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November 3, 2011

Today's Eventstodaysevents 

 

The Senate will consider two infrastructure bills. One is supported by Democrats. The other is supported by Republicans. The House could name conferees to consider the FY 2012 'minibus' spending bill.

 

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Media Reviewtodaysevents  

 

Facebook Building Massive 120 MW Server Farm Near Arctic Circle. Facebook is building Europe's largest server farm near the Arctic Circle in Sweden, because the severe cold will keep the servers cool naturally - lowering the energy required to crunch data from its 800 million users. The Lulea Data Center, in Lulea Sweden, will be just 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Power for the mammoth 120 megawatt server farm will be supplied by nearby hydropower plants that produce twice the electricity as the Hoover Dam! The backup alone - required to keep the servers running in the case of a blackout - is 40 MW. There will be 14 diesel generators for each of the three 300,000-square foot buildings. The project is scheduled for completion by 2014. Reuters

 

Watching the Birth of an Iceberg. After discovering an emerging crack that cuts across the floating ice shelf of Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica, NASA's Operation IceBridge has flown a follow-up mission and made the first-ever detailed airborne measurements of a major iceberg calving in progress. Science Daily 

  

Vanishing Arctic Sea Ice Topic of Frontiers of Science Opener at University of Utah. The University of Utah's Frontiers of Science returns Tuesday, Nov. 8, with a lecture by geophysicist Hajo Eicken on Arctic sea ice, which has been shrinking and breaking up earlier in the year, due to a warming planet. Eicken, a professor at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, will describe what drives these changes and what they mean for wildlife that have evolved to survive in and on ice-covered waters. Salt Lake Tribune

  

Rapid Warming Bad News for Arctic Mammals: Study: Rate of change too fast for animals to keep up. A new U.S. study that explains the demise of some mammals at the end of the last ice age might not bode well for vulnerable Canadian species that currently face increased risks with a warming climate. Researchers from Penn State University noted that species such as the polar bear and Peary caribou - found in the High Arctic islands - which are dealing with diminished numbers, may face even more difficult hurdles because of the relatively quick rate at which the Earth's climate is warming. "Animals are really good at adapting to change as long as the climate change happens slowly," said Beth Shapiro, an associate professor of biology at Penn State who led the study. "One thing we have to fear about climate change today is that global warming is so much faster than it has been in any of the previous cycles, that there's no time for the vegetation or the animals to adapt to whatever changes are happening. Ottawa Citizen

 

president signingPresidential Memorandum-New START Treaty. Delegation of Authority to Submit the Certification and Reports Specified in the Resolution of Advice and Consent to Ratification of the Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the "New START Treaty") By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of State to make the annual certification specified in section (a)(2)(A) of the Resolution of Advice and Consent to Ratification of the New START Treaty, and I hereby authorize and direct the Director of National Intelligence to prepare the report specified in that section. The Secretary of State shall submit the certification along with the report prepared by the Director of National Intelligence to the Senate. The White House

 

begichBegich's Coast Guard Bill Advances in Commerce Committee. Legislation sponsored by U.S. Sen. Mark Begich to reauthorize funding for the U.S. Coast Guard, and a second bill to allow NOAA to sell a condemned dock in Ketchikan were passed by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation today.  Begich is a member of the committee and chairman of the subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard. The committee today adopted by voice vote the Coast Guard Authorization Act for 2012 and 2013 (S.1665) which reauthorizes funding and personnel levels for the service which plays a key role in the country's national and homeland security. Senator Mark Begich

 

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Murkowski Presses Coast Guard on Needed Icebreaker Action. Senator Lisa Murkowski today urged the United States Coast Guard to move forward with a required analysis, in order to move closer to a decision point on acquiring new icebreakers for the Arctic - as they are nearly three weeks past the deadline for providing that analysis to Congress. "There are different options being proposed for the acquisition of new icebreakers," Murkowski wrote.  But the Coast Guard needed to get a Business Case Analysis (BCA) to Congress by October 15th, she continued, writing "this deadline has passed without the data that Congress desperately needs to do its job in support of the Coast Guard's Arctic Mission." Senator Lisa Murkowski

 

Legislative Actionfutureevents  

 

No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.


Future Events                                   

     

Meeting of the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC), November 7, 2011. Principals (senior federal officials) will meet in the White House Conference Center to discuss a draft of the 5-year Arctic Research Program Plan (called for in the Arctic Research and Policy Act) and other federal Arctic research efforts and initiatives. Brendan Kelly, at NSF, is the Executive Director of IARPC. 

 

Arctic Policy Forum: The Role of Science in Responsible Development, November 15, 2011. Join the Institute of the North for this quarter's Arctic Policy Forum.  This presentation and networking event will focus on science and collaboration in the Arctic and will feature Michael Macrander, Lead Scientist for Shell and Fran Ulmer, Chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. The Institute of the North's Arctic Policy Forums are a new way of engaging in Arctic issues. These quarterly networking events  serve to underline and elevate Alaska's role in the Arctic.  Informal policy presentations followed by networking events invite policy makers and administrators, researchers, community leaders and interested citizens together for an informal sharing opportunity. Participants will hear expert presentations on key policy findings and positions; emerging Arctic technologies; and challenges facing infrastructure development in the Arctic. Participants will also have the opportunity to spend time getting to know key stakeholders in Alaska's Arctic.

White House Tribal Nations Conference, December 2, 2011. President Obama will host the White House Tribal Nations Conference at the Department of the Interior. As part of President Obama's ongoing outreach to the American people, this conference will provide leaders from the 565 federally recognized tribes the opportunity to interact directly with the President and representatives from the highest levels of his Administration. Each federally recognized tribe will be invited to send one representative to the conference. This will be the third White House Tribal Nations Conference for the Obama Administration, and continues to build upon the President's commitment to strengthen the nation-to-nation relationship with Indian Country.  

  

AGU Fall Meeting, December 5-9, 2011. The American Geophysical Union's ("AGU") Fall Meeting to connect with colleagues, broaden their knowledge base, and embrace the joy of science.  The groundbreaking research presented at this world-renowned event is critical to advancing our understanding of the natural world and to addressing the challenges society faces as they relate to our science. As an organization, AGU works to unite Earth and space scientists who are dedicated to the common goal: scientific discovery for the benefit of humanity.  One of the most important ways we do this is through the Fall Meeting - an event that embodies who we are as a scientific organization and that is key to helping us achieve our organizational mission, vision and goals. 


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

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 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.

 

US Arctic Research Commission meeting in Washington, DC, January 25-27, 2012. The Commission will meet jointly with the Canadian Polar Commission on the 25th, and then with representatives from the federal government and other entities to discuss Arctic research issues. An agenda will be provided in early January 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 Heath, August 5-10, 2012. This kivalina girlevent 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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