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February 4, 2015

 

capitalToday's Congressional Action:  

The House and Senate are in session and expected to consider non-Arctic legislation.

 

Media  

 

russian flag Russia Ends US Nuclear Security Treaty, Blames Politics. After decades of collaboration, Washington, D.C., and Moscow in December ended their joint efforts to improve the security of Russia's nuclear stockpile. Though nuclear security projects between the former Cold War antagonists have been winding down for some time, the events of the past year in Ukraine are seen to have brought to an abrupt close the much-heralded Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program. Roll Call

 

Inuit Language Task Force Moves Toward Standardizing Written Inuktut. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami's language task force is moving forward with regional consultations this year, with the goal of moving towards a unified Inuktut writing system in Canada. The eight-member Autausiq Inuktut Titirausiq task group, made up of language experts representing each of Canada's Inuit regions, have been working under the direction of ITK's Amaujaq Centre for Inuit Education since 2012. The group visited both the Inuvialuit and Nunatsiavut regions this past fall, where they has discussions with teachers, elders, translators and others about specific changes in orthography and spelling that could help Inuit move towards a more standardized writing system. Nunatsiaq Online

 

Nunavik to Launch Second Edition of Major Health Survey. The second Qanuippitaa Inuit health survey is underway in Nunavik. Researchers and representatives from the region's health and social services met in Kuujjuaq Jan. 27 and Jan. 28 to kick start the 2016 edition of the survey, which will provide updated baseline information on the health of Nunavimmiut. The survey is a follow up to the 2004 Qanuippitaa (How are we?) health survey, the most extensive health survey ever done in Nunavik. Nunatsiaq Online

 

UT Scientist Maps History of Greenland Ice Sheet. Imagine that Texas is covered in ice. (Difficult, right?) Now imagine that three Texases are covered in ice. That's about the size of the Greenland ice sheet-the 656,000-square-mile mass of glacier that covers nearly the entire island. It is second in size only to Antarctica, and if it melted, sea levels would rise up to 20 feet. This means that understanding the ice sheet is key to understanding climate change. Joe MacGregor, a research associate with UT's Institute for Geophysics (UTIG), is hoping to make the history of the Greenland ice sheet a little bit easier to understand. Working closely with NASA's Operation IceBridge, MacGregor has used data collected from ice cores and ice-penetrating radar to develop a detailed 3-D map of the ice sheet. Then, by examining the characteristics of the vertical layers of ice, MacGregor and his colleagues have been able to date the ice and examine its behavior since as early as 130,000 years ago. Their work is available to the public in a study published online last week. Alcalde

 

Aglukkaq Minister Aglukkaq is Joined by Inuit Leaders to Highlight Nunavut's Potential. Minister Aglukkaq participated in an all-Inuit armchair discussion on Inuit Perspectives on Canada's Arctic Future at the Economic Club of Canada today. Also participating on the panel were Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna and Terry Audla, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK). The discussion explored regional perspectives on the challenges and opportunities for economic development in the Arctic as well as each participant's vision for the North. The event also featured a sealskin fashion show and silent auction with proceeds being donated to a women's shelter in Nunavut. NewsWire

 

Legislative Actionfutureevents  

 

No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday. 

 

Future Events

 

Alaska Forum on the Environment, February 9-13, 2015 (Anchorage, Alaska, USA). The Alaska Forum on the Environment (AFE) is Alaska's largest statewide gathering of environmental professionals from government agencies, non-profit and for-profit businesses, community leaders, Alaskan youth, conservationists, biologists and community elders. The diversity of attendees and comprehensive agenda sets this conference apart from any other. Each year there are over 80 technical breakout sessions and sensational Keynote Events. There will be a full week of sessions on climate change, energy, environmental regulations, cleanup and remediation, fish & wildlife, solid waste, and of course much more. The event will continue to present expanded content on Marine Debris, Coastal Issues and Tsunami's in order to address the pressing concerns from Alaska rural coastal communities.

 

International Symposium on Northern Development, February 25-27, 2015 (Quebec, Canada). The Québec government, in collaboration with Université Laval, will co-chair with the Nordic Council of Ministers the International Symposium on Northern Development. The event will allow for the pooling of knowledge, experience and perspectives in the realm of northern development. It will assemble representatives of the northern countries, the universities and local populations, including the Aboriginal nations, and businesspeople and enterprises. The key themes will be the North as a living environment; the North as a physical territory; the North as a hub of economic development; and, the North as a hub of knowledge training and research.

