Opinion: Alaska's conference on Arctic oil pipelines has a fatal flaw: Key stakeholders left out. "When the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation holds its Arctic/Cold Regions Oil Pipeline Conference in September, participants will get only a partial picture of the challenges of operating in Alaska because there will be 'no time' to hear from the conservation community." Alaska Dispatch 

Opinion: The continuing evolution of Arctic policy: The state is slow to catch up with the world. "More than three decades ago-before the Arctic became a much talked about, much analyzed, and much sought after region on this planet-Eben Hopson, an Iñupiat leader from Alaska's North Slope, observed: 'The United States has no Arctic policy, as such.' Hopson was years ahead of his time, sensing that change in the Arctic would affect his own Iñupiat people as well as the world. Today the formulation of Arctic policy has become a mini industry. Conferences and meetings draw participants from universities, think tanks, industry, Arctic countries, and other nations that are interested in benefiting from the opening of the region." Alaska Business Monthly 

Unusually stubborn ice delays supply barge bound for Canadian Arctic. "Ice buildup in the Amundsen Gulf is responsible for barge delays that have many Northern coastal communities in Canada's western Arctic running short on supplies. Normally, a supply barge arrives in the area in early summer to replenish stocks of fuel and other necessities in those communities. But this year, that trip is being held up by ice. As much as 30 to 40 percent of the Arctic Ocean remains covered in ice." Alaska Dispatch 

Opinion: And now it's global COOLING! Record return of Arctic ice cap as it grows by 60% in a year. "A chilly Arctic summer has left nearly a million more square miles of ocean covered with ice than at the same time last year - an increase of 60 per cent. The rebound from 2012's record low comes six years after the BBC reported that global warming would leave the Arctic ice-free in summer by 2013. Instead, days before the annual autumn re-freeze is due to begin, an unbroken ice sheet more than half the size of Europe already stretches from the Canadian islands to Russia's northern shores." Daily Mail 

Opinion: Arctic sea ice delusions strike the Mail on Sunday and Telegraph. "When it comes to climate science reporting, the Mail on Sunday and Telegraph are only reliable in the sense that you can rely on them to usually get the science wrong. This weekend's Arctic sea ice articles from David Rose of the Mail and Hayley Dixon at the Telegraph unfortunately fit that pattern. Both articles claimed that Arctic sea ice extent grew 60 percent in August 2013 as compared to August 2012. While this factoid is technically true, it's also largely irrelevant. For one thing, the annual Arctic sea ice minimum occurs in September - we're not there yet. And while this year's minimum extent will certainly be higher than last year's, that's not the least bit surprising." The Guardian 

Drones proving useful in polar regions to study the melting of the ice. "The logical next step for exploring some of the world's most inhospitable terrain is being taken. Researchers are using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) - drones - to explore the last great repositories of ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska. About two dozen universities and research organisations, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, have registered as drone operators, according to a list released last year to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Some of those researchers were tracking wildfires or ozone concentrations, oil spills and volcano ash, but a significant number were deployed to the polar regions to study the melting of the ice." The Guardian 

Image: WikiCommons

Finland looking to supply icebreakers to Russia. "Russia first reached out to Finland for assistance 

opening up a route in thick winter ice back in 2011. At the time a number of vessels were trapped in the arctic ice and unable to continue on to St. Petersburg. Since that time both sides have been engaged in bilateral talks to allow Finnish icebreakers to operate in Russian territorial waters. Chief executive of the Finnish icebreaker company Arctia Shipping Tero Vauraste speculated that the Russians could need Finnish expertise in this area roughly every other year." YLE 

Conducting cool summer research in the Arctic. "The Arctic Coastal Ecosystems Survey (ACES) is focused on understanding the ecological role of near-shore and lagoon habitats of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas that surround Alaska and its connectivity with the coastal ocean. These habitats are incredibly important to the local population that subsists on them, yet they are also anticipated to be impacted by both climate change and increasing human interactions (such as increased traffic, commercial fisheries and oil exploration). FIU researchers aim to establish a baseline to measure impacts of observed ecosystem variability through the continuum of environmental and anthropogenic change in the Arctic." Phys.org 

Record-low Arctic ice melt in 2012 linked to man-made climate change: New report. "A new report on 12 of 2012's most extreme weather events says man-made global warming is 'having an impact on some extreme weather and 

climate events.' This is the second year that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the British meteorology office have looked at the previous year's extreme weather events. In 'Explaining Extreme Events of 2012 from a Climate Perspective' published Sept. 5 in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 78 research said climate change made a record-low Arctic sea ice extent, drought in Europe, heat waves and flooding in the U.S. and extreme rainfalls in Australia and New Zealand more probable." Nunatsiaq Online 

Warming Arctic: A food chain in flux from polar bears up top to plankton on bottom. "Declining sea ice and warming temperatures are resulting in changes to vegetation in arctic coastal areas, according to research results published by two University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists in a recent edition of Science magazine. The review examining how losses of northern sea ice affect surrounding areas was written by Uma Bhatt, an associate professor at UAF's Geophysical Institute, and Skip Walker, a professor at UAF's Institute of Arctic Biology." Alaska Dispatch 

A super tanker voyage through the Northwest Passage. "Forty-six years ago, a ship as long as the Empire State Building sailed with intention toward obstacles that captains usually avoid. The ice-breaking tanker SS Manhattan was an oil company's attempt to see if it might be profitable to move new Alaska oil to the East Coast by plowing through the ice-clogged Northwest Passage." Fairbanks News-Miner