (Winnipeg, MP Canada). ArcticNet   will host its 12th Annual Scientific Meeting.  The ASM2016 will welcome researchers, students, Inuit, Northerners, policy makers and stakeholders to address the numerous environmental, social, economical and political challenges and opportunities that are emerging from climate change and modernization in the Arctic. As the largest annual Arctic research gathering held in Canada, ArcticNet's ASM is the ideal venue to showcase results from all fields of Arctic research, stimulate discussion and foster collaborations among those with a vested interest in the Arctic and its peoples.

American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, December 12-16, 2016 (San Francisco, CA  USA). Anticipating about 25,000 attendees, AGU's Fall Meeting will again be the largest Earth and space science meeting in the world. 2016 marks the meeting's 49th year and there will be approximately 20,000 oral and poster presentations in over 1,700 sessions, many of which will focus specifically on Arctic science. Among the highlights, the "2016 Arctic Report" will again be released, IARPC will hold a "Town Hall Meeting" on Thursday, Dec. 15th, from 12:30 to 1:30 pm in Moscone West Room 2003, and NASA will have a Town Hall on Operation IceBridge on Dec. 14th, in Moscone Room 202 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm.

Symposium on Climate Displacement, Migration, and Relocation, December 13-14, 2016 (Honolulu, HI USA) The White House Council on Environmental Quality, NOAA's Office of Coastal Management, the Hawaii and Alaska Sea Grant College Programs, the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai'i Manoa, and the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center are convening this symposium.  The event will bring together stakeholders, policy makers, legal experts, academics, and others to discuss legal and policy options to assist individuals and communities considering relocation as an adaptation response to climate change, in both the domestic and international contexts.
 
More information is available at the symposium website:   https://seagrant.uaf.edu/conferences/2016/climate-migration/


** New this week **  Meet and Brief Luncheon with Fran Ulmer, US Arctic Research Commission, December 21, 2016m (Anchorage, AK  USA). Chair of the US Arctic Research Commission Fran Ulmer will brief attendees on "The rapidly changing Arctic: why does that matter to you?" This event is hosted by World Trade Center Anchorage.

34th Annual Alaska Health Summit, January 17-19, 2017 (Anchorage, AK USA). The theme of this year's health summit is "The Changing Landscape of Public Health." This meeting feature tracks focusing on Advocacy for Public Health, Social and Economic Determinants of Health, Interdisciplinary Partnerships, Public Health Research and Evaluation, and Health Promotion.

Alaska Marine Science Symposium, January 23-27, 2017 (Anchorage, AK  USA). The annual Alaska Marine Science Symposium (AMSS) is Alaska's premier marine research conference. It brings together roughly 800 scientists, educators, resource managers, students, and interested public to discuss marine research being conducted in Alaskan waters. Research will be presented by geographic theme, including the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea & Aleutian Islands, and the Arctic. Topic areas will include ocean physics, fishes and invertebrates, seabirds, marine mammals, local traditional knowledge and more. Keynote presentations will be held Monday, January 23rd; Gulf of Alaska presentations will be on Tuesday, Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands on Wednesday, followed by the Arctic on Thursday.

USARC will also do a "State of Alaska release" of its 2017-2018 "Goals Report" at this symposium. A prior release will be at the AGU meeting, described above, on December 15th.

Alaska Forum on the Environment, February 6-10, 2017 (Anchorage, AK  USA). This statewide gathering of environmental professionals, community leaders, Alaskan youth, conservationists, biologists and community elders will be holding its 19th meeting to continue providing a strong educational foundation for all Alaskans and a unique opportunity to interact with others on environmental issues and challenges. As many as 1,800 people are expected to attend AFE this years meeting.

6th Annual Fletcher Arctic Conference, February 17-18, 2017 (Medford, MA USA). Fletcher Arctic VI, a TEDx-style event, will showcase the ideas, stories, and initiatives of people who live and work in the Arctic. The conference will bring together inspiring leaders, innovative business people, expert scientists, and artists from the pan-Arctic region. Building on The Fletcher School's interdisciplinary approach, Fletcher Arctic VI will be a forum to engage in conversation and spark open and constructive debate between speakers and participants, providing deep insights into this unique and rapidly changing region.

