Today's Events 

The House is expected to vote on a Social Security payroll tax cut that includes a Keystone XL pipeline provision. The Senate will consider balanced-budget amendments to the Constitution.

Media Review 

Earmark Ban a Strain on Higher Ed. More than a year after earmarks were driven out of Congress, colleges and universities are feeling the strain of lost federal funding and warning lawmakers to think twice about making the ban permanent. Higher education was one of the beneficiaries of earmarks, which lawmakers inserted into spending bills to direct federal cash to their districts. Lawmakers often used the practice to secure funding for research parks, campus facilities and other projects tied to higher education. The Hill

Arctic Museum Gets Heritage Group's Grant. The Jensen Arctic Museum on the campus of Western Oregon University received $5,750 as part of the 2011 Oregon museum grants recently awarded by the Oregon Heritage Commission, part of the state Parks and Recreation Department. The commission issued nine grants for $55,675, which coupled with matching amounts to generate $117,985 for museums in eight counties. The Jensen match was $5,250, which gives the museum $11,000 to put its audio and visual collections in a digital format. The Statesman Journal

Action on 'Megabus' Pushed Back. The House may postpone final action on a nine-bill fiscal 2012 "megabus" until Dec. 15, the day before stopgap financing for the government expires, as unexplained delays barred the anticipated Monday completion of the measure. House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said Monday evening that the delays stemmed from the difficulty of assembling the comprehensive spending package, which was negotiated by a House-Senate conference committee, and not from serious lingering disputes. Congressional Quarterly

Russia's Arctic Shelf Bid 90 Percent Complete. Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Inanov said that Russia's official submission for its claim to the Arctic shelf is 90 percent complete; Russia is preparing its submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2012. Norway is the only Arctic country with approved claims. Barents Observer

Government Seeks Delay on Seal Status Decision. The federal government is seeking a six-month delay for deciding whether two seals that depend on sea ice should be listed as a threatened species because of climate warming. The fisheries section of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also will review the status of ribbon seals, a species rejected for listing in December 2008. All three seal species use sea ice to give birth. Alaska Public Radio 

The United States as an Arctic Actor. The U.S. Arctic territory, defined as the region above the Arctic Circle (66.3 degrees North), is comprised of the northern parts of Alaska and parts of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. Compared to the other Arctic states (Norway, Denmark - through Greenland -, Russia and Canada) the U.S. Arctic is both smaller geographically and less populated than its counterparts. The largest communities in Alaska's Far North have approximately three to four thousand inhabitants, mostly centered around the towns of Kotzebue, Prudhoe Bay and Barrow. In comparison, the largest Russian Arctic community is in the city of Murmansk, located close to the Norwegian border, with approximately 325,000 inhabitants. Of the 4 million people living in the wider definition of the Arctic, most are located in the Russian or Norwegian territories. As a natural consequence, the American capabilities, presence and engagement in the Arctic have not matched that of the European Arctic nations. The Arctic Institute

Legislative Action  

No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.

Future Events                                   

     

Alaska Marine Science Symposium, January 16-20, 2012. The symposium was first held in 2002 to connect scientists in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and beyond in an effort to collaborate and communicate on research

activities in the marine regions off Alaska. There will be plenary and poster sessions featuring a broad spectrum of ocean science on issues of climate, oceanography, lower trophic levels, the benthos, fish and invertebrates, seabirds, marine mammals, local and traditional knowledge, and socioeconomic research. There will also be speakers, workshops and special sessions.

 

Workshop: Responding to Arctic Environmental Change: Translating Our Growing Understanding into a Research Agenda for Action Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2012.   Queen's University, Kingston, Canada. Co-sponsored by International Study of Arctic Change (ISAC) and the School of Policy Studies at Queen's University. Endorsed by the International Arctic Science Committee, this workshop is the first in a planned series of meetings that aim to collectively shape and coordinate initiatives for research that directly addresses the needs of stakeholders who are affected by change or who are addressing arctic environmental change. The long-term objective is to enable local people, the arctic nations and the wider global community, including the scientific community, to better respond to a changing Arctic. This workshop is a pre-IPY 2012 Conference event. It is intended to develop a science plan that will feed into and further evolve at IPY 2012 Conference "From Knowledge to Action". For more information and to register for the workshop go here. 

Arctic Science Summit Week 2012, April 20-22, 2012. The summit will provide opportunities for international coordination, collaboration and cooperation in all areas of Arctic science. Side meetings organized by stakeholders in Arctic science and policy are also expected. More information to follow. 

From Knowledge to Action, April 22-27, 2012. The conference will bring together over 2,000 Arctic and Antarctic researchers, policy and decision-makers, and a broad range of interested parties from academia, industry, non-government, education and circumpolar communities including indigenous peoples. The conference is hosted by the Canadian IPY Program Office in partnership with the National Research Council of Canada, among other groups. Each day of the conference will feature a program of keynote speakers, plenary panel discussions, parallel science sessions, as well as dedicated poster sessions. The conference-wide plenaries will explore themes related to topics of polar change, global linkages, communities and health, ecosystem services, infrastructure, resources and security. Other sessions will provide the opportunity to present and discuss the application of research findings, policy implications and how to take polar knowledge to action. 

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.  

The Arctic Imperative Summit, July 29-August 1, 2012. The summit will be hosted by Alaska Dispatch and will bring together leading voices in this conversation, including residents from the small villages that comprise Alaska's coastal communities, state, national and international leaders, the heads of shipping and industry, as well as international policymakers and the news media. The goal of the summit is to sharpen the focus on the policy and investment needs of Alaska's Arctic through a series of high level meetings, presentations, investor roundtables and original research.

15th International Congress on Circumpolar Health, 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.