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Today's Congressional Action: 
The House and Senate are not in session.
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 Sweden to Expand Teaching of Minority Languages. The Swedish National Agency for Education, or Skolverket, will expand the teaching of Sweden's five national minority languages -- Yiddish, Finnish, Meänkieli, Sami and Romani Chib -- in Sweden's schools. Previously, only the Sami language had a specific curriculum for native language courses, but now the other minority languages will also receive their own curricula so that more young people can learn the languages. Anchorage Daily News
Rickets, Vitamin D Deficiency Still Plague Inuit Children. Despite clear recommendations on how to prevent rickets, Nunavut and Canada's other territories continue to see cases of severely vitamin D-deficient children across the North, says an Ottawa researcher. "There has been a failure to eradicate the disorder in Canada's North," said Dr. Leanne Ward, director of pediatric bone health at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Nunatsiaq Online
Contaminants Also a Threat to Polar Bear. The polar bear (Ursus maritimus), one of the largest carnivorous mammals on Earth, is being made vulnerable by the series of dangers it faces. An international team has established a guide to evaluate the condition of its health and although the polar bear's biggest threat is climate change, plastic pollution and environmental contaminants in its habitat are starting to affect its endocrine system and reproduction. Climate change is undoubtedly the main threat to polar bears (Ursus maritimus). They also suffer from nutritional stress, reduction of polar ice, human contact and diseases and parasites. But that's not all. eScience News
As Latest Battle Commences, Opponents Say Drilling is 'Just Not Compatible' With US Climate Commitments. A small team of Greenpeace activists sailing in the Pacific Ocean yesterday left their home ship, the Esperanza, and scrambled onto a heavy-lift vessel that's hauling Royal Dutch Shell PLC's Polar Pioneer drill rig from Singapore to Seattle. After stalking the Blue Marlin haul ship from the South China Sea, the protesters approached the ship in inflatable boats, climbed up the side of the vessel and set up camp on the underside of the Polar Pioneer's main deck. Greenpeace's latest act of guerrilla environmentalism, which was described in play-by-play detail on social media sites across the globe, occurred 750 miles northwest of the Hawaiian Islands. E&E News
 Fulbright Opportunities in Arctic Affairs. The Fulbright US Scholar Program in Arctic affairs recently announced several opportunities, including: Iceland: Fulbright-National Science Foundation Arctic Research Grants; Iceland: Fulbright-Ministry of Foreign Affairs Arctic Scholar; Norway: Fulbright Arctic Chair; Sweden: All Disciplines; and, Russia: All Disciplines. For more information, see here.
DARPA Keeps An Eye on the Arctic. The Pentagon's research and development agency wants to cure the military of this blind spot via unmanned sensor systems and is offering as much as $4 million to do it, with each awardee getting about $500,000 to $750,000, according to the BAA. DARPA is seeking sensor systems that are cheap, environmentally friendly and quick to deploy. They will also need to be rugged enough to survive in a harsh location that is short on infrastructure: Proposed systems should be "capable of unrefueled operation in the Arctic environment for at least 30 days," the BAA states. The Business of Federal Technology
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| Legislative Action No Arctic legislation was formally considered Friday. |
| Future Events
NOAA Science Seminar: Indigenous Knowledge and Use of Ocean Currents in the Bering Strait Region, April 9, 2015 (Webinar). Julie Raymond-Yakoubian of Kawerak, Inc. will be discussing a recently completed project on indigenous knowledge and use of ocean currents. This webinar will share perspectives on the importance of traditional understandings of ocean currents as a critical aspect of the body of knowledge held by communities in the region, how this knowledge was collected, and the modern-day practical applications of this knowledge for marine policy, planning, and safety considerations. The session will include examples of where this knowledge is currently being used.
Leadership, Diplomacy and Science: Resolving the Arctic Paradox" April 13-14, 2015, (Medford, MA, USA). The 4th annual Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy International Inquiry on the Warming Arctic will convene high-level decision makers from diplomatic and security circles, cutting-edge energy and science researchers, and social, environmental and business stakeholders to investigate solutions to the Arctic Paradox and promote a sustainable future for Arctic inhabitants within a "High North, Low Tension" policy framework. Special appearance: the North American debut of the Arctic Circle Assembly's panel "Rising Stars: Young Arctic Energy Researchers". Confirmed speakers include H.E. President Grimsson, Dr. John P. Holdren, Prof. Bruce Forbes and Dr. Fiamma Straneo.
Arctic States Symposium, April 17-19, 2015 (Charlottesville, VA, USA).
ARCTIC STATES, a three-day symposium at the University of Virginia School of Architecture, brings together an international consortium of leading designers and colleagues from allied disciplines to posit the role of design in the rapidly transforming region, and generate critical discussions by sharing recent work that will trace, critique and speculate on its past, present, and future.
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.
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 Tromsø, 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.
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.
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