The COP26 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

As the world warms, countries with holdings in the Arctic are increasingly eyeing the region for development and use. As Ars reported last July, the frigid polar zone might be open to increased shipping, as it remains free of ice longer under climate change. However, policymakers and scientists need better tools to understand the extent to which humans are using the Arctic and what the future holds for the roads, settlements, and other developments in the region. New research claims to provide a more accurate way to look at how human use is changing the Arctic.

As the Arctic warms, it increasingly has the potential to become an arena where world powers compete for dominance. While Russia and China are beefing up their Arctic presence, the Pentagon has been slow to make the Arctic a priority. Alaska Public Media’s Liz Ruskin reports that may be changing.

But what are the biggest impacts? How much has the warming climate changed things? And how are subsistence harvesters dealing with that change? Well, a new study in the journal Ecology and Society aims to answer those questions, specifically as they pertain to the Northwest Alaska communities of Kotzebue and Kivalina.

14 senior military leaders from 11 European and North American nations discussed High North security issues at the annual Arctic Security Forces Roundtable (ASFR) Wednesday this week. It is currently the only military forum focused on the Arctic region’s unique challenging security dynamics and architecture, and the full range of military capabilities and cooperation, a press release from the US European Command states.

John Walsh, a climate scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, has received the Mohn Prize for his outstanding research in the Arctic. The prize amounts to roughly $230,000 and is one of the premier Arctic research awards. The Mohn Prize sponsors announced that Walsh is the 2022 laureate during a program on Nov. 12 at the Fram Center in Tromsø, Norway. 

Photo credit: Laura Walsh and UAF

The PRB Fall Meeting will take place as a series of online sessions. This session of the PRB fall meeting will include discussions with select federal agency polar program leaders about their current priorities, opportunities, and challenges. 

November 15th: This session of the PRB fall meeting will include discussions with select federal agency polar program leaders about their current priorities, opportunities, and challenges. There will be updates on developments in international polar science cooperation through IASC and SCAR. Additionally, there will be an overview of recent/current NASEM activities of relevance to polar science

November 19th: This session of the PRB fall meeting will explore current developments, and possible opportunities for new PRB efforts related to assessment of health risks/concerns for Arctic-region populations and prospects for expanding science cooperation in the Russian Arctic.

November 30th: There will be a joint session with the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC) and Ocean Studies Board (OSB) on “Tipping Points in the Climate System.” Participants will consider the scientific advances that have been made since the last major NASEM study related to thresholds/abrupt changes in the climate system (in 2013) and explore how a new Academies activity could make value contributions on this topic.

Museums in and of the North are leading the way in creative conversations about how museums and collections can generate new narratives with old objects. Join us for a virtual roundtable discussion with Arctic museum curators and scholars speaking about museums as engines of Indigenous cultural renewal, community knowledge, decolonial efforts, creative innovation, and more.

The New England Arctic Network (NEAN) will host its 2021 meeting at the University of New England in Portland, Maine. Additional information will be published soon. 

The Wilson Center's Polar Institute is pleased to co-sponsor the 14th Polar Law Symposium, which will be a hybrid event co-hosted by the Polar Cooperation Research Centre (Kobe University, Japan), Polar Law Institute (University of Akureyri, Iceland), Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law – Arctic Centre (University of Lapland, Finland), University of the Arctic and its Arctic Law Thematic Network (Finland).

Hosted entirely online the ArcticNet Virtual Annual Scientific Meeting 2021 (ASM2021) is a hub for Arctic research in Canada. The ASM2021 brings together researchers from the natural, health, and social sciences to meet the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing Arctic region, shaped by climate change and modernization. This conference will push the boundaries of our collective understanding of the Arctic and strengthen our ability to address the Arctic issues of today and tomorrow.

The National Academies’ Polar Research Board is convening the following session at the Fall AGU meeting.

Arctic Symposium 2022 continues momentum in Arctic defense and security collaboration established in prior ALCOM-hosted events. AAS22 seeks to address the challenges faced by the U.S. military and our allies and partners in understanding and responding to our respective national interests. AAS22 is planned and organized by the Arctic Domain Awareness Center at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) in support and in compliance to guidance from Alaskan Command (ALCOM) Staff and Commander. More information available soon.

The participants in the forum will focus on improving the living standards in the Arctic region, preserving its unique ecological potential, ensuring sustainable socioeconomic development in polar territories, and strengthening international cooperation to this end. The IAF is a unique space for constructive cooperation with international and regional organizations and an opportunity to focus on Russian and international priorities, including climate change, the environment, economic cooperation in the Arctic, sustainable development of transport infrastructure, and human capital development.

Organizers announce, that due to the coronavirus outbreak, the 2nd Symposium on Polar Microbes and Viruses has been postponed to 2022. 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.