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 Today's Congressional Action:
The House and Senate are not in session.
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Media
Salluit Turns to ASIST Following Cluster of Suicides Late Last Year. It's been a long winter in Salluit. The Nunavik village of about 1,300 people is a few souls smaller after a string of suicide deaths gripped the community over the last few months of 2014. Death did not discriminate: first, a middle-aged construction worker, then a teenager, followed by a group of young Sallumiut in their 20s. A suicide that took place later in Inukjuak is thought to be linked. Nunatsiaq Online
Science Nabs Illegal Ivory Sellers. A Toronto-based company has been convicted of selling illegal ivory in the first case to use a technique for dating ivory developed by a scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in collaboration with other colleagues. Five Star Auctions and Appraisals, and its director, Mrs. Chun Al Jin, were charged after testing revealed two carved elephant tusks they were offering for sale had come from animals - possibly the same elephant-killed in late 1977 or early 1978. Under Canadian law, sellers must be able to prove ivory came from an animal taken from the wild before July 3, 1975, and that it was legally imported to Canada. Phys.Org
 Murkowski: Interior Budget Proposal 'Wishful Thinking.' U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Chairman of the Interior Appropriations subcommittee, criticized the Interior Department's $12.1 billion budget proposal for programs within the subcommittee's jurisdiction- including the over $1 billion increase - for ignoring the statutory caps placed on Congress by the Budget Control Act. Senator Murkowski also pressed Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on a number of issues important to Alaska: Arctic infrastructure, offshore oil development, revenue sharing, tribal courts and the administration's commitment to Alaska's coastal communities. "Your budget proposes new spending as if we had already lifted sequestration," Murkowski told Interior Secretary Sally Jewell at Wednesday's hearing of the Interior and Appropriations Subcommittee. "That amounts to wishful thinking, not responsible governance." Political News
Alaska Fish Factor: Cut in State Funds Looms Over Fisheries Department. A nearly $12 million cut in state funds is on tap for the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game if state policy makers have their way. That was one early outcome of legislative House finance subcommittee meetings last week, as they wrapped up the first step in a budget process that will see cuts in agencies and programs almost across the board. According to Juneau Resources Weekly, the ADF&G budget reductions cut across all divisions with sport fishing facing the most personnel losses at 12 seasonal jobs. The Division of Habitat could lose $400,000; commercial fishing programs are set to lose five positions and an additional $2 million in general fund support. The Fish Site
Office of the Federal Coordinator is Closed. The Office of the Federal Coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects closed on March 7, 2015, due to lack of funding. Its website, Arcticgas.gov, is being maintained, but not updated, by the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, with assistance of Alaska Resources Library & Information Services (ARLIS) at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Much of the office's work also can be accessed online at The Pipe Files, a searchable digital library of hundreds of Alaska gas line project documents going back to the 1970s. The Office of the Federal Coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects
 Marad Weighs Arctic Waiver. The U.S. Maritime Administration (Marad) is considering a request to allow a foreign-flag anchor handling tug-supply vessel (AHTS) to operate in Arctic waters protected by the Jones Act cabotage law. The request would allow Viking Supply Ships' 18,300-bhp ice-breaking AHTS Tor Viking II (built 2000) to operate in the Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea off northern and western Alaska, which has become the new frontier of U.S. oil and gas exploration. The charterer is not named, but Shell has the leading exploratory position in the Alaska's Arctic waters and has previously chartered the ship for its drilling campaign there. TradeWinds News
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Legislative Action
No Arctic legislation was formally considered Friday.
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Future Events
Arctic Ambitions IV: Trade, Commerce, Investment. March 10-11, 2015 (Anchorage, Alaska, USA). This unique international event brings together corporate executives and senior government officials from around the Arctic region and the world. It focuses on trade, commerce and investment and serves as an excellent networking venue to promote your business interests in the region. Speakers include US Arctic Research Chair Fran Ulmer.
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.
US Leadership in the Arctic, March 12 2015 (Washington, DC). This April, the United States will assume chairmanship of the Arctic Council for a two-year term. Since the last U.S. chairmanship fifteen years ago, the Arctic has changed dramatically. Melting sea ice has impacted indigenous communities as well as wildlife in significant ways. New Arctic transportation corridors have opened and new prospects for offshore oil and gas development have emerged. The region's growing strategic, economic, and environmental importance has made U.S. policy toward the Arctic more of a priority than ever before. Recent statements from the White House have emphasized the opportunity for the United States to lead in global efforts to mitigate climate change impacts in the region, govern resources responsibly, and protect Arctic ecosystems and inhabitants. On March 12, the Energy Security and Climate Initiative (ESCI) at Brookings will host Admiral Robert J. Papp, Jr., the U.S. special representative for the Arctic, for a keynote address on the future of U.S. policy for the region. Bruce Jones, deputy director of Foreign Policy at Brookings, will provide introductory remarks, and ESCI Senior Fellow Charles Ebinger will moderate the discussion and audience Q&A.
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.
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.
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 Call for Presentations ends this Friday.
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.
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