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Today's Events
The House considers a bill that would provide a four-month suspension of the nation's debt limit and would condition a long-term increase on adoption of a budget in each chamber of Congress. The Senate continues negotiations on changes to filibuster rules.
Arctic Frontiers, January 20-25, 2013. (Tromso, Norway). Arctic Frontiers is organized as an independent network and a leading meeting place for pan-arctic issues. The network was established in 2006 and later extended. Arctic Frontiers will host the conference to consider three main scientific topics. Geopolitics in a Changing Arctic; Marine Harvesting in the Arctic; and Arctic Marine Productivity.
Alaska Marine Science Symposium, January 21-25, 2013, Anchorage. 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. |
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Media
 Bill on Russian Arctic Drafted. According to the proposed bill, the Ministry of Regional Development will become an authorized federal body to be in charge of the Russia's Arctic. The document suggests the National Strategy for Arctic Development should be the basis for social and economic development of the Russia's Arctic. This Strategy document is to be updated each 8 years. The bill says state environmental expertise should become obligatory for commercial activities in the Arctic zone. Any activity in the Arctic should be regarded as environmentally hazardous unless proven otherwise. Barents Nova
Gov. Parnell Asks Salazar to Include Alaskans on Shell Arctic Review. Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell has requested that Alaska be included in a high-level review panel which will look at Shell's Arctic drilling operation last summer. The Interior Department says it has called the panel to "identify challenges and lessons learned" after the troubled season Royal Dutch Shell had last summer in its efforts to drill exploratory wells in Alaska's offshore Arctic. The project was struck with a series of mishaps, and the trouble culminated in the storm-caused grounding of the drill rig Kulluk on a beach off of Kodiak Island. Alaska Dispatch
Arctic Frontiers Conference Gathers the Best and Brightest of the North. I'm currently in Tromsų, Norway where the Arctic Frontiers conference is taking place all week at the local university. Yesterday's program featured several high-level politicians, including the foreign minsters of Norway and Sweden, the Canadian Minister of Health and the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, the Deputy Secretary of Russia's Security Council, and the Lieutenant Governor of Alaska. The Norwegian and Russian contingents were particularly strong. Alaska Dispatch
 Whitefield Vows to Battle Climate Regulations, Elevate Energy Security. With the White House appearing to downplay the possibility of a broad new legislative push on climate change after President Obama spotlighted the issue in his inaugural address, one House GOP leader on energy issues yesterday said he is gearing up for a global warming regulatory avalanche. Rep. Ed Whitefield of Kentucky, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power, said he interpreted White House spokesman Jay Carney's acknowledgement of political challenges facing any new cap-and-trade bill to mean that the Obama administration will move aggressively on the regulatory front to institute new rules to limit greenhouse gas emissions. E&E News
Hastings Announces Subcommittee Members. House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) yesterday announced the panel's GOP subcommittee rosters for the 113th Congress. "The Natural Resources Committee, along with its five subcommittees, is ready to get to work this Congress with a continued focus on job creation," Hastings said in a statement. "Through oversight and legislative proposals, we'll continue to show how the smart, responsible use and protection of our natural resources and public lands can be one of the greatest ways to grow our economy." E&E News
University of Alaska Fairbanks Braces for Drop in Funding. The University of Alaska Fairbanks is expecting a tight budget next year, with uncertain state and federal funding sources complicated by a slight dip in student enrollment. UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers discussed the tepid funding projections as part of an overview of university during a Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday. Rogers said the uncertainty will leave UAF with "very little maneuvering room going into next year." Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
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Legislative Action
No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.
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Future Events
Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) Workshop Collaborative Research Approaches: case studies and lessons learned. Anchorage, Hotel Captain Cook, Club Room 1, 10 am to noon, Jan. 25th.
The value of collaboration among research organizations is broadly recognized, and there are numerous examples of collaboration occurring at different scales. Nevertheless, research entities differ in their missions, funding structures, timelines, and processes. While differences are necessary and frequently beneficial, they sometimes function as barriers to partnerships that might otherwise advance science and inform decisions. This workshop will feature panelists (see below) representing an array of partnerships in the region who will describe the workings of their collaboration as well as underlying factors, their successes, and challenges that they face. The audience will then be asked to join the panelists in an exploration of commonalities among the case studies.
Panelists:
Brendan P. Kelly, Office of Sci. & Tech. Policy, Exec. Office of the President (phone)
Jim Kendall, AK Regional Director, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)
Mike Macrander, Science Team Leader, Shell Alaska, John Payne, North Slope Science Initiative (NSSI), Taqulik Hepa, Director, North Slope Borough (NSB) (to be confirmed), Francis Weise, Science Director, North Pacific Research Board (NPRB)
Development of a 5-Year Strategic Plan for Oil Spill Research in Canadian Arctic Waters, January 28-29, 2013, Calgary. 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, Anchorage. 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.
Alaska Native Language Archive, February 22, 2013, Fairbanks. Please join ANLA and the Rasmuson Library for a Grand Opening Celebration to dedicate the new ANLA public service point on the second floor of the Rasmuson Library. The event will begin with an open house featuring collections in the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections, the Oral History Collection, and of course ANLA. This will be followed by a special panel session entitled Honoring Alaska's Native Languages: Past, Present, Future, reflecting on 50 years of Native language archiving at UAF.
The 43rd Annual Arctic Workshop 2013, March 11-13, 2013: Amherst, Massachusetts. The workshop is an annual gathering for international researchers to present work on any aspect of high-latitude environments (past, present, and future). Organizers strive for a relaxed, friendly, and interactive experience, fostered in part by the workshop's relatively small size. Researchers are invited to present their very latest research; the abstract deadline is just a few weeks before the workshop. Student participation is strongly encouraged, with partial support available to those making presentations (limited number of slots).
The Economist's "Arctic Summit: A New Vista for Trade Energy and the Environment," March 12, 2013. (Oslo, Norway) The event is hosted by The Economist. The Arctic Summit will discuss big issues concerning the region: chase for natural resources, impact of climate change, emergence of new trading routes and the need for responsible governance. The summit has been designed to focus attention and to promote constructive thinking prior to the next Arctic Council Ministers' meeting in 2013. A high-level group of 150 policy-makers, CEOs and influential commentators will spend a day tackling the issues at the heart of the Arctic's future, in discussions led by James Astill, environment editor of The Economist and author of the special report on the Arctic.
 28th Wakefield Symposium: Responses of Arctic Marine Ecosystems to Climate Change, March 26-29, 2013, Anchorage. 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, Woods Hole, MA. 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, Vancouver, BC, CA. 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, Bergen, Norway. 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.
AGU Science Policy Conference, June 24-26, 2013. (Washington, DC) Hundreds of Earth and space scientists, students, policymakers, and industry professionals will discuss key Earth and space science topics that address challenges to our economy, national security, environment, and public safety. This meeting will focus on the science that helps inform policymakers' decisions related to energy, natural hazards, technology and infrastructure, climate, oceans, and the Arctic. The event is hosted by American Geophysical Union (AGU), a Washington, D. C.-based international nonprofit scientific association. |
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