|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| | Michael Newton |
President Trump appoints two commissioners to the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. Effective August 14th, President Trump appointed Mr. Jon Harrison, from California, and Mr. Michael Newton, from Tennessee, to the US Arctic Research Commission. Their terms will expire on February 26, 2024. Mr. Harrison, who was also designated Chair, thus replacing Fran Ulmer, in that capacity, will occupy the private industry slot previously held by Mr. David Benton. Mr. Newton replaces Ms. Jackie Richter-Menge in one of the four academic/research slots. The remaining commissioners include Fran Ulmer and Dr. Larry Mayer in academic slots, and Marie Greene in an industry slot. The two remaining slots (academic and indigenous Arctic resident) are currently vacant. The Director of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan, serves as a non-voting, ex officio member of the USARC. The original intent to appoint the new commissioners was announced on July 27th, here, on the White House website. Mr. Harrison, an entrepreneur, recently served as Senior Advisor for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs at the Department of State. Mr. Newton is a professor of law and political science at the Vanderbilt Law School.
|
( American Meteorological Society, August 2020). State of the Climate in 2019. This is the 30th issuance of the annual assessment now known as State of the Climate, published in the Bulletin since 1996. As a supplement to the Bulletin, its foremost function is to document the status and trajectory of many components of the climate system. However, as a series, the report also documents the status and trajectory of our capacity and commitment to observe the climate system.
( Nature Climate Change, July 2020). Past Perspectives on the Present Era of Abrupt Arctic Climate Change. Abrupt climate change is a striking feature of many climate records, particularly the warming events in Greenland ice cores. These abrupt and high-amplitude events were tightly coupled to rapid sea-ice retreat in the North Atlantic and Nordic Seas, and observational evidence shows they had global repercussions. In the present-day Arctic, sea-ice loss is also key to ongoing warming. This Perspective uses observations and climate models to place contemporary Arctic change into the context of past abrupt Greenland warmings. We find that warming rates similar to or higher than modern trends have only occurred during past abrupt glacial episodes. We argue that the Arctic is currently experiencing an abrupt climate change event, and that climate models underestimate this ongoing warming. In recent decades, the Arctic has warmed at over twice the global rate. This Perspective places these trends into the context of abrupt Dansgaard-Oeschger warming events in the palaeoclimate record, arguing that the contemporary Arctic is undergoing comparably abrupt climate change.
|
Media
 Scientists on Arctic Mission Reach the North Pole After an Unplanned Detour. A German icebreaker carrying scientists on a year-long international expedition in the high Arctic has reached the North Pole, after making an unplanned detour there due to lighter-than-usual sea ice conditions. Expedition leader Markus Rex said Wednesday the RV Polarstern was able to reach the geographic North Pole because of large openings in sea ice above Greenland, where shipping would normally be too difficult. PBS News Hour
Arctic Glaciers Entrap Pesticides and Other Environmental Pollutants From Global Drift and Release Hazardous Chemicals as They Melt From Global Warming. (Beyond Pesticides, August 20, 2020) Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including banned and current-use pesticides are present in snow and ice on top of Arctic glaciers, according to the study, "Atmospheric Deposition of Organochlorine Pesticides and Industrial Compounds to Seasonal Surface Snow at Four Glacier Sites on Svalbard, 2013-2014," published in Environmental Science & Technology. Past research finds that air contaminated with these environmentally bioaccumulative, toxic chemicals drift toward the poles, becoming entrapped in ice under the accumulating snowfall. As the global climate continues to rise and the climate crisis worsens, studies like this become significant, as glaciers encapsulating these toxic chemicals are melting. Upon melting, some chemicals can volatize back into the atmosphere releasing toxicants into air and aquatic systems, with the ensuing consequences. Although this research demonstrates that specific computer programs can track the trajectory of chemically contaminated air parcels with practical precision, it falls to global leaders to curtail the continued manufacturing of these chemical pollutants. Beyond Pesticides
New book release: Whale Snow: Iñupiat, Climate Change, and Multispecies Resilience in Arctic Alaska by Chie Sakakibara. Using multispecies ethnography, Whale Snow explores how every day the relatedness of the Iñupiat of Arctic Alaska and the bowhead whale forms and transforms "the human" through their encounters with modernity. University of Arizona Press
 NORAD Begins Air Exercise Over Arctic Ocean. An Arctic Ocean air exercise involving Canadian and U.S. planes is underway this week, the North American Aerospace Defense Command [NORAD] announced. A U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane and F-15 fighter planes arrived at the Canadian Forces Northern Area Headquarters Yellowknife, in Canada's Northwest Territories, on Tuesday for air defense exercises, with flights ranging from the Beaufort Sea [north of Alaska] to Thule AB [Air Base] in Greenland, a NORAD Twitter message said. UPI
Call for Information on Recent Arctic Research Activities. The Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) is beginning its yearly effort to gather information on relevant research activities that have occurred over the last fiscal year. We hope this provides you an opportunity to share the work you have been doing during FY2020 with the wider research community. We welcome all to contribute information on recent work that is relevant to the Arctic Research Plan by September 4. Learn how to submit your work on IARPC's website.
|
|
Future Events
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.
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.
|
|
  
4350 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 510
Arlington, VA 22203, USA
External links in this publication, and on the USARC's World Wide Web site ( www.arctic.gov) do not constitute endorsement by the US Arctic Research Commission of external Web sites or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities, the USARC does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. These links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this newsletter and the USARC Web site.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
