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The Senate will consider a resolution to disapprove of the debt limit increase and a judicial nomination. The House of Representatives will also consider a disapproval resolution as well as consider several legislative items under suspension of the rules, including the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium Land Transfer Act.
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Comprehensive Cleanup Planned for Oldest Oil and Gas Wells Drilled in the Arctic. There's a spot about 15 miles southeast of Barrow where a battered, red-painted wood building provides weary snowmobilers with a place to rest and warm up during their travels over the North Slope tundra. Unfortunately, that old building stands over an abandoned oil well that was drilled in 1975 and never properly capped. Now it's leaking methane. Alaska Dispatch
 Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak Loses Seat, Former Premier Paul Okalik Wins. Voters in the territory went to the polls on Monday and Eva Aariak, who was premier heading into the election, lost her seat to George Hickes by 43 votes. The 22 successful candidates will meet in mid-November to pick a premier from among themselves, according to the rules of Nunavut's consensus-style government. Huffington Post
Can Oil Majors Conquer the Arctic? ExxonMobil holds a 36% stake in the Hebron project in offshore Canada, in an area known as iceberg valley, and Chevron owns a 26.7% stake. ExxonMobil announced the project back in January and won approval for Hebron in May. ExxonMobil took control of the project back in 2008 from Chevron and currently is the operator. ExxonMobil and Chevron see 707 million barrels of recoverable heavy oil in the area with a $14 billion devolvement cost. Doing some simple math you get a cost of $19.80 per barrel, excluding future maintenance costs and operational costs. Daily Finance
 Melting Arctic Sea Ice Impacts Summer Rain and Weather in Europe. There may be a reason for the extraordinary run of wet summers between 2007 and 2012 in Britain and northwest Europe. It turns out that melting Arctic sea ice shifted the jet stream further south, resulting in increased rain that drenched these regions. Science World Report
Russia Holds Military Drills in Arctic. Russian airborne assault forces and military transport aviation units have conducted an exercise in the Arctic, a senior defense official said Tuesday. About 40 metric tons of various cargoes were airdropped from two Il-76 aircraft, First Deputy Defense Minister Arkady Bakhin said. RIA Novosti
 Iceland Pushes to Become Arctic Hub After Scrapping EU Accession. Iceland wants to turn itself into a hub for business in the Arctic and strike more trade accords on its own after scrapping talks to join the European Union, its foreign minister said. "The focus of Iceland's foreign policy is on the Arctic," Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson said in an Oct. 25 interview in Reykjavik. The island will work for deeper cooperation within the Arctic Council and seek to provide a base in the region to help support trade with China, Singapore and South Korea, among others, he said. Business Week
State Seeks to Build Decentralized Water and Sewer. Six-thousand homes in Alaska are not connected to a central water and sewer system - and the state may want to keep it that way. The Department of Environmental Conservation has spent decades working with communities to build water and sewer system. They're expensive, complicated, and the statewide funding has dropped by half over the past decade, according to Bill Griffith, a project manager with the agency. That could spell trouble for the 40 communities with no centralized service and for dozens of towns with existing water and sewer. Alaska Public Radio.
Meeting of the International Ice Charting Working Group. Recently, the International Ice Charting Working Group (IICWG) met in Reykjavik, Iceland, to consider "Ice Information and Marine Safety and Security." Topics included Developments in Monitoring Ice from Space; Iceberg Detection and Drift/ Deterioration Modeling; Ice Information in Electronic Navigation; Operational Ice Monitoring; regional ice reports; and, a plenary session on Antarctic ice information. More information is available on the International Ice Charting Working Group's website.
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Legislative Action
No Arctic legislation was considered yesterday.
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Future Events
17th Sitka WhaleFest: "Arctic Sea Change: What's Ahead?" October 31 - November 3, 2013, (Sitka, Alaska). "Sitka WhaleFest presents a unique science symposium blending local knowledge and scientific inquiry concerning the rich marine environment of our northern oceans. Surrounded by community and cultural activities, the weekend events include symposium lectures, interactive student sessions, marine wildlife cruises with scientists, a marine-themed artisan market, music, local foods, student art show, and a fun run/walk."
 "The Arctic is changing. This is an indisputable fact. How the people and animals who depend upon the Arctic will adapt to change is an open question. How will narwhals and polar bears cope with less summer ice? Bowhead whales may have their world rocked when humpbacks, fins and other baleen whales begin - they already are - feeding in their backyard. The resource users of the Arctic will need to make adjustments and changes to live in this new world. Who will be the sea winners and sea losers? These are questions we will discuss with the experts who are passionate about the Arctic."
Workshop: Community Oil Spill Response in Bering and Anadyr Straits, November 7-8, 2013 (Anchorage, Alaska). "This workshop will bring together diverse stakeholders to learn more about and respond to community desires to be part of oil spill first-response efforts that help protect food security and other local resources; come to agreement on the multiple roles local community members can play in responding to oil spills; and create an action plan for moving forward on this topic. The workshop is sponsored by the Wildlife Conservation Society."
 opening of northern shipping routes, over a relatively short period of time we are seeing maritime security considerations start to blend with arctic security."
