|
|
|
|
|
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 The guiding principle of a GRC is to encourage communication and discussion of ideas and new unpublished results at the very frontier of a particular field of research, by bringing together outstanding scientists from academia, industry, and government, ranging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.
Today's Congressional Action:
The House and Senate are in session and expected to consider non-Arctic legislation.
|
Media
[Discussion of Icebreakers] Chasm Grows Within GOP Over Spending.
The congressional push this week to secure the first Republican budget plan in nearly a decade is revealing a chasm between fiscal hawks determined to maintain strict spending caps and defense hawks who are threatening to derail any budget that does not ensure an increase for the military. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said naval warships in the Arctic are only as effective as the Coast Guard icebreakers funded by the Department of Homeland Security that clear their path. The military can track drug shipments from South America, he added, but without a properly funded Justice Department, F.B.I. or Coast Guard, the homeland is not secure. New York Times
House Passes Bill to Overhaul EPA Scientific Advisory Board. The House passed legislation on Tuesday to modify the selection process for members of the Environmental Protection Agency's Scientific Advisory Board. Passage fell largely along party lines by a vote of 236-181. The bill would prohibit the board, which advises the EPA on its regulations, from appointing members who are registered lobbyists. It would also require that at least 10 percent of board members be from state, local or tribal governments. The Hill
New Map Will Help Scientists Study Alaska's Climates. The world has a new way of looking at Alaska's climate data, thanks to a University of Alaska post-doctoral fellow and a handful of other like-minded scientists. A set of 13 new Alaska climate divisions and their associated data sets created by Dr. Peter Bieniek as part of his doctoral thesis recently were accepted for use by the National Climatic Data Center and integrated into the center's website. Climate divisions are important because they are used to identify long-term climate trends, predict weather, determine crop cycles and monitor precipitation and drought, among other things. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
NOAA Plans Increased 2015 Arctic Nautical Charting Operations. As commercial shipping traffic increases in the Arctic, NOAA is taking major steps to update nautical charts in the region. NOAA's Office of Coast Survey will use data collected by two of its own ships, Rainier and Fairweather, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy and a private sector hydrographic contractor to cover nearly 12,000 nautical miles in the Arctic for use in updating its navigational charts. The NOAA-led Arctic marine corridor project will work with the Coast Guard to asses the safety of a potential Arctic shipping route from Unimak Island, the largest of the Aleutian Islands, through the Bering Strait to the Chukchi Sea, as proposed in the USCG Port Access Route Study for the region. The Coast Guard will continue to take public comments prior to making a final decision on the proposed route. NOAA
Finland Shelves Indigenous Rights Agreement Ratification. Finland will not be ratifying the International Labor Organization's Convention No. 169, which vouchsafes the rights of indigenous peoples, until the next government is formed. The ratification proposal was shelved last Friday. The decision to put the ratification proposal on ice came down from Parliament's Speaker's Council. It means that the International Labor Organization's (ILO) Convention No. 169, a binding international directive granting indigenous and tribal peoples the same rights as other citizens, will next be under discussion in the next government. The convention was approved in 1989, and has so far been ratified by 22 states. Alaska Dispatch News
Russia's Arctic Policy Up for Remake. As Russia is unfolding a major combat alert drill in its Northern Fleet, the country's government has approved the setup of a new federal Arctic Commission. Headed by hard-line Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, the Commission will coordinate all government authorities involved in regional developments. Included in the commission mandate are issues of social, economic, political, as well as military, importance, newspaper Kommersant reports. In a first commission meeting, Rogozin and his commission members decided to "conduct a revision of everything which Russia has in the Arctic," the newspaper writes. Alaska Dispatch News
Huge Data Gaps Cloud Fate of Arctic Mammals. A first-ever effort to gauge the ecological status of all 11 species of marine mammals living in the Arctic reveals a mixed picture-and a lot of missing information. Researchers found that although some populations appear to be coping with climate change, others are in decline. Overall, however, scientists found that little information is available on most of the 78 known populations. "Unless we fill critical data gaps, this is the information we have to base management decisions on for the foreseeable future-amid increasing development pressures," says Kristin Laidre, the study's lead author and a marine mammal biologist at the University of Washington's Polar Science Center in Seattle. ScienceMag
Papp Says US Must Better Prepare for Melting Arctic. As the U.S. prepares for its two-year turn at chairing the council of nations with Arctic territory, the State Department's special representative for the Arctic, retired Coast Guard Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr., admits that this country is behind in its preparations for a melting Arctic. The U.S. is an Arctic nation because of Alaska, which was purchased from Russia in 1867. The eight-country Arctic Council was established to promote cooperation and coordination among them, indigenous groups and other Arctic inhabitants. The council's primary focus is on environmental protection and sustainable development of the region. Military
|
Legislative Action
No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.
