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January 28, 2015

 

capitalToday's Congressional Action:  

The Senate is expected to consider legislation regarding the Keystone XL pipeline. The House is also in session.

 

Media  

 

president signing Obama Withdraws 9.8m Acres of Arctic Ocean. President Obama is withdrawing 9.8 million acres of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas from future oil and gas lease sales. Yesterday's announcement comes in conjunction with the Department of Interior's draft five-year offshore plan. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has already described it as a gut punch to Alaska's economy. Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell says the withdrawals are limited to small areas of the Beaufort, a 25-mile buffer along the Chukchi Coast and the area around the Hanna Shoal, northwest of Barrow. Except for the Hanna Shoal, Jewell says the proposed withdrawals are already off limits in the current five-year plan. "They already were deferred from oil and gas leasing. And I don't think anybody who looks at those maps would say that that is an unreasonable amount," she said in a call with reporters. KTOO

 

NSB [North Slope Borough] Decries Interior Department Plans for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness. "Today's announcement by the Department of Interior represents the worst of Washington politics," announced Mayor Charlotte Brower. "These types of paternalistic, executive fiats seem to be more appropriate for Andrew Jackson's administration than Barack Obama's. The people of the North Slope have been unequivocal in their opposition to further wilderness designations in ANWR. How ironic is this decision on the heels of this week's earlier executive order calling for federal agencies to consult more with Alaska Native people over Arctic issues." North Slope Borough

 

Polar Bears 'Talk' to Each Other Using Smelly Feet: Mammals Leave Chemical Messages in Footprints, Study Finds. Polar bears leave messages for each other in the footprints they leave in the snow, according to new research. Biologists have found that the Arctic carnivores produce smelly chemicals from the soles of their feet at different times of the year that create scent trails across the ice. This is thought to help the solitary bears communicate with one another in their huge, icy territories. Daily Mail

 

Coast Guard Seal Coast Guard Taking Public Comment on Arctic Vessel Routes. The Coast Guard has begun accepting public comment on proposed vessel routes to the Arctic Ocean off western and northwest Alaska. KTOO-radio reports traffic through the Bering Strait has about doubled over seven years. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Daniel Abel says there are about 400 transits annually by about 200 vessels. He says the proposed routes would help control how vessels transit north from the Aleutians through the Bering Sea and into Arctic waters. Albany Times Union

 

Laser Scanning Sheds a New Light on Animal Habitats in Finland. A major laser scanning project spearheaded by the National Land Survey of Finland has generated a welcome byproduct. Intended to assess Finland's elevation data, the data also reveals the suitability of Finnish wilderness areas as habitats for Finland's various animal species. The National Land Survey has expanded the use of laser scanning in the last decade to encompass forest assessments and terrain mapping. The 3D data resulting from the scanning is used to comprehensively map out Finland's surface area and forest resources. The entire project is expected to be finished by the year 2017. Alaska Dispatch News

 

Bear and Lynx Populations are Shrinking in Sweden; Harbor Seal Numbers on the Rise. The number of bears, wolverines and lynx has fallen in Sweden, reversing a previous trend. Sweden's University of Agricultural Sciences says Sweden used to have strong populations of such large predators, relative to other European countries, but the falling numbers threaten that leading position. The bear population is down 15 percent in five years, from 3,300 to 2,800. Wolverines are down from 750 to 650 in the last three years. Half of Sweden's wildcats, lynx, have also disappeared, down from 1,700 to 840 in just five years. Alaska Dispatch News

 

Legislative Actionfutureevents  

 

No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday. 

 

Future Events

 

Symposium on Law and Governance in the Arctic, UCI LAW, January 30-31, 2015 (Irvine, California, USA).  The symposium will explore the effectiveness of existing governance in the Arctic region, strategies for improving effective implementation, and possible alternative governance regimes. A segment of the presented papers will be published in the UCI Law Review as a symposium. Presenters include: Betsy Baker, Michael Byers, Joseph DiMento, Tore Henriksen, Brian Israel, Timo Koivurova, Tullio Scovazzi, and Oran Young. 

 

Arctic Encounter Symposium 2015: Charting a Path to US Leadership in the Far North, January 30-31, 2015 (Seattle, Washington, USA). The second annual Arctic Encounter Symposium will focus on the role of the U.S. as an Arctic nation and the challenges it will confront in its upcoming chairmanship of the Arctic Council, including: climate change, natural resources, investment opportunities, and international relations. The goal of the 2015 Arctic Encounter is to facilitate a creative environment for the development of a proactive agenda, short and long-term domestic and international priorities, and a strategic execution plan.The two-day program will take place at the University of Washington with a dinner reception on January 30, 2015 at the Museum of History and Industry.

 

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
 

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. The agenda and keynote speakers will be determined soon.

  

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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