OSTP Student Volunteer Program. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) recently announced that it is accepting applications for its Student Volunteer Program. "Serving as an OSTP Student Volunteer provides an opportunity to experience science and technology policy firsthand while working closely with senior policymakers on a variety of tasks and projects." An overview of the program and a link to application guidelines can be found here. 

Lots of Holes in the Law of the Sea: Legal Expert: 'A lot more law... will need to be built." A Montreal law professor says the international legal framework meant to govern Arctic waters doesn't have enough teeth. And Canada should stop acting as if it does,  says Suzanne Lalonde, Université de Montréal professor of international law, who called the framework "soft" Oct. 3 at a Montreal conference called "Arctic in Transition." Nunatsiaq Online

Science Must Guide Offshore Arctic Conservation, Development.Science, not politics, needs to guide decision-making in America's extreme, remote, and fragile Arctic Ocean. If we are to avoid irreparable harm to an ecosystem found nowhere else in the country, we need to develop a comprehensive research and monitoring plan and set aside significant areas for protection. In August, the Obama administration granted tentative approval for industry to drill four exploratory wells over the next two years in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's northern coast. Earlier this month, federal officials affirmed a 2008 oil and gas lease sale that could open to development a vast area located in the even more remote Chukchi Sea. Huffington Post

Alaska Native Eskimos Fight for Land Being Lost to Climate Change: An Interview with Christine Shearer. Christine Shearer is a postdoctoral scholar in science, technology, and society studies at UC Santa Barbara, and a researcher for CoalSwarm, part of SourceWatch. She is managing editor of Conducive, and author of "Kivalina: A Climate Change Story" (Haymarket Books, 2011) Recently Joshua Frank interviewed Christine about her new book, which details the plight of an Alaska Native Eskimo community struggling to save their land that is disappearing as a result of climate change. The Voice of the People 

Coast Guard Cutter Sails on Science Trip. The U.S. Coast Guard said one of its cutters is under way in Alaska waters on its third science mission this year. The 420-foot Healy is a polar icebreaker based in Seattle. An agency press release said the crew picked up supplies Sept. 28 in Dutch Harbor and headed north. A science team will put out hydrographic moorings and recover others placed on earlier missions. Anchorage Daily News 

Delivering Alaska's Oil Reserves to US Not Getting Any Easier. Problems are developing in the flow of oil from Alaska to the rest of the United States. Based on a falling volume of oil produced from the existing fields in the North Slope, the delivery pipeline from Deadhorse to Valdez is approaching levels of flow which will make it more difficult to deliver that oil. There are fields in the region that are still being developed. Several developments are likely to take place over the next year, mainly in exploration but including the development of the Umiat field. One of the mechanisms that Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell has proposed to help encourage industry was to provide a road up to Umiat. The oil reserve for the Umiat field is estimated at 250 million barrels, but the road may take another five years to finish. Alaska Dispatch 

Failure to Ratify U.N. Arctic Treaty Threatens U.S. Sovereignty [Commentary]. The melting of Arctic ice as a result of global warming has set off a race to capitalize on the polar region's suddenly accessible resources and expanding navigable waterways. Yet even as Canada, Russia and others stake their claims to this potential bounty of economic and trade opportunities, the U.S. is choosing to sit on the sidelines. Why? Because it won't sign on to the rules of the game: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The opponents justify their obduracy by citing a nonexistent threat to national sovereignty. The greater threat to the U.S. lies in its continued failure to ensure it will have a central role on this new frontier. Alaska Dispatch 

Seattle, Alaska in Tug-of-War Over Fishing Fleet. For more than a quarter-century, three Washington-based crab boats named Bering Sea, Arctic Sea and North Sea worked harvest grounds off Alaska, then sent profits south to their Puget Sound owners. The vessels, among the top-grossing crabbers in the North Pacific fleet, are still berthed in Seattle. But they are now owned by Coastal Villages Region Fund, one of six Alaska economic development nonprofits that have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the Northwest fleets that catch crab, pollock and other fish. These nonprofits represent 65 Alaska native communities that have long struggled with high unemployment and poverty. They were launched by a federal fishery council, which vested them with valuable shares in the regulated seafood harvest to help generate seafood jobs and dollars for those communities. And their success is a source of pride in a state that for decades chafed at the domination of its fishing industry by outside fleets. News Observer 

Foreign Relations Committee: Testimony of Mark F. Brzezinski, Ambassador-Designate to the Kingdom of Sweden. During the Foreign Relations Committee hearing to consider Mr. Brzezinski's nomination, Mr.Brzezinski stated his desire to work with the Kingdom of Sweden, in its role as chairman of the Arctic Council, to advance US-Sweden common goals. Mr. Brzezinski's testimony is available here.