|
Future Events
Coast and Ocean Film Festival, March 28, 2015 (Anchorage, Alaska, USA) In celebration of its 10th Anniversary, the Alaska Ocean Observing System and Alaska Geographic are co-hosting a Coast & Ocean Film Festival at the Bear Tooth on Saturday, March 28th! The festival will showcase fantastic short films that highlight an array of ocean-related topics. This event promotes ocean conservation, raises awareness about issues facing marine habitats, and celebrates Alaska's unique coast and ocean environments!
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.
Leadership, Diplomacy and Science: Resolving the Arctic Paradox" April 13-14, 2015, (Medford, MA, USA). The 4th annual Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy International Inquiry on the Warming Arctic will convene high-level decision makers from diplomatic and security circles, cutting-edge energy and science researchers, and social, environmental and business stakeholders to investigate solutions to the Arctic Paradox and promote a sustainable future for Arctic inhabitants within a "High North, Low Tension" policy framework. Special appearance: the North American debut of the Arctic Circle Assembly's panel "Rising Stars: Young Arctic Energy Researchers". For more information: WarmingArctic@Tufts.edu
Arctic States Symposium, April 17-19, 2015 (Charlottesville, VA, USA).
ARCTIC STATES, a three-day symposium at the University of Virginia School of Architecture, brings together an international consortium of leading designers and colleagues from allied disciplines to posit the role of design in the rapidly transforming region, and generate critical discussions by sharing recent work that will trace, critique and speculate on its past, present, and future.
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.
The European Union and Arctic (2015 EU-Arctic Conference), May 29, 2015 (Dundee, UK). The School of Law, University of Dundee, UK and the K. G. Jebsen Centre for the Law of the Sea, University of Tromsų, Norway are pleased to announce the registration open for "The European Union and the Arctic" (2015 EU-Arctic Conference). This conference will bring together academics and practitioners from relevant disciplines such as international law, international relations, political science and marine biology, NGOs, representatives from EU institutions and international organizations to discuss the EU's potential contribution to enhance Arctic governance. A roadmap for increasing the effectiveness of the EU's action in the Arctic will be drawn at the end of the conference.
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.
2015 ESSAS Annual Science Meeting, June 15-17, 2015 (Seattle, WA, USA). This symposium, to be held at the University of Washington, is intended for interdisciplinary scholars who will be prepared to discuss their research in the sub-arctic North Atlantic, sub-arctic North Pacific, and the Arctic Ocean that bears on the issue of how changes in sea ice are likely to affect these marine ecosystems. The symposium will also consider the people who depend upon these ecosystems and how they may be able to cope with the changes in the ecosystem goods and services that are coming. These goods and services include the availability of transportation corridors, the availability of subsistence foods, and the opportunity for commercial fishing. To put the present day in a longer perspective, the symposium will include a session on the paleo-ecology of people in sub-arctic and arctic regions that were forced to adjust to changing sea-ice conditions in the past.
Polar Law Symposium (8th) will be held in Alaska ( Sept. 23-24, UAF; Sept. 25-26, UAA). It's sponsored by UAF, UAA (and ISER), UAA Justice Center, UW Law School. Abstracts due 3/15/15. This year's conference theme is, "The Science, Scholarship, and Practice of Polar Law: Strengthening Arctic Peoples and Places."
2015 Arctic Energy Summit, September 28-30, 2015 (Fairbanks, Alaska, USA).The Institute of the North's 2015 Arctic Energy Summit builds on our legacy efforts to address energy as a fundamental element of the sustainable development of the Arctic as a lasting frontier.Central to this concept is a focus on providing pathways for affordable energy development in the Arctic and for Arctic communities.
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.
|
![USARC header](./2015mar18_files/1.jpg)
![Find us on Facebook Find us on Facebook](./2015mar18_files/btn_fbk_160.png)
4350 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 510
Arlington, VA 22203, USA
External links in this publication, and on the USARC's World Wide Web site ( www.arctic.gov) do not constitute endorsement by the US Arctic Research Commission of external Web sites or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities, the USARC does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. These links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this newsletter and the USARC Web site.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|