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Today's Congressional Action:
The House and Senate are not in session.
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 Scientists are Floored by What's Happening in the Arctic Right Now. New data from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest that January of 2016 was, for the globe, a truly extraordinary month. Coming off the hottest year ever recorded (2015), January saw the greatest departure from average of any month on record, according to data provided by NASA. The Washington Post
Sen. Donny Olson Outlines Arctic Priorities for 2016. The past year saw increased attention paid to the Arctic from the international community and the state. Issues like climate change, an uptick in marine traffic, and infrastructure concerns have driven many of the discussions among stakeholders so far this year. Over the next few weeks, the Sounder will bring you conversations with state and regional leaders outlining their priorities for the Arctic in 2016. This week, we hear from Sen. Donny Olson, a Golovin Democrat who represents Senate District T, covering the North Slope Borough and Northwest Arctic Borough. The Arctic Sounder
Inupiat Woman to BIA: 'I am not an Eskimo.' A word is not a simple thing to one woman from Kotzebue who has started a campaign to encourage the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to remove the term, "Eskimo," from its official paperwork. Blossom Twitchell, who now lives in Sitka, is Inupiat and thinks it's not appropriate that she should have to check the box marked "ESK" to identify herself on documentation. The Arctic Sounder
Bilingual Education Receives a Boost. Several grants through the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Education and College of Liberal Arts were announced this week aimed at improving educational opportunities for Alaska Natives and rural educators. One grant will introduce teaching as a classroom subject within high schools... Another grant totaling $2.3 million is poised to create a new linguistics graduate program aimed at helping those who speak two languages but lack proficiency in one or both. Dubbed "emergent bilinguals" educators will learn how to better help the many Alaska Native youth who have incomplete proficiency in either English or their Native language. The Arctic Sounder
 Future Development of the Northern Sea Route. On June 8, 2015, the Russian government released the Russia's Integrated Development Plan for the Northern Sea Route 2015-2030. The plan stresses the importance of providing safer and more reliable navigation on Northern Sear Route (NSR) for maritime export of Russian natural resource materials but also the strategic importance of NSR for Russian national security. The plan is also to increase international transit cargo transportation on NSR in partnership with Asian countries and in particular with China. Port News
Research Priorities for the Arctic Defined. The leading international Arctic research organisations have set common scientific objectives for the coming decade. The indigenous peoples of the Arctic were also involved in this process. Under the auspices of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), which is based at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam, Germany, they are about to submit a report that sets out the path for a jointly conceived and solution-oriented research agenda on the sustainable development of the Arctic and beyond. The scientific report will be presented at the beginning of March at the summit meeting of Arctic researchers, the Arctic Science Summit Week - ASSW, in Fairbanks (Alaska). Hydro International
 With Russia Overextended Elsewhere, Arctic Cooperation Gets a New Chance. Can the United States and Russia actually cooperate in the Arctic? It might seem like wishful thinking, given that Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev asserted that there is in fact a "New Cold War" between the two countries in a speech at the Munich Security Conference. Many people-at that conference and elsewhere-see the idea as far-fetched. Sure, Russia is launching air strikes in what has become an all-out proxy war in Syria, continues to be aggressive against Ukraine, and has increased its military build-up in the High North. To many observers, the notion of cooperating with Russia in the Arctic was a non-starter as recently as the mid-2015. There have been, however, significant changes in Russia's behavior in the last several months-so, maybe it is possible to bracket the Arctic out of the evolving confrontation. Brookings
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Legislative Action
No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.
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Future Events
IARPC Webinar Series: The Arctic Digital Elevation Model Project, February 24, 2016 (Webinar). The ArcticDEM project will produce the first very high resolution, publicly available digital surface model of the entire Arctic region above 60 degrees North including all of Alaska, Greenland and Kamchatka. The result of a partnership between the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and a group lead by the US National Science Foundation funded Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota, the project converges civilian, high-quality sub-meter stereo imagery, petascale computing, and open source photogrammetry software. In addition, the USGS is collecting Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (ifsar) over Alaska as part of the 3D Elevation Program. This webinar will provide information on the collaboration, the timeline, and the expected ArcticDEM products, as well as the data characteristics, acquisition status, and plans for summer 2016 ifsar acquisition.
5th Annual Fletcher Opening Arctic Conference, March 12, 2016. The Opening Arctic Conference builds on the Fletcher School's Warming Arctic International Inquiry series, to bring together high-level thought leaders from across disciplines, Fletcher's hallmark. Staged annually, Fletcher's event continues to address the foreign policy, economic, environmental and security implications of the opening Arctic, while dispelling myths.
15th Annual Arctic Health Science Seminar, April 1, 2016 (Anchorage, Alaska, USA). The American Society for Circumpolar Health will host the 15th Annual Arctic Health Science Seminar in Anchorage, Alaska. This event will include the annual meeting of the American Society for Circumpolar Health, the Robert Fortuine Memorial lecture, and the Albrecht Milan Foundation will provide the Albrecht-Milan Emerging Professional Award to one of the Arctic Health Science Seminar presenters. The call for abstracts is open through Monday February 29, 2016.
** New this week** The American Arctic: The United States as an Arctic Power in Science, Technology and Security, April 4, 2016 (San Francisco, CA, USA). The Association of American Geographers will host a panel discussion on the American Arctic. In 2015 the United States assumed the chairmanship of the Arctic Council. In recent years, the Federal government began to pay closer attention to the Arctic owing to dramatic environmental and social changes and growing economic interest in the region's vast resources. President Obama became the first sitting US President to visit the Arctic this August. US Arctic Research Commission Chair Fran Ulmer is expected to be a panelist.
Alaska Rural Energy Conference, April 26-28, 2016 (Fairbanks, Alaska, USA). The Alaska Rural Energy Conference is a three day event offering a large variety of technical sessions covering new and ongoing energy projects in Alaska, as well as new technologies and needs for Alaska's remote communities. Building on the growing success, the Alaska Energy Authority and the Alaska Center for Energy and Power have joined forces again to organize and sponsor the 10th annual Alaska Rural Energy Conference.
14th IATS Seminar, June 19-25, 2016 (Bergen, Norway). The University of Bergen (UiB) is honored to host the 14th IATS Seminar in Bergen, Norway, from Sunday 19 to Saturday 25 June 2016 in co-operation with the Network for University Co-operation Tibet-Norway, an academic network with the universities of Oslo, Bergen and Tromsų as partners. The convenor is Professor Hanna Havnevik, Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo, and Chair of the Network.
Inuit traditions are a repository of Inuit culture and a primary expression of Inuit identity. The theme for the 2016 Inuit Studies Conference invites Elders, knowledge-bearers, researchers, artists, policy-makers, students and others to engage in conversations about the many ways in which traditions shape understanding, while registering social and cultural change. The institutional hosts of "Inuit Traditions," Memorial University of Newfoundland and the Nunatsiavut Government, invite you to contribute to an exchange of knowledge to be held in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, October 7-10, 2016. Presentations on all aspects of Inuit studies will be welcome.
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2016 (Fairbanks, AK, USA).