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Today's C
ongressional Action:
The House and Senate are not in session.
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Media
Deep-Blue Ponds and Streams Highlight Melting on Greenland Ice Sheet. The Greenland Ice Sheet is melting at a near-record pace, thanks to some unusually warm weather and early season surges. An
image captured by NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite shows the effects. The site recorded, about 300 miles north-northeast of Nuuk, shows a landscape etched with dark blue melt ponds and streams - a sharp contrast to the mostly white conditions recorded in the same place in 2014.
Alaska Dispatch News
 Caribou Meat Now Has a Different Taste, Inuit Elders Say. Climate change has already altered the Canadian Arctic environment and the traditional lifestyle of the people who inhabit it. In recent decades, Inuit have seen changes to local plants and wildlife and the introduction of new species as seasonal norms shift and permafrost melts.
Nunatsiaq Online
Top of the World Arctic Broadband Summit Wraps Up in Barrow. For the past two days, policy leaders, tech industry experts and other executives have been meeting in Barrow, Alaska to discuss the essential need for broadband across the circumpolar Arctic, and how to best prepare for the many opportunities and even challenges the new technology will bring with it. Highlights of the Top of the World Arctic Broadband Summit included presentations ranging from what private investors are looking for when considering projects in the far north - to the very latest on the Quintillion Subsea Cable Project, which ASRC is a minority partner.
TASS Russian News Agency
Alaska Gets $1.4 Million to Connect Rural Communities to Health, Education Resources.
Four groups in Alaska will soon receive federal funding for telemedicine and distance learning projects.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday that it will award $23.4 million in grants to such projects
across the country, with about $1.4 million of that going to Alaska.
Telemedicine and distance learning services can help "connect rural communities with medical and education experts in other parts of the country" to improve access to health care and educational opportunities, the USDA said in a statement.
Alaska Dispatch News
 More Chinese Ships to Use Arctic Route. The world's largest maritime carrier China COSCO Shipping Corporation will send more cargo vessels on Arctic voyages through the Northeast Passage. COSCO's freighter Yongsheng set out Saturday in northern port city of Tianjin for Britain. The ship will travel through the Arctic Ocean shipping route for the third time following voyages in 2015 and 2013, when it became China's first commercial vessel to explore the Northeast Passage.
MarineLink
UAF Student Recognized by White House. A University of Alaska Fairbanks student has been recognized at the White House for his work advocating for communities that would be severely affected by climate change. The Fairbanks Daily News Miner reports that Esau Sinnok, of Shishmaref, an island community in northwest Alaska, was among 10 people honored by the president on Friday as Champions of Change for Climate Equity.
KTOO
Team to Study, Collect Arctic Plants.
Botanists from the
Canadian Museum of Nature
are traveling to Hudson Bay, near the community of Arviat, Nunavut on an
annual mission
to study and collect Arctic plants. They will spend four weeks on flat, coastal tundra peppered with small lakes and ponds, and because it is summer, there should be a wide variety of plant life. "They'll be mostly very small, mostly perennial plants, so plants that live several or many, many years," says Lynn Gillespie, a research scientist at the Canadian Museum of Nature.
RCI Net
Aboriginal Kids Were Healthy Before Residential Schools: New Study. Like most survivors of residential schooling, Piita Irniq remembers the food well.
It was different from the caribou, seal and maktaaq he ate growing up. At residential school, kids ate mostly porridge but on Saturday mornings there were Corn Flakes, which was one of the only foods he looked forward to. There was often an unpleasant soup with lettuce and onions in it. They even had beef cut into four-inch by four-inch squares - served frozen solid. Nunatsiaq Online
 UAF Researchers to Study Arctic Spring on the Sikuliaq. University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers have received $2.2 million to study Arctic marine ecosystems while on board the Sikuliaq, the research vessel owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. The project will help researchers better understand the processes that prime oceans for summer productivity and better anticipate changes resulting from declining ice cover.
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Scientists Expanding Network of Observers to Better Track Arctic Climate Change Impacts. Scientists like Jeremy Mathis are building a new international system for observing the many changes under way around the circumpolar north triggered by the warming climate - changes that are being monitored by sensors on land, sea, air and space. And, by people - such as residents of remote villages.
KUAC
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Legislative Action
No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.
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Future Events
** New this week **
Hickel Day of the Arctic- Northern Forum, July 26, 2016 (Anchorage, Alaska, USA).
