Study Reports State of Alaskans' Health. The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services reports more than 28 percent of adults and 17 percent of children in Alaska are obese. The report states obese children are more likely to experience serious health concerns before adulthood - such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some cancers. Obesity is a body mass index calculation that compares weight and height. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Fairbanks Film Premiere. After all the planning, hundreds of hours spent imagining whales as characters with distinctive markings and personalities, working with film narrators and scientists and observers, after the coordination of funders and experts and community members, the months of rendering on computers tucked away in offices, it's time. Arctic Currents: A Year in the Life of the Bowhead Whale, the museum's new animated film, is ready for the big screen. This 25-minute film tells the story of the annual migration of bowhead whales. The species spends its life searching for food among the ice floes of Arctic waters. They are elusive, and yet are a major influence on the culture of the Inupiat and Yupik people. Bowhead whales live a long time, as many as 120 years and perhaps much longer. University of Alaska Museum of the North

Linguistic Team Studies Caribou Anatomy. As the buffalo is to the Plains Indians and the bowhead whale is to the Inuit, so too is the caribou (vadzaih) to the Gwich'in people of northeast Alaska and northwest Canada. In 2011 a team of Gwich'in linguists affiliated with the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks began to document traditional knowledge of caribou anatomy under a grant from the National Science Foundation Arctic Social Sciences Program. The project coordinator is Craig Mishler, and the lead research associate and elder is Kenneth Frank, of Venetie and Arctic Village, now residing in Fairbanks. Between 2011 and 2014 Mishler and Frank conducted field interviews in Arctic Village, Venetie, Fort Yukon, and Fairbanks, Alaska, and Old Crow, Yukon. Arctic Research Consortium of the United States

Arctic Oil and Gas Must Stay in Ground to Limit Warming to 2 Degrees Celsius, Study Says. Scientists have realized for some time now that the extraction of fossil fuels must dramatically slow down if the global temperature rise is to be kept under 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). A new study in the science journal Nature, however, is the first to specify and quantify which regions of the world need to cool it on the oil, gas, and coal. Christophe McGlade and Paul Elkins of the University College London's Institute for Sustainable Resources created a complex model that, after dividing the world into sixteen regions, considers factors such as the cost of production, the estimated size of reserves and production trends, and the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the combustion of oil, gas, hard coal, and lignite. Alaska Dispatch News

You're Going to Need a Bigger Budget: Canadian Navy Tells Frigates to Not Use Sophisticated Equipment to Save Cash. A lack of funding has forced Canada's navy to take an unusual approach to finding savings - it has sent its frigates out on international missions with instructions to crews not to use some of the ships' sophisticated sensors. Those restrictions have helped cut back on maintenance bills but also limit the ships' effectiveness, according to a Department of National Defense evaluation of the navy. That recently released evaluation examined the period from 2008 to 2013. The Royal Canadian Navy, like all of the military services, has been dealing with funding cuts ordered by the Conservative government. National Post

Native Science Program Gets $466,000 in Donations. The Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program has received $466,000 in private donations it hopes to use to expand its offerings, especially its Middle School Academy. The program received the money as end-of-the-year donations from a handful of petroleum service companies. The donations range from $25,000 to $200,000. Alaska law provides corporate tax credits for donations to education, meaning a donation of $200,000 would cost about $32,500, according to information from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

New Report Predicts Arctic Oil and Gas Activity in 2015 Despite Low Prices. A recently released report prepared by POLARISK Group highlights political, geo-political, security and regulatory economic risks in the Arctic and Antarctic for 2015. The report tries to answer one essential question: "how will D.C. policymakers (re)define the role that both the US and the Arctic Council should play in the Arctic? For other Arctic players, including non-Arctic and near-Arctic stakeholders alike, much depends on America's answer." Arctic Journal

NOAA Schedules 5 Public Hearings on Ringed Seal Habitat Around Alaska. The federal agency overseeing seal populations will hold five hearings in Alaska on proposed critical habitat for ringed seals. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has proposed 350,000 square miles of ocean off Alaska's north and west coasts as critical habitat for the main prey of polar bears. A 90-day public comment period began Dec. 9. Alaska Dispatch News

New 5-Year Low in Tanker Spills. Half-way into this decade and the downward trend in oil spills from tankers is sustained. For the last two and a half decades the average number of incidents involving oil spills from tankers has progressively halved, with the current figures showing the lowest yet, at less than 2 per year. At a time when focus on protecting the marine environment is high, this trend should provide encouragement to tanker owners. It is also a testament to the ongoing work by industry and governments to maintain high standards of operations in sea-borne transportation. ITOPF

A Quarter of a Century of International Arctic Research Cooperation. In the context of its 25th anniversary in 2015, IASC presents a comprehensive publication on its history from the planning process in the late 1980s until today. Printed as a special issue of the IASC yearbook, the publication compiles and analyzes the history and development of IASC and its initiatives and achievements. A short film, a collection of historical documents and a brochure presenting a timeline of the most important events in the development of IASC in the last quarter of a century complement the publication. IASC