|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Today's Events
The Senate reconvenes to consider the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The House reconvenes today.
|
Media
 EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Resigns. Environmental Protection Agency Administration Lisa Jackson says she's stepping down after nearly four years on the job. Jackson announced her departure in a statement Thursday. She gave no particular reason for leaving but said she was ready for new challenges, time with her family and new opportunities to make a difference. Federal News Radio
 Rep. Young Lays Out House Indian Country Agenda for 113th Congress. U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., has announced that Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, will continue to chair the Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs in the 113th Congress. Young has chaired the Subcommittee during the 112th Congress, directing attention to his desire for increased economic development and self-determination initiatives for tribes.Indian Country Today
Arctech Helsinki Shipyard Delivered Icebreaking Offshore Vessel. The vessel will supply the Arkutun-Dagi oil and gas field in Sakhalin area, in Far East Russia. Vitus Bering is the first vessel of the series, the sister vessel NB-507 will be delivered in April 2013. "Delivering this vessel today is an important achievement for Arctech. It is an important reference for us as we compete in orders of arctic vessels in the future. Delivering as technically advanced ship as Vitus Bering is, in two years, demands good co-operation skills from the shipyard, client and suppliers. I think we have succeeded well in the project", comments Esko Mustamäki, the Managing Director of Arctech Helsinki Shipyard. Sea Discovery
 Melting Sea Ice Opens Up Faster Freighter Route. In a twist to the debate over global warming, melting Arctic sea ice is making it easier to transport the fossil fuels that produce the planet-warming gases, which appear to be causing it to thaw in the first place. As a result, a record number of tankers have gained access to an emerging shipping route, creating a potential industrial boon in the remote Arctic. The Sacramento Bee
Camera Gives Canadian Researchers a Glimpse of Undersea Arctic Life. Data is now streaming live from the Arctic sea floor near Cambridge Bay in Canada's eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut. A team from Ocean Networks Canada, based at the University of Victoria, installed the undersea monitoring station in September. Dr. Kim Juniper spoke at the Arctic Net Conference in Vancouver on Dec. 14. He said the observatory is already generating interest among scientists who want to use the site for their own work. Alaska Dispatch
|
|
Legislative Action
No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.
|
|
Future Events
Alaska Marine Science Symposium, January 21-25, 2013. Since 2002, scientists from Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, and beyond have come to the Symposium to communicate research activities in the marine regions off Alaska. Researchers and students in marine science re-connect with old colleagues and meet new ones. Plenary and poster sessions feature a broad spectrum of ocean science. Hear the latest in the fields of climate, oceanography, lower trophic levels, the benthos, fishes and invertebrates, seabirds, marine mammals, local and traditional knowledge, and socioeconomic research. The Symposium also features compelling keynote speakers, workshops and special sessions.
Development of a 5-Year Strategic Plan for Oil Spill Research in Canadian Arctic Waters, January 28-29, 2013. This workshop is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Research Fund (ESRF), a research program which sponsors environmental and social studies pertaining petroleum exploration, development, and production activities on frontier lands. The ESRF is directed by a joint government, industry and public management board and is administered by the secretariat, which resides in the Office of Energy Research and Development, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. The workshop is held in an effort to produce a 5-year strategic plan for oil spill research in Canadian Arctic marine waters.
Alaska Forum on the Environment, February 4-8, 2013. Hosted by The Alaska Forum, Inc. the 2013 Alaska Forum on the Environment will follow up on previous forums by offering training and information, includes plenary sessions, on: climate change, emergency response, environmental regulations, fish and wildlife populations, rural issues, energy, military issues, business issues, solid waste, contaminants, contaminated site cleanup, mining and others. For 2013, the forum will expand forum content to provide information to help better understand issues surrounding coastal communities. This will include tsunami impacts, marine debris, and coastal erosion.
 28th Wakefield Symposium: Responses of Arctic Marine Ecosystems to Climate Change, March 26-29, 2013. This symposium seeks to advance our understanding of responses of arctic marine ecosystems to climate change at all trophic levels, by documenting and forecasting changes in environmental processes
and species responses to those changes. Presentations will focus on collaborative approaches to understanding and managing living marine resources in a changing Arctic, and to managing human responses to changing arctic marine ecosystems. Hosted by Alaska Sea Grant and sponsors.
Arctic Science Summit Week, April 13-19, 2013. Krakow, Poland. The ASSW is the annual gathering of international organizations engaged in supporting and facilitating Arctic research. Its purpose is to provide opportunities for international coordination, collaboration and cooperation in all fields of Arctic science and to combine science and management meetings. Side meetings organized by groups with interest in the Arctic science and policy will also be held within the week.
One of them is already planned: The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) will offer a one-day career development workshop during the ASSW 2013. Details will be published closer to the event:http://www.apecs.is/apecs-meetings-a-events/assw-2013.
American Polar Society 75th Anniversary, April 15-18, 2013. The American Polar Society will hold a meeting and symposium at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. This meeting and symposium is titled "The Polar Regions in the 21st Century: Globalization, Climate Change and Geopolitics."
Arctic Observing Summit 2013, April 30- May 2, 2013. The Arctic Observing Summit is led by the International Study of Arctic Change (ISAC). It is a Sustaining Arctic Observing Network (SAON) task and part of the broader SAON implementation process, which is led by the Arctic Council jointly with the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). AOS is a high-level, biennial summit that aims to provide community-driven, science-based guidance for the design, implementation, coordination and sustained long term (decades) operation of an international network of arctic observing systems. The AOS will provide a platform to address urgent and broadly recognized needs of arctic observing across all components of the arctic system, including the human component. It will foster international communication and coordination of long-term observations aimed at improving understanding and responding to system-scale arctic change. The AOS will be an international forum for optimizing resource allocation through coordination and exchange among researchers, funding agencies, and others involved or interested in long term observing activities, while minimizing duplication and gaps.
International Conference on Arctic Ocean Acidification, May 6-8, 2013.
The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), the Institute of Marine Research, the Norwegian Institute for Water Research, the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research, and the University of British Columbia, Canada, host a conference to consider Arctic Ocean acidification. Topics will include
response of Arctic Ocean to increasing CO2 and related changes in the global carbon cycle, social and policy challenges, Arctic Ocean acidification and ecological and biogeochemical coupling, implications of changing Arctic Ocean acidification for northern (commercial and subsistence) fisheries, and future developments.
|
|
 
4350 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 510
Arlington, VA 22203, USA
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
