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 
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. Click here.
USARC Commission Meeting, April 27-28, 2012. The 97th meeting of the 
USARC will be held in Montreal, Canada, in conjunction with the "From Knowledge to
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.
American Polar Society 75th Anniversary Meeting and Symposium, "The Polar Regions in the 21st Century: Globalization, Climate Change and Geopolitics", May 2-4, 2012, 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.
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 
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. 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 
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, click here.
Warming Causing Polar Bear-Human Conflicts, Alberta Professor Says. 
Arctic Council Group Works on Spill Response Plan. Representatives of the eight nations in the Arctic Council gathered Thursday for continued discussions on a petroleum spill preparation and response plan in northern waters and a spokesman for the meeting host said it couldn't come too soon. Shipping in the Arctic Ocean is growing faster than anticipated, said Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, and last summer the Bering Strait saw eight cargos of gas condensate from northern Russia moving to markets in Asia. Treadwell said the State is quite confident in the spill preparations Shell Oil has made for proposed exploratory petroleum drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas this summer off Alaska's northern costs, but is not as confident about shipping by itinerant vessels. 
Offshore Drilling Review Discussed [Canada]. Who decides what is the worst-case scenario when it comes to drilling offshore in the Arctic - the people or industry? It was one of many questions posed to the National Energy Board (NEB) during its information session in Inuvik last Wednesday at Ingamo Hall. Three months have passed since the board published its review of the safety and environmental requirements for offshore drilling in the Canadian Arctic - spurred by the world watching in horror as millions of barrels of oil spilled from BP's Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico two years ago for about three months. It was one of the largest oil spills in history. Inuvik resident Billy Turner said the board has reaffirmed the same-season relief well policy - where an applicant must demonstrate the capability to drill a relief well to kill an out-of-control well during the same drilling season - is based on the capacity of industry and a "little too long, given the fragile aspects of the environment of the Arctic." 
Canada's North Finally Opens Up. Recently, the CBC released a DVD set featuring all its televised work of Glenn Gould. One of the interesting non-musical items was his hour-long film called The Idea of North, a reminder of the recurring if intermittent Canadian infatuation with our Northern frontier. We seem to be in one of those moods these days, with annual photo-ops of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the Arctic and an array of investments to increase our presence in the North. Will this latest spike of interest in the North fare better than past episodes? History is littered with the wreckage of past plans to develop Canada's North. Diefenbaker's 1958 election platform envisioning a "Canada of the North" never amounted to much, and he was soon tossed out of office. Charles Hays ran a rail line to the northern tip of B.C.'s coast in 1905, earning Prince Rupert its derisive nickname of "Hays' Orphan" for most of the 20th century (Hays did not have to endure these taunts, having gone down with the Titanic in 1912). The Mackenzie Valley pipeline has been stuck in the planning stages for decades. 
