Jewell, Governor, Delegation Descend on Northwest Arctic Borough. Instead of Juneau or Anchorage. For two days, the Northwest Arctic Borough is suddenly Alaska's seat of power, with the governor, the lieutenant governor, the whole congressional delegation, and 10 legislators all descending on the region. But the most high-profile visitor is Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Interior and a member of President Barack Obama's cabinet. Alaska Public Radio

Ocean Acidification Affects Alaska's Fisheries (Alaska Public Radio, live broadcast 2 pm DC time)

Repeat broadcast of "Arctic Council 101" here, 6 pm DC time

Verbal Warming: Labels in the Climate Debate. The words are hurled around like epithets. People who reject the findings of climate science are dismissed as "deniers" and "disinformers." Those who accept the science are attacked as "alarmists" or "warmistas. " The second term, evoking the Sandinista revolutionaries of Nicaragua, is perhaps meant to suggest that the science is part of some socialist plot. In the long-running political battles over climate change, the fight about what to call the various factions has been going on for a long time. Recently, though, the issue has taken a turn, with a public appeal that has garnered 22,000 signatures and counting. New York Times

Norway's Polar Satellite Center. Polar orbit satellites monitor what's happening at the ends of the planet -- and, of course, the regions in between. Ice conditions, land movement, shipping, pollution -- but how does that information actually make its way to the scientists and authorities who evaluate it and use it as a basis for all kinds of decisions? Alaska Dispatch News

Navy Funds a Small Robot Army to Study the Arctic. Earlier this month the U.S. Navy's research office rented out a conference center in Washington, D.C., to show off some of its hottest new technology. On display was an electromagnetic gun, and drones that could swarm around an enemy ship. But it wasn't all James Bond-style gadgets. In a little side room was a yellow machine, shaped like a torpedo with stubby wings sticking out of its side. "Looks like a banana - straightened out banana - to me, but that's maybe just the way my mind works," says Martin Jeffries, an Arctic researcher with the Office for Naval Research, which paid for the development of the strange device. National Public Radio

The US Army Corps of Engineers Taps Nome for Arctic Port Expansion. The US Army Corps of Engineers is set to unveil its first steps toward expanding deep-water Arctic ports in Alaska, and Corps officials said Friday they plan to start by expanding the existing Port of Nome. "The report is making the recommendation for Nome, for construction at Nome at this time, basically due to its highly developed area, having a good runway, good hospital, already strong support that's already there," said Bruce Sexauer, the Alaska Army Corps' chief of civil works. KNOM

Arctic Economic Council. The AEC now has a live website.  See here. AEC also has a Twitter account.  See here.

More Infectious Diseases with Climate Change. We not only have to worry about extreme weather including insane megadroughts and more tornadoes with climate change, but now new research shows increased infectious diseases are also in our future. Previous research has already shown the emergence of pathogens in parts outside of their native habitat as environmental dynamics change. For example, after humans hunted capuchin and spider monkeys out of existence in some regions of Costa Rica, their parasites immediately switched to howler monkeys, where they persist today. Also, in recent years lungworms have moved northward and shifted hosts from caribou to muskoxen in the Canadian Arctic. And the latest study findings indicate that similar shifts will occur as wildlife inhabits new areas to adapt to warming temperatures and changing environments. Nature World News