IV International Forum, March 2017 (Arkhangelsk, Russian Federation)  Arkhangelsk will host the Forum. The Forum will be titled Human in the Arctic and will be aimed at putting together joint efforts of the international community to promote effective development of the Arctic region as a territory for comfort life, work and leisure. The Forum will be attended by government officials, representatives of international organizations and prominent business communities, centers for political studies, Polar researchers and members of the international Arctic expeditions, foreign political scientists and economists, Russian and foreign journalists from leading international media organizations. The Forum will be attended by the President of the Russian Federation, Mr. Vladimir Putin. Additional information will be announced here .

The Arctic Science Summit Week, March 31- April 7, 2017 (Prague, Czech Republic). This event is sponsored by the University of South Bohemia in Cecke Budejovice, the Faculty of Science, and the Center for Polar Ecology of the Czech Republic. The Science Symposium will address the three sub-themes: changes in the Arctic, global implications of Arctic changes, and images of global change on the Arctic.

International Conference on Arctic Science: Bringing Knowledge to Action, April 24- 27, 2017 (Reston, VA  USA). This conference builds on a previous conference from 2011 entitled "Arctic Messenger of Change Conference." The 2017 conference will provide updated scientific, decision-making, and policy-relevant information across a broad array of different Arctic issues and related scientific disciplines. The topics that will be addressed are:
  • The Arctic Cryosphere
  • Pollution in the Arctic
  • Human Health Aspects of Pollution and Climate Change
  • Global and Arctic Systems Feedback Mechanisms
  • Resilience within Arctic Ecosystems
  • Science and Plicy Making
  • Socio-Economic Drivers and Impacts of Arctic Change
Organizers announce a call for abstracts which are due by December 2, 2016.  The event is organized by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP).

Ninth International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences: People and Places (ICASS IX), June 8-12, 2017 (UmeÃ¥, Sweden). ICASS IX's theme is People & Place. Research on social sciences and humanities have a great responsibility to address the challenges for sustainable development in the Arctic, with a specific focus on the many different parts of the Arctic and the people that live there. The multiple Arctics have lately been addressed by many policy makers and researchers. The purpose is often to counteract the stereotypic understanding of the Arctic too often represented by icebergs and polar bears. A focus on people and place highlights the many variances across the region in terms of climate, political systems, demography, infrastructure, history, languages, legal systems, land and water resources etc.

7th Symposium on the Impacts of an Ice-Diminishing Arctic on Naval and Maritime Operations, July 18-20, 2017, Naval Heritage Center, Washington, DC.
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2017 Arctic Energy Summit, September 18-20, 2017 (Helsinki, Finland). The 2017 Summit will address energy in the Arctic as it relates to:
  • Small and off-grid community energy solutions
  • Oil and gas development
  • Renewable energy
  • Regulation and Financing
  • Transportation and transmission
The AES is a multi-disciplinary event expected to draw several hundred industry officials, scientists, academics, policy makers, energy professionals and community leaders together to collaborate and share leading approaches on Arctic energy issues.

Polar Law Symposium 2017 and Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit, November 13-16, 2017 (Rovaniemi, Finland). The purpose of the Polar Law Symposium is to examine, in detail, the implications of the challenges faced by the Polar Regions for international law and policy and to make recommendations on appropriate actions by states, policy makers and other international actors to respond to these emerging and re-emerging challenges. The Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit Conference is integrated with the Polar Law Symposium, which will be organized by the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law at the Arctic Center of the University of Lapland.

POLAR 2018, June 15-27, 2018 (Davos, Switzerland).  POLAR2018 is a joint event from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). The SCAR meetings, the ASSW and the Open Science Conference will be hosted by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL under the patronage of the Swiss Committee on Polar and High Altitude Research. The WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF is organizing POLAR2018.

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