 

2015 Public Policy Forum: Predicting and Preparing for a Changing Arctic. March 4, 2015 (Washington, D.C.). The Consortium for Ocean Leadership will host a forum on a changing Arctic.  One panel will discuss the state of knowledge in predicting major changes occurring in the Arctic as well as identifying research and observational gaps.  The second panel will consider the science needs of commercial and community stakeholders living and working in the Arctic. 

 

 US Arctic Research Commission's 103rd Meeting, March 4-5, 2015 (Washington, DC, USA). More information to come.

 

PNWER...Pacific NorthWest Economic Region's Arctic Caucus meeting, March 5, 2015, (Washington, DC, USA). More info to come. 

 

Arctic Summit 2015, March 12, 2014 (Oslo, Norway) The Economist is hosting the Arctic Summit 2015 where discussions will focus on whether commercial interest in the Arctic is a bubble about to burst. There are discounted registration fees are available for NGOs, government, academics, charities and students. There are also discounts for groups of 3 or more people.

 

Polar Shelves and Shelf Break Exchange in Times of Rapid Climate Warming, March 15-20, 2015 (Lucca, Italy). The GRCs provide an international forum for the presentation and discussion of frontier research in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences, and their related technologies. The guiding principle of a GRC is to encourage communication and discussion of ideas and new unpublished results at the very frontier of a particular field of research, by bringing together outstanding scientists from academia, industry, and government, ranging from senior experts to Ph.D. students. With the increasing impacts of reduced sea ice and warming seawater conditions in both the Arctic and Antarctic, this conference can act as a forum for potentially transformative discussions for interdisciplinary, international and compare/contrast evaluation of polar sciences. In addition, the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will precede the GRC to provide a forum for graduate students and post-docs to present and exchange new data and cutting edge ideas with experts in the different polar fields of science.

 

Sweden-U.S. Planning Workshop on Joint Arctic Research Using the I/B Oden, March 30- April 1, 2015 (Stockholm, Sweden). The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Arctic Section is supporting a 'Planning Workshop on joint Arctic Research using the Swedish Class 1A Icebreaker Oden.' This workshop is held in collaboration with the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat (SPRS) and the Swedish Research Council (Formas and VR). The US delegation will be led by Drs. Patricia Matrai (Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences) and Peter Minnett (RSMAS, U. Miami), as workshop co-organizers with Dr. Caroline Leck (Stockholm U.). This workshop will bring together those with research and operational/ logistical interests in the Arctic and will discuss a baseline for establishing a new, longer-term collaborative relationship among U.S. and Swedish scientists for Oden-based research in the Arctic Ocean. 

  

Arctic Science Summit Week, April 23-30, 2015 (Toyama, Japan). The Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) is the annual gathering of the international organizations engaged in supporting and facilitating Arctic research. The purpose of the summit is to provide opportunities for coordination, collaboration and cooperation in all areas of Arctic science. The summit attracts scientists, students, policy makers and other professionals from all over the world. 


The Polar Geography and Cryosphere, April 21-25, 2015 (Chicago, IL, USA). The Polar Geography and Cryosphere Specialty Groups of the Association of American Geographers will host its annual meeting in Chicago to consider: current topics in human-environment interactions; current topics in politics, resource geographies, and extractive industries; current topics in Antarctic research; advances in cryosphere research; high latitude environments in a changing climate; an mountain ice and snow.

6th Symposium on the Impacts of an Ice-Diminishing Arctic on Naval and Maritime Operations, July 14-16, 2015 (Washington, DC, USA). Program in development...check back soon. To see the programs from prior symposia, click here
 
The Polar Oceans and Global Climate Change, November 3-6, 2015 (La Jolla, California USA.)  The American Polar Society will host this Symposium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.  A flyer with a partial list of presenters is available on the Society's website (americanpolar.org) and from the Society's Membership Chairman by email.

  

11th International Conference on Permafrost (ICOP 2016), June 20-24, 2016 (Potsdam, Germany). The Alfred Wegener Institute has teamed up with UP Transfer GmbH and the University of Potsdam to organize a great conference for you, permafrost researchers. The conference aims at covering all relevant aspects of permafrost research, engineering and outreach on a global and regional level.

  

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