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 Arctic Diesel Spill Caused $2 Billion Damage, Russia Says. Russia's ecological watchdog said the massive Arctic fuel spill from a MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC tank in May caused 148 billion rubles ($2.1 billion) of damage and asked the miner to pay for it. The vast majority of the damage was to waterways linked to the Kara Sea, according to the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources, known as Rosprirodnadzor. Nornickel, which has pledged to fully fund the clean-up, had estimated the cost to reach $150 million, excluding any fines. The shares slid as much 5.8%.
Bloomberg
As the Arctic Warms, the
Iñupiaq
Adapt
. Utqiagvik sits at the very tip of the United States, saddled against the Arctic Ocean. The Alaska Native Iñupiaq are set apart from other Indigenous peoples by their subsistence hunting of the bowhead whale. Even today, this unique, centuries-old practice determines the social structure, reflects community values, and supplements the people's nutrient-rich diet. Nearly all of Utqiagvik's roughly 5,000 residents, the majority of whom are Iñupiaq
, rely on hunting to support their way of life.
Grist
 A Disastrous Summer in the Arctic. The remote Siberian town of Verkhoyansk, three thousand miles east of Moscow and six miles north of the Arctic Circle, has long held the record, with another Siberian town, for the coldest inhabited place in the world. The record was set in 1892, when the temperature dropped to ninety below zero Fahrenheit, although these days winter temperatures are noticeably milder, hovering around fifty below. Last Saturday, Verkhoyansk claimed a new record: the hottest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic, with an observation of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit-the same temperature was recorded that day in Las Vegas. Miami has only hit a hundred degrees once since 1896. "This has been an unusually hot spring in Siberia," Randy Cerveny, the World Meteorological Organization's rapporteur of weather and climate extremes, said.
The New Yorker
 Call for Nominations: Arctic Icebreaker Coordinating Committee (AICC).
The Arctic Icebreaker Coordinating Committee (AICC), a committee of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS), serves a liaison function by providing oversight and advice to the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs and to U.S. research icebreaker operators, for the purpose of enhancing scientific facilities and capabilities aboard U.S. research icebreakers, primarily the USCGC Healy (operator: United States Coast Guard) and the RV Sikuliaq (operator: University of Alaska Fairbanks). The AICC solicits, synthesizes, and presents the needs of the Arctic science community to the icebreaker operators and to the NSF, fulfilling an ombudsman role when necessary and facilitating the efficient and effective execution of scientific research by U.S. icebreakers.
University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System
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Future Events
***New this week***
Arctic Policy Study Group - Study Launch, 8:00 to 9:30 AKDT, July 8, 2020 (virtual). Commonwealth North.
Please join Arctic Policy Study Group Co-Chairs Mead Treadwell, Tom Barrett, Moire Bockenstedt, Bob Cox, and Gail Schubert and invited guests from our Arctic collaborators as Commonwealth North begins a new look at policies that are shaping the Arctic. We will review the
charge statement
for the study group, hear from the co-chairs and collaborators, and consider the content and schedule for the coming sessions. Register here.
Webinar: Understanding Arctic Disaster Risk and Response, 2:00 to 3:30 PM EDT, July 15, 2020 (Virtual). Arctic environmental change is creating new hazards, and is shifting how we understand and plan for challenges, from disasters to military strategies. Traditional methods to assess risks may underestimate impacts, particularly when geophysical and ecological changes undermine resilience and adaptability, and when external shocks, like COVID-19, stress systems. Dr. Chad Briggs, a Professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, will explore tools to develop Arctic risk scenarios, and will discuss security simulations of disaster response in Alaska during the current pandemic. The event is hosted by Migration in Harmony: An Interdisciplinary Network in Littoral Species, Settlements, and Cultures on the Move (MiH-RCN), an international, cross-disciplinary network of Arctic migration researchers funded by the National Science Foundation.
** New this week **
Public Information Session: 2022-2026 Arctic Research Plan Development, July 20, 2020 (webinar). If you are interested in being part of the conversation on Arctic research planning or are curious about what the Arctic Research Plan is and how it is being developed, please join us for an IARPC Webinar. The Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) will share information on the development of the next five-year Arctic Research Plan, how you can get involved, and what kinds of input we are seeking. There will also be time for questions and discussion. All are welcome. Register for the webinar
here.
** New this week **
Arctic Science Coalition Building Webinar with Brett Veerhusen, July 29, 2020 (Virtual)
.
The most impactful Arctic research is driven by a strong, diverse coalition of individuals, businesses and organizations united by a common mission. In this virtual workshop Brett Veerhusen, Ocean Strategies founder, will share how he has built coalitions in fisheries research, management, and policy action in Alaska, and teach you how to move from an idea to an action plan by building a coalition that gets you to your Arctic research or policy goal.
The event is hosted by
Migration in Harmony
: An Interdisciplinary Network in Littoral Species, Settlements, and Cultures on the Move (MiH-RCN), an international, cross-disciplinary network of Arctic migration researchers funded by the National Science Foundation.
Arctic Circle Assembly, October 8-11, 2020 (Reykjavik, Iceland). The annual Arctic Circle Assembly is the largest annual international gathering on the Arctic, attended by more than 2000 participants from 60 countries. It is attended by heads of states and governments, ministers, members of parliaments, officials, experts, scientists, entrepreneurs, business leaders, indigenous representatives, environmentalists, students, activists and others from the growing international community of partners and participants interested in the future of the Arctic.
Arctic Science Summit Week, March 20-26, 2021 (Lisbon, Portugal). The Portuguese Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Local Organizing Committee will host the Arctic Science Summit Week 2021. The Conference is organized by FCT, Ciência Viva, AIR Center, the Portuguese Arctic Community and by IASC and partners. Framed by the overarching theme for the Science Conference "The Arctic: Regional Changes, Global Impacts," Lisbon invites International experts on the Arctic and Indigenous Peoples to discuss the "New Arctic" and also its impacts and interactions to and with the lower latitudes.
Save the Date: 2nd Symposium on Polar Microbes and Viruses, May 3-6, 2021 (Hanko, Finland). Organizers announce, that due to the coronavirus outbreak, the 2nd Symposium on Polar Microbes and Viruses has been postponed to 2021. This symposium will bring together molecular microbial ecologists specializing in different organism groups to share our latest results and discuss methodological problems, as well as future prospects in the field, including practical international collaborations. The environmental focus will be on cryospheric environments including sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost, but excellent research in other polar environments is also invited. The methods to be discussed will focus on 'omics' techniques, ranging from single cells to metagenomes, but research using additional methods is encouraged as well.
update on schedule...
3rd Arctic Science Ministerial, May 8-9, 2021 (Toyko, Japan).
The Japanese and Icelandic organizers of this ministerial continue to plan for an in-person ministerial, in Tokyo, but have moved the dates from November 21-22, 2020 to May 8-9, 2021 because of Covid-19. Since the last Arctic Science Ministerial in 2018, changes in the Arctic ecosystem and the resulting impacts locally and globally have been severely felt. Considering the need for climate change mitigation, adaptation, and repair measures, the relevance of an international Arctic Science Ministerial has never been greater. It is necessary to strengthen scientific cooperation and collaboration among both Arctic and non-Arctic States in order to develop our understanding of the rapid changes impacting the Arctic. The First Arctic Science Ministerial (ASM1) was hosted by the United States in 2016, and two years later, the Second Arctic Science Ministerial (ASM2) was co-hosted by Germany, Finland, and the European Commission. ASM3 will be co-hosted by Iceland and Japan.
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