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April 4, 2012

Today's Eventstodaysevents 

   

The House and Senate are in recess until Monday, April 16.

MediaMedia 

 

defense spendingMilitary Leaders From Arctic Countries to Meet in Canada: 'There are certain areas where co-operation would be paramount.' In contrast to fears that a new kind of "Cold War" is emerging between oil-hungry Arctic nations, Canada's Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Walter Natynczyk, is preparing to host his counterparts from seven other northern countries next week in Labrador for two days of talks on polar issues "of mutual interest," Postmedia News has learned. The planned gathering of the world's top Arctic military officials - including the defence chiefs or senior northern commanders from Canada, the U.S., Russia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland - is scheduled to take place April 12-13 at Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay in Newfoundland and Labrador. Nunatsiaq Online

 

YoungCongressman Young Criticizes Federal Oceans Policy at Anchorage Hearing. Invited panelists spoke out against a new National Oceans Policy at a Congressional subcommittee hearing in Anchorage Tuesday morning. Congressman Don Young chaired the  subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs oversight hearing, with Senator Lisa Murkowski sitting beside him as an invited guest.  Don Young  called the new version of the Oceans policy "too complicated", while criticizing the Obama administration's disregard for stakeholder involvement. Dr. John Farrell of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission testified and was interviewed by Alaska Public Radio. Dr. Farrell's comments begin at 1:16 of the piece. Alaska Public Radio

 

permafrostSatellites Show Thawing of Alaska's Permafrost. Climate warming has begun to etch subtle changes to the Arctic land surface, with satellites unveiling hints about the fate of the Far North permafrost on a grand scale. One particularly unnerving animation portrays the seasonal deformation of a track of land on Alaska's North Slope during the summers of 2010 and 2011. Watch the red shift that signals the transformation of frozen ground into squishy muck - a meltdown that then subsides several centimeters as the summer ripens into fall. In a sense, we might be glimpsing a preview of Earth's worst climate nightmare. Alaska Dispatch 

 

New Report on the State of Polar Regions. The U.S. National Research Council has just released a synthesis of reports from thousands of scientists in 60 countries who took part in the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-08, the first in over 50 years to offer a benchmark for environmental conditions and new discoveries in the polar regions. Science Daily 

 

WalrusExperts Meet to Discuss Future for Pacific Walruses as Sea-Ice Loss Forces Species onto Land. Conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, Native groups, scientists, and agency staff from both the Russian Federation and United States met to address the need for effective responses to climate-driven increases in the numbers of Pacific walrus using land-based "haul-outs" during summer and fall months. An alarming trend for the Pacific walrus. Coastal haul-outs -aggregations of walruses on land- numbering in the tens of thousands were previously unknown on the northwest coast of Alaska. Since 2007, there have been two years where walrus hauled out in the thousands, and in both 2010 and 2011 they hauled out in the tens of thousands. Wildlife Conservation Society

Legislative Actionfutureevents  

 

No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.

Future Events               

  

  

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 here

  

From Knowledge to Action, April 22-27, 2012. The conference will bring IPYmeetinglogotogether 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. Click here

  

USARC Commission Meeting, April 27-28, 2012. The 97th meeting of the CPClogoUSARC will be held in Montreal, Canada, in conjunction with the "From Knowledge to  

 

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Action" IPY meeting referred to above. The Commission will meet on April 27-28, and will meet jointly with the Canadian Polar Commission on the afternoon of the 27th, to discuss common interests in Arctic Research. Details to follow. 

  

Arctic Forum 2012, April 30-May 1, 2012. The Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. will host the forum in conjunction with their 24th annual meeting. Both events will be in Washington, D.C. The Arctic Forum is part of the American Geophysical Union's Science Policy Conference, which will be held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The Conference will focus on the science that helps inform policymakers' decisions. Within the Science Policy Conference, the Arctic Forum will assess gaps and priority needs for arctic scientific information to inform decision makers in policy

formation for three key themes:

                - Governance and Security in the Arctic;

                - Transportation and Energy Development; and

                - Changing Arctic Ecosystems.

The Forum will examine the current state of policymaker and public understanding of the issues. An important goal will be to foster an increased capacity for dialogue and action on arctic science-policy issues.

  

[Postponed]American Polar Society 75th Anniversary Meeting and Symposium, "The Polar Regions in the 21st Century: Globalization, Climate Change and Geopolitics", to occur in 2013, The Explorers Club, NYC. For 75 years, the American Polar Society has both documented and communicated polar activities to the interested world. This meeting will bring together the current leaders in science, government, commerce, and diplomacy for a state-of-the-art forecast of the next seventy-five years in a world influenced more than ever before by the destiny of the Arctic and Antarctic. Click here.  

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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. Click here.  

  

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 healthmeetinglogoindigenous 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. Click here

  

The Arctic Imperative Summit, August 24-28, 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. Click here

   

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 inuitconferencelogomuseums 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, click here. 

  

  

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