To celebrate our annual "Day of the Arctic," the Institute of the North has organized a special luncheon featuring speakers from the Northern Forum, an intergovernmental, subnational platform for advancing sustainable development in the Arctic. Speakers include: Mr. Byron Mallott, Lieutenant Governor, State of Alaska; Mr. Yuri Zakharinsky, Vice-Governor of Krasnoyarsky Krai, Chair of the RCC; Mr. Alexander Mazharov, Vice-Governor of Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Okrug; Mr. Alexander Zhirkov, Speaker of the Parliament of Sakha Republic; Mr. Leonid Nikolaev, First Vice-Governor of Chukotsky Autonomous Okrug.
Hosted by Saint Petersburg State University, the UArctic Congress 2016 will feature Science and Meeting sections, including:
- Acclaimed keynote speakers and scientific experts presenting their latest research.
- Parallel sessions on an array of Arctic science, policy, and education topics.
- Formal meetings for representatives of the Council of UArctic and UArctic Rectors' Forum.
- Pre-Meetings to foster contacts and enhance networking.
- Opportunities for promoting and marketing your organization and activities.
- A UArctic Student Forum with workshops.
- A Cultural and Social program like no other.
The 2016 UArctic Rectors' Forum and the 19th annual meeting of the Council of UArctic form an integral part of the congress.
Conference on Water Innovations for Healthy Arctic Homes: September 18-21, 2016, Anchorage, Alaska. This circumpolar conference will bring together engineers, health experts, researchers, community members, policymakers, and innovators to discuss health benefits, challenges and innovations associated with making running water and sewer in remote northern communities safe, affordable and sustainable. Information and an expression of interest in attending can be found
here. (The full link is:
http://wihah2016.com/)
13th International Conference on Gas in Marine Sediments: September 19-22, 2016 (Tromso, Norway).
GIMS 13
promotes the study of natural gas and release systems on a global scale and
facilitates interdisciplinary and international cooperation. The conference
intends to bring together geologists, biologists, microbiologist, geophysicists, oceanographers, geochemists and scientists from modeling disciplines. The forum will provide a platform for current knowledge and future programs in gas inventories, fluxes and their role within the carbon cycle and biodiversity. Conference is organized by CAGE - Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate at UiT The
Arctic University of Norway. Abstract submission deadline is May 30th and registration deadline is June 20th. For more information:
http://gims13.uit.no
Bridging the Future of Arctic Social Science Research, September 23-24, 2016 (Monticello, Virginia, USA).
The event is sponsored by Arctic Horizons. The event will reassemble the members of the National Steering Committee and a small but diverse selection of representatives from the five regional workshops, to total about 15 people. The aim will be to identify and synthesize the core threads of the previous workshops and public contributions proffered between workshops. The target output for the workshop will be a final report draft and outline of steps leading to the final report release in June 2016. The Jefferson Institute will manage production of the publication.
Second International Conference on Natural Resources and Integrated Development of Coastal Areas in the Arctic Zone, September 27-29, 2016 (Arkhangelsk, Russia).
The Conference is organized by FASO of Russia, Russian Academy of Sciences, Government of Arkhangelsk region, Arkhangelsk Scientific Center and International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). Conference is aimed at elaboration of research-based practical measures and instruments for realization of human, natural and transport-logistical potential of the Arctic zone, including development of the Northern Sea Route and implementation of models of integrated coastal areas management. For additional information, please email.
Arctic Ambitions V: International Business Conference & Trade Show, October 4-5, 2016 (Anchorage, Alaska, USA). This once-a-year event uniquely focuses on business and investment opportunities flowing from developments in the Arctic. With interest in commercial development in the Arctic growing rapidly, WTC Anchorage initiated the Arctic Ambitions conference five years ago to address issues such as innovation, investment, infrastructure development, transportation, natural resources, and trade. At the event, corporate executives and senior government officials from across the Arctic, and around the world, make presentations and participate in panel discussions. This year's conference also includes a Trade Show and B2B Matchmaking Session. For more information, please contact Greg Wolf (
[email protected]) or call
907-278-7233.
Inuit traditions are a repository of Inuit culture and a primary expression of Inuit identity. The theme for the 2016 Inuit Studies Conference invites Elders, knowledge-bearers, researchers, artists, policy-makers, students and others to engage in conversations about the many ways in which traditions shape understanding, while registering social and cultural change. The institutional hosts of "Inuit Traditions," Memorial University of Newfoundland and the Nunatsiavut Government, invite you to contribute to an exchange of knowledge to be held in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, October 7-10, 2016. Presentations on all aspects of Inuit studies will be welcome.
Arctic Technology Conference, October 24-26, 2016 (St. John's, Canada). Founded in 1969, the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) is the world's foremost event for the development of offshore resources in the fields of drilling, exploration, production and environmental protection. The Arctic Technology Conference (ATC) is built upon OTC's successful multidisciplinary approach, with 14 technical societies and organizations working together to deliver the world's most comprehensive Arctic event.
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