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US Arctic Research Commission
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Today's Events
The House and Senate are not in session. |
Media Review
Polar Ice Caps Can Recover from Warmer Climate-Induced Melting, Study Shows. A growing body of recent research indicates that, in Earth's warming climate, there is no "tipping point," or threshold warm temperature, beyond which polar sea ice cannot recover if temperatures come back down. New University of Washington research indicates that even if the earth warmed enough to melt all polar sea ice, the ice could recover if the planet cooled again. Science Daily
 Inuit Knowledge Critical to Arctic Science. A video interview with Martin Lougheed of the Inuit Quajisarvingat Knowledge Center, Ottawa, Canada, makes the case for blending Inuit traditional knowledge with Western science to help understand and find solutions to sweeping changes in the Arctic. National Geographic
Scientists Want Balanced Arctic Strategy: As cities and communities feel impact of warmer temperatures,  infrastructure costs continue to rise. On the eve of what has become an annual end-of-summer trek up North for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, senior Canadian scientists are urging him to balance his strategy for the region. While many believe Harper's government is doing some of the right things to support development in the North, which is rapidly undergoing a transformation because of global warming, they say a lot of it is for the wrong reasons. Canada.com
 Nunavut Rejoices Over Iqaluit Bowhead Catch. For the first time in a century, Iqaluit hunters have nabbed a bowhead whale measuring 14 meters and weighing more than 70 tonnes. News of the successful Monday hunt spread quickly around the city - from honking horns on Iqaluit's streets to sending messages on social media. Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Cathy Towntongie said she had "goosebumps" when she heard the news. The Vancouver Sun
Healy to be Featured in NatGeo. On Aug. 15, two videographers from National Geographic, a photographer, and a journalist from the University of New Hampshire Alumni Magazine, conducted an interview with Dr. Larry Mayer, a professor from UNH. Dr. Larry Mayer is the chief scientist serving on the Coast Guard Cutter Healy's Arctic West Summer 2011 Mission and extended continental shelf mapping with the Canadian coast guard icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent. Military.com
 Scientists Urge Harper to Balance Arctic Strategy. On the eve of what has become an annual end-of-summer trek up North for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, senior Canadian scientists are urging him to balance his strategy for the region. While many believe Harper's government is doing some of the right things to support development in the North, rapidly undergoing a transformation because of global warming, they say a lot of it is for the wrong reasons. "It's a matter of leadership," said Louis Fortier, the scientific director of ArcticNet, an academic network hosted at Universite Laval in Quebec City. The Vancouver Sun
Amid Melting Ice, Navy Assesses Strategic Demands in Arctic. The Navy has completed its latest assessment of the Arctic region, where melting ice is raising strategic questions as well as commercial opportunities. "In the past, the Arctic was largely inaccessible, but increased seasonal melting of the sea ice is opening the region and creating opportunities for oil and gas exploration, maritime shipping, commercial fishing and tourism," Rear Adm. David Titley, director of the Navy's task force for climate change, said in a statement Tuesday. "We are confronted by a new ocean for the first time in 500 years." Stars and Stripes
The Arctic: Through Icy Waters. A team of Canadian archaeologists and oceanographers will mount a fresh search next week to solve a great mystery of the British empire: what fate befell the 19th-century expedition led by Sir John Franklin in search of the North-West Passage? When Sir John and his 134-man crew set sail from Greenhithe, England, in 1845, hopes were high that they would open a new trade route between Europe and Asia, returning with a cornucopia of zoological, botanical and geological discoveries. Their instructions were to sail home across the Pacific Ocean. Yet the promise of the Franklin expedition is now being fulfilled in a dramatic way. Global warming is rapidly expanding access to the North-West Passage as well as to other parts of the Arctic region, not only opening trade routes but providing access to a treasure trove of natural resources. Financial Times
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Legislative Action
No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.
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Future Events 13th Arctic Ungulates Conference (AUC), August 22-26, 2011. The theme of the conference will be "Challenges of Managing Northern Ungulates." The theme addresses the difficulties of managing ungulate populations that are faced with the unpredictable effects of climate change and an ever-increasing human presence on the land. The conference will also focus on the challenges associated with developing recovery actions for declining caribou and reindeer populations that are an integral part of Aboriginal cultures and ways of life. 9th International Symposium on Permafrost Engineering, September 3-7, 2011. The Melnikov Permafrost Institute (Yakutsk, Russia), the Institute of Northern Mining (Yakutsk, Russia), the Cold and Arid Regions Engineering and Environmental Research Institute (Lanzhou, China), and the Heilongjiang Institute of Cold Region Engineering (Harbin, China) will host the Ninth International Symposium on Permafrost Engineering to be held in Mirny, Yakutia. The aim of the Symposium is to provide a forum for discussion of permafrost engineering issues, as well as for exchanging practical experience in construction and maintenance of engineering structures on frozen ground. For additional information, please contact Lilia Prokopieva.
