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Alaska Forum on the Environment, February 9-13, 2015 (Anchorage, Alaska, USA). The Alaska Forum on the Environment (AFE) is Alaska's largest statewide gathering of environmental professionals from government agencies, non-profit and for-profit businesses, community leaders, Alaskan youth, conservationists, biologists and community elders. The diversity of attendees and comprehensive agenda sets this conference apart from any other. Each year there are over 80 technical breakout sessions and sensational Keynote Events. There will be a full week of sessions on climate change, energy, environmental regulations, cleanup and remediation, fish & wildlife, solid waste, and of course much more. The event will continue to present expanded content on Marine Debris, Coastal Issues and Tsunami's in order to address the pressing concerns from Alaska rural coastal communities.
 Today's Congressional Action:
The Senate is not in session. The House is expected to consider non-Arctic legislation.
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Media
 WH: Climate Change Directly Impacts More Americans Than Terrorism. The White House stood by its decision on Tuesday to include climate change impacts in its national security strategy released last week. When asked if President Obama believed climate change is a greater threat than terrorism, White House spokesman Josh Earnest pushed back. The Hill
 Senate Confirms New Pentagon Chief. The Senate on Thursday confirmed Ashton Carter as President Obama's new secretary of Defense in a 93-5 vote. Carter, 60, will be the 25th secretary of Defense and Obama's fourth. He is expected to be sworn into office next week. Five Republican senators voted against Carter - Sens. Roy Blunt (Mo.), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and John Boozman (R-Ark.). The Hill
 Shell's Plan for Summer Arctic Offshore Drilling Clears Major Hurdle. The Obama administration on Thursday took a major step toward validating the government's 2008 sale of Arctic drilling rights to Shell and other companies. The move by the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management responds to a federal court ruling against the environmental analysis underpinning that seven-year-old sale, and leaves open the possibility that Shell Oil Co. will resume drilling in the Chukchi Sea this summer. Alaska Dispatch News
 Ulmer: Big Changes in Far North Since US Last Chaired Arctic Council. When the United States last led the eight-nation Arctic Council, September sea ice still covered about 2.3 million square miles, Royal Dutch Shell had just judged its Alaska business to be inconsequential and pulled out of the state, and few people in lower latitudes appeared to give much thought to the Arctic. Now, with the U.S. on the verge of chairing the council for a second two-year stint, the Arctic is hot. Alaska Dispatch News
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Legislative Action
No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.
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Future Events
International Symposium on Northern Development, February 25-27, 2015 (Quebec, Canada). The Qu�bec government, in collaboration with Universit� Laval, will co-chair with the Nordic Council of Ministers the International Symposium on Northern Development. The event will allow for the pooling of knowledge, experience and perspectives in the realm of northern development. It will assemble representatives of the northern countries, the universities and local populations, including the Aboriginal nations, and businesspeople and enterprises. The key themes will be the North as a living environment; the North as a physical territory; the North as a hub of economic development; and, the North as a hub of knowledge training and research.
2015 Public Policy Forum: Predicting and Preparing for a Changing Arctic. March 4, 2015 (Washington, D.C.). The Consortium for Ocean Leadership will host a forum on a changing Arctic. One panel will discuss the state of knowledge in predicting major changes occurring in the Arctic as well as identifying research and observational gaps. The second panel will consider the science needs of commercial and community stakeholders living and working in the Arctic.
US Arctic Research Commission's 103rd Meeting, March 4-5, 2015 (Washington, DC, USA). More information to come.
PNWER...Pacific NorthWest Economic Region's Arctic Caucus meeting, March 5, 2015, (Washington, DC, USA). More info to come.
Arctic Summit 2015, March 12, 2014 (Oslo, Norway) The Economist is hosting the Arctic Summit 2015 where discussions will focus on whether commercial interest in the Arctic is a bubble about to burst. There are discounted registration fees are available for NGOs, government, academics, charities and students. There are also discounts for groups of 3 or more people.
Polar Shelves and Shelf Break Exchange in Times of Rapid Climate Warming, March 15-20, 2015 (Lucca, Italy). The GRCs provide an international forum for the presentation and discussion of frontier research in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences, and their related technologies. The guiding principle of a GRC is to encourage communication and discussion of ideas and new unpublished results at the very frontier of a particular field of research, by bringing together outstanding scientists from academia, industry, and government, ranging from senior experts to Ph.D. students. With the increasing impacts of reduced sea ice and warming seawater conditions in both the Arctic and Antarctic, this conference can act as a forum for potentially transformative discussions for interdisciplinary, international and compare/contrast evaluation of polar sciences. In addition, the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will precede the GRC to provide a forum for graduate students and post-docs to present and exchange new data and cutting edge ideas with experts in the different polar fields of science.
Sweden-U.S. Planning Workshop on Joint Arctic Research Using the I/B Oden, March 30- April 1, 2015 (Stockholm, Sweden). The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Arctic Section is supporting a 'Planning Workshop on joint Arctic Research using the Swedish Class 1A Icebreaker Oden.' This workshop is held in collaboration with the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat (SPRS) and the Swedish Research Council (Formas and VR). The US delegation will be led by Drs. Patricia Matrai (Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences) and Peter Minnett (RSMAS, U. Miami), as workshop co-organizers with Dr. Caroline Leck (Stockholm U.). This workshop will bring together those with research and operational/ logistical interests in the Arctic and will discuss a baseline for establishing a new, longer-term collaborative relationship among U.S. and Swedish scientists for Oden-based research in the Arctic Ocean.
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.
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.
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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