Audience members will get a fast-forward to understanding new findings and key trends in climate-driven environmental and social changes in the Arctic. This session will focus on recent findings on how climate change is impacting the environment, societies and biodiversity, and present expert recommendations on how Arctic States can reduce emissions of black carbon. Specific topics will include: recent findings on climate change in the Arctic; impacts of climate change on societies and extreme events; what’s happening with Arctic biodiversity, and global implications; action on black carbon and methane – how Arctic nations are taking action and recommendations for the future; and emerging issues including wildland fires.

Access to the Arctic Ocean is changing quickly as sea ice extent reduces and thins – enabling longer seasons of ship navigation and new access to previously difficult to reach regions. This briefing will take stock of the increase of Arctic shipping over the past years, and associated risks like oil spills and search and rescue incidents. It will look at how the Council contributes to safeguarding the marine environment and enables safe and sustainable shipping in Arctic waters. Specific topics will include: the current status of Arctic shipping; insights on marine emergency response; Arctic marine tourism; and emerging issues.

IARPC has released a draft of the next five-year Arctic Research Plan, which will span from 2022-2026. We are now asking the public to comment on the draft plan by June 11, 2021. To provide additional information about the draft plan contents and development, we are hosting a series of one-hour information sessions. A webinar May 17, 10am AKT / 2pm PT will focus on Priority Area 4: Risk Management and Hazard Mitigation.

From climate change adaptation to broadband connectivity to the rights of Indigenous peoples, Arctic youth leaders’ policy issues are Arctic policy issues. Over two half-days, The Arctic in 25 Years symposium will gather emerging Arctic leaders to inform and influence potential Arctic policy for the next generation. Panelists represent all eight Arctic states, as well as Indigenous peoples who live there. Based on the research they conducted, policies they coordinated, as well as traditional lifestyles and subsistence missions they’ve led, youth leaders will discuss the Arctic they envision for the future and the actions needed to achieve it. The Wilson Center’s Polar Institute, with Arctic Frontiers, Arctic Council Permanent Participants' Youth (supported by the Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat) and Arctic Youth Ambassadors, will host the first annual International Youth Symposium, The Arctic in 25 Years.

DHS S&T's Centers of Excellence (COE) Summit is set and focused on Homeland Security Challenges: Evolving Threats & Dynamic Solutions. This event is a special opportunity for COE researchers to connect and network with DHS components, federal, state, and local stakeholders, as well as industry partners to present current and emerging solutions to threats and challenges faced by DHS. Attendees can visit the Innovation Showcase, where COE and vendor partners showcase research breakthroughs, new products and tools to assist operational decision-makers and dynamic solutions to secure our Homeland.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen in Copenhagen at the start of a diplomatic tour that includes a meeting in Iceland of the Arctic Council and his first face-to-face talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov since President Joe Biden started his term in January. During his May 17 meeting with Fredriksen, Blinken "emphasized the importance of advancing our mutual goals of combating the climate crisis, developing green technology, and continuing common efforts with the Kingdom of Denmark on the Arctic," the State Department said in a statement.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has approved the concept of Russia’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2021-2023 and a detailed plan of events. During the chairmanship in 2021-2023, Russia will develop cooperation with the participating countries in four high-priority directions: the Arctic population, including the North’s small indigenous ethnic groups, protection of the Arctic environment, including climate change, socio-economic development of the region, and strengthening the Arctic Council’s role as the main platform for multilateral cooperation in high latitudes.

The Master of Arctic environmental project, an aerial survey of the polar bear population in the Russian Arctic, is underway in Yakutia. This year, the project organizers decided to divide the expedition into two stages. The first stage will start at the Tiksi airport, from which a team of researchers will make daily flights in an L-410 plane. The aircraft will fly along 10 routes, each longer than 1,000 kilometers.

This briefing will shed light on how climate change, pollutants and lifestyles impact human health in the Arctic. It will also overview newly evaluated risks for radiation exposure and how radiation can impact human health. Attendees will hear how the Council is tackling emerging issues like Covid-19, future pandemics and black carbon health effects. Specific topics will include: how Arctic lifestyles, diets and pollution exposure impacts human health; short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs) and human health; radiation risks and health impacts; mental health and suicide prevention; and, emerging issues, including Covid-19.

This briefing explores what the world has to learn from the Arctic and presents innovative case studies of what we can learn from Indigenous peoples’ Traditional Knowledge and Local Knowledge, how we can tap into the full potential of Arctic economies and how Arctic communities initiate energy transitions. Specific topics will include: building sustainable economies; mainstreaming biodiversity in the mining sector; cleaning up communities in the Arctic; and emerging issues and energy initiatives.

Twenty years ago, the Arctic was more resilient than now as sea ice was three times thicker than today and provided a buffer against the influence of short-term climate fluctuations. The recent decade has seen an increase in Arctic extreme events in climate and ecosystems including events beyond previous records. Such new extremes include Greenland ice mass loss, sea ice as thin and more mobile, coastal erosion, springtime snow loss, permafrost thaw, wildfires, and bottom-to-top ecosystem reorganizations. While their numbers increase, the distribution of the type, location, and timing of extreme events are less predictable. 

The Arctic Council hosts its Ministerial Meeting in Reykjavik. The event will be lived-streamed.

This event is hosted by Migration in Harmony Research Coordination Network. In 2021, a coalition of organizations including The Arctic Institute, Women in Polar Sciences, and Women of the Arctic are organizing a webinar series, Breaking the Ice Ceiling, that aims to illuminate polar research and achievements (past and present) by those who identify as women and to foster discussion on systemic change in polar sciences (Indigenous, natural, and social sciences) to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion. In this webinar, you will learn from Director Romani Makkik and Producer Dr. Shari Fox about strengths-based research and transforming the research process through critical reflection and new expression.

ADAC will conduct the Center's Program Year 7 Annual meeting to focus on U.S. Coast Guard Project Champions, key stakeholders and the community of Arctic science and technology researchers. Included in the Program Year 7 Annual meeting are planned guest speakers from HQ U.S. Coast Guard, DHS S&T and senior Arctic Research leadership in Washington D.C.

For the first time, a Regional Conference on Permafrost will be combined with the bi-annual 19th International Conference on Cold Regions Engineering. This conference is hosted by the US Permafrost Association, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the International Permafrost Association, the Permafrost Young Researchers Network, and the University of Colorado Boulder. A complete list of planned sessions is available here.

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.