Northern Research Forum 6th Open Assembly, September 4-6, 2011. "Our Ice Dependent World," organized by the Northern Research Forum and its partners as the Northern Research Forum 6th Open Assembly, will be hosted by the University of Akureyri in the town of Hveragerđi, Iceland. Addressing the three 'poles' - the Arctic, the Antarctic and the Himalayan region- the sub-themes represent different perspectives for viewing the subject of natural ice and evaluating its importance. The event will consider implications of ice melt on humanity, communities, minds, perceptions and knowledge on ice; International law, 'soft law' and governance on ice.
4th International Sea Duck Conference,  September 12-16, 2011. The Sea Duck Joint Venture has helped sponsor a North American Sea Duck Conference once every three years since 2002. These conferences provide opportunities for researchers and managers to share information and research results, conduct workshops on specific issues, and to hold related meetings. The 4th conference will officially be an international conference and will be held in Seward, Alaska, 12-16 September, 2011, with participants from the U.S., Canada, Russia and Europe, focusing on sea ducks in the North and the Arctic. It will be held at the Windsong Lodge, with three days of presentations and workshops, and there will be a chartered boat trip the last day into the Kenai Fjords to watch sea ducks. Registration is available on the website for the conference and the excursion. Lowell Wakefield International Fisheries Symposium, September 14-17, 2011. The 27th Lowell Wakefield International Fisheries Symposium, entitled "Fishing People of the North: Cultures, Economies, and Management Responding to Change," will be held in Anchorage, Alaska. This international symposium will provide a forum for scholars, fishery managers, fishing families, and others to explore the human dimensions of fishery systems and growing need to include social science research in policy processes. The conference is part of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Sea Grant program. Advanced Workshop on Oil Spills In Sea Ice: Past, Present and Future  September 20-23, 2011. A technical workshop, organized by Dr. Peter Wadhams, on the physical problems associated with oil spills and blowouts in sea ice will be held at the Istituto Geografico Polare "Silvio Zavatti," Fermo, Italy. Scientists, engineers and policy makers are invited to address the questions of how oil is emitted from a blowout or spill, how the oil and gas are incorporated in the under-ice surface, how the oil layer evolves, how the oil is transported by the ice, and how and where eventual release occurs. The aim is to incorporate the experience of those scientists who worked in this field in the 1970s-1990s, when large-scale field experiments involving oil release were possible, and to relate this to the needs of present researchers who are seeking solutions to the problem of a sustainable Arctic oil spill management system. Registration forms are available here. Murmansk Arctic Forum, October 1-2, 2011. Hosted by the Russian Geographic Society, the forum will host discussion on Arctic navigation, development of the Northern Sea Route, railway extensions, and construction of a deep-water port in Arkhangelsk. The official website is in Russian.
The Arctic in Transition: Regional Issues and Geopolitics, October 3-4, 2011. The conference is organized by the Center for Geopolitical Studies of the Raoul Dandurand Chair, in collaboration with the Centre Jacques Cartier (France), ArcticNet (Universite Laval, Quebec), and the Northern Research Forum (University of the Arctic; University of Lapland, Finland). This high-level international meeting reunites political scientists, lawyers, geographers, historians and practitioners to discuss, first, the socio-economic, political and security issues of developed or developing Arctic regions, and, second, to look at the evolving relationships between these spaces, their peoples, and global affairs. The meeting mainly seeks to adress security issue(s) of the various region(s) that make up the circumpolar world. Three Arctic regions will be highlighted: a) the North-American Arctic (United States (Alaska); Canada (Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nunavut, Nunavik) and Greenland; b) the North Pacific Rim (Alaska, Russian Far East, Beaufort Sea/Chukchi); c) the Barents Euro-Arctic Region (Nordic countries - Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland - and Russia).
The Tenth International Conference on Permafrost, June 2012. The conference will be held in Tyumen, Russia, and is organized and hosted by Russia. The last conference was held in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 2008. Details to follow.
15th International Congress on Circumpolar Heath, August 5-10, 2012. This  event is sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Society for Circumpolar Health, and the International Union for Circumpolar Health. The forum will consider community participatory research and indigenous research; women's health, family health, and well-being; food security and nutrition; social determinants of health; environmental and occupational health; infectious and chronic diseases; climate change-health impacts; health service delivery and infrastructure; and, behavioral health.
Arctic/Inuit/Connections: Learning from the Top of the World , October 24-28, 2012. The 18th Inuit Studies Conference, hosted by the Smithsonian Institution, will be held in Washington, DC. The conference will consider heritage museums and the North; globalization: an Arctic story; power, governance and politics in the North; the '"new" Arctic: social, cultural and climate change; and Inuit education, health, language, and literature. For more information, please email Lauren Marr.
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