"With a focus on Economic Development, Security and Public Safety, MAS13 will bring together organizations that play a key role in the execution of Maritime & Arctic Security: whether that role be Cultural, Research, Government Policy/Regulation, Education, Surveillance, Enforcement, and Technology Development/Application."
Full Conference Agenda
The World Wildlife Foundation hosts the Fuller Symposium on the Forces of Nature.
Speakers from around the world will engage in active discussion around topics including local responses to forces like land grabbing and climate change, evaluation of community conservation impacts, new technologies for catalyzing social movements, private-sector initiatives, and global policy opportunities. Edward Itta is one of the scheduled speakers. The annual Fuller Symposium convenes thought leaders in science, policy, conservation, and development to discuss innovative approaches to complex issues facing our planet. USARC Commissioner Edward Itta will present.
Alaska Water and Sewer Challenge Request for Proposals Due November 15. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Village Safe Water announces a research and development effort to seek better and more affordable methods to deliver drinking water and sewage disposal services to communities  in rural Alaska. The three-month long, international solicitation calls for individuals from a variety of diverse fields - engineering, science and research, behavioral science, and innovative design - to organize as teams and submit Statements of Qualifications. Up to six of the top ranked teams will be funded to develop proposals over a six month period next year. Future phases of the project include building prototypes and testing them in lab and field settings.
For more information about the project please:
Arctic Cities, Global Processes, and Local Realities, December 2-4, 2013 (Rovaniemi, Finland).
"The conference is organized jointly by the City of Rovaniemi and the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland, Finland. The goal of the conference is to present the latest scientific research and knowledge about the global processes as they become local realities. Even if the Conference is scientific in orientation, it aims to bridge science and knowledge into action by bringing top scholars to share their research results, and to organize joint discussion with the leaders of the Arctic Cities. Sessions include: Rovaniemi Process: past, present, future; Arctic responses to global environmental problems; people and extractive industries; tourism in the Arctic; the Arctic in global economy; climate change in the Arctic; indigenous peoples in cities; and, Arctic global flows. Cross-cutting themes include: Arctic cities and global processes; management and governance in the Arctic; and, Arctic together with non-Arctic."
American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, December 9-13. (San Francisco, CA) The AGU Fall Meeting is the largest worldwide conference in the  geophysical sciences, attracting more than 24,000 Earth and space scientists, educators, students, and other leaders. For 46 years, scientists from around the world gather at the AGU Fall Meeting to exchange information and broaden their knowledge base. In addition to the scientific programming, the meeting offers over 50 Town Halls and Workshops, including one on Monday, Dec. 9, titled, "Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) and Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH), organized by Helen Wiggins, Brendan Kelly, and Hajo Eicken, from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm in 2018 Moscone West. Search the AGU meeting for Arctic-related research sessions here.
Alaska Marine Science Symposium, January 20-24, 2014. (Anchorage, Alaska) The mission of the Alaska Marine Science Symposium is to bring together scientists, policymakers, students, educators, media and the public to share research findings focused on Alaska's marine fisheries and ecosystems. The Symposium is built around regional themes-Bering Sea, Arctic Ocean, and the Gulf of Alaska. Within each theme, there will be discussions on climate, oceanography, lower tropic levels, the benthos, fishes and invertebrates, seabirds, marine mammals, local and traditional knowledge, and socioeconomic research.
The agenda is available here.
Association of American Geographers Polar Geography Sessions, April 8-12, 2014. Tampa, Florida. Polar Geography Sessions are being planned in areas such as Sustainable Development in the Arctic, Urbanization and Transportation in the Arctic, etc. Contact Scott Stephenson (stephenson@ucla.edu) for more information, and see attached flyer.
Arctic Science Summit Week April 5-8, 2014 and Arctic Observing Summit, April 9-11, Helsinki, Finland. ASSW is a gathering for Arctic research organizations. Any organization engaged in supporting and facilitating arctic research is welcome to participate. The ASSW meeting in 2014 will be arranged during April 5-8 in Helsinki Kumpula Campus, in the facilities of FMI and Physics Department of the University of Helsinki. Second circular here.
International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences, May 22-26, 2014 (Prince George, British Columbia). "The International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA) announces the 8th International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS VIII).ICASS is held every three years, bringing together people from all over the world to share ideas about social science research in the Arctic. ICASS VII, held in Akureyri in June 2011, attracted 450 participants from 30 different countries. ICASS VIII's theme is Northern Sustainabilities. By using the plural, we underscore both that "sustainability" has social, cultural, economic, political and environmental dimensions, and that definitions of the concept vary."
 IceTech14: International Conference and Exhibition on Performance of Ships and Structures in Ice, July 28-31, 2014 (Banff, Alberta, Canada). "The focus will be on the general theme of performance of ships and structures in ice - but with emphasis and special sessions on looking to the future in a warming world. Coverage will include technical aspects of offshore operations in Arctic and ice populated waters, as well related ice mechanics, icebreaking and ice resistance, global warming and geopolitical effects, safety and EER, subsea facilities and operations, and other relevant subjects in a polar context particularly in view of current global concerns. Both technical papers and selected panel sessions will be included. We will also continue to host a small commercial exhibition for organizations wishing to set up stand."
Abstract Submission Deadline: November 17, 2013
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