Offshore Oil Drilling in the U.S. Arctic, Part One: Legal Context. The Arctic region represents the next frontier for oil and gas development. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) predicts that the Arctic region surrounding Alaska has huge deposits of technically recoverable crude oil. Estimates of crude oil reach as high as 29.96 billion barrels near Alaska compared to a total estimate of 89.98 billion barrels for the entire Arctic region as a whole. This means the waters surrounding Alaska hold about 33% of all technically recoverable oil in the Arctic, the largest of any other Arctic country. The technically recoverable reserves in Alaska also represent about one-third of the total of technically recoverable reserves on the U.S. outer continental shelf. The Arctic Institute 

Visiting Seal Offers Clues in Arctic Mystery: Animal's health being monitored as part of effort to find answers in large 'mortality event.' A seal visiting Squamish's waterfront may hold part of the key to solving the alarming deaths of seals, walruses and polar bears in the waters off of Alaska. On Sunday (July 8), Squamish resident Wally Fletcher saw a ribbon seal while birdwatching along Cattermole Slough. Named after its impressive white ring markings, the species is native to the cold waters of the Bering Sea - more than 2,300 kilometres away. "I was just excited to see it," Fletcher said. The Chief 

Bing Drinking Soars in Arctic Canada. A new Canadian study adds fuel to the perception that alcohol abuse worsens the farther north one travels. Binge drinking is on the rise in Canada and northern people of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are the heaviest drinkers in the country, according to a 2011 Canadian Community Health Survey that defined binge drinking as consuming five or more drinks at a time, at least once a month. In the latest survey by Statistics Canada, 19 per cent of Canadians surveyed said they were heavy drinkers, compared to 17 per cent the previous year. That 2011 survey pegs the Northwest Territories with the highest rate of binge drinkers at 31 percent. Alaska Dispatch 

Rise in Sea Level Can't Be Stopped: Scientists. A lot of climate research shows that rising greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for increasing global average surface temperatures by about 0.17 degrees Celsius a decade from 1980-2010 and for a sea level rise of about 2.3mm a year from 2005-2010 as ice caps and glaciers melt. Rising sea levels threaten about a tenth of the world's population who live in low-lying areas and islands which are at risk of flooding, including the Caribbean, Maldives and Asia-Pacific island groups. More than 180 countries are negotiating a new global climate pact which will come into force by 2020 and force all nations to cut emissions to limit warming to below 2 degrees Celsius this century - a level scientists say is the minimum required to avert catastrophic effects. Reuters 

Begich Introduces Renewable Energy Research Legislation. Co-sponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe, (R-ME), the bill directs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to implement a research program designed to collect, monitor, and distribute environmental data to assist development of renewable energy, particularly related to ocean energy. "Alaska has tremendous renewable energy resources. Wave and tidal energy is getting more traction every day with projects moving ahead in Cook Inlet, Yakutat, and Juneau," Begich said. "My bill will help energy companies identify new potential sites for tidal and wave energy and over the long-term help Alaska communities bring down their energy prices and grow the local economy." Alaska Native News 

Earliest Americans Arrived in Waves, DNA Study Finds. North and South America were first populated by three waves of migrants from Siberia rather than just a single migration, say researchers who have studied the whole genomes of Native Americans in South America and Canada. Some scientists assert that the Americas were peopled in one large migration from Siberia that happened about 15,000 years ago, but the new genetic research shows that this central episode was followed by at least two smaller migrations from Siberia, one by people who became the ancestors of today's Eskimos and Aleutians and another by people speaking Na-Dene, whose descendants are confined to North America. The research was published online on Wednesday in the journal Nature. New York Times 

Government Planning on Seven Armed Arctic Vessels. The Conservative government's $35-billion shipbuilding plan has always an included a few questions about exactly how many vessels will be built. One example is that the government has long said it would purchase between six and eight armed vessels for the Arctic. Given recent reports that budget cuts had reduced the affordability of the Conservative government's long-term strategy for equipping the military, and given that the first Arctic patrol ship will be delivered three years later than expected - which reduces the purchasing power of the money set aside for the project because of inflation - many had expected the final total to be six. But speaking to reporters in Halifax on Tuesday, where he was announcing the awarding of the shipbuilding plan's first-ever contract, Defense Minister Peter MacKay split the difference. Canada.com