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Today's Congressional Action:
The House and Senate are in session and expected to consider non-Arctic legislation.
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 Nunavut Polar Bear Patrol Reduces Threats to Humans: WWF. As polar bear season winds down along Nunavut's Hudson Bay coast, a program run by the Hamlet of Arviat and the World Wildlife Fund Canada has led to a dramatic decrease in polar bear defence-kills, the WWF says. Since 2010, WWF has helped fund a polar bear patrol program in the Kivalliq community, where a local monitor is paid to patrol Arviat's streets at night through the fall and early winter, when the bears are migrating north. Nunatsiaq Online
These Tiny Creatures Could Cause Huge Trouble in the Arctic. Worries about thawing permafrost, and the carbon emissions it produces as it warms, have become a standard in conversations about climate change - but scientists are quick to point out that there's a lot they still don't understand. And one of the biggest questions has to do with some of the tiniest inhabitants of the Arctic. Micro-organisms in the Arctic soil are a critical component of permafrost's role in the carbon cycle. These little guys munch on organic matter in the ground - the process we know as "decomposition" - and produce carbon byproducts, such as carbon dioxide and methane, that can then escape into the atmosphere. Washington Post
[Commentary] Confused About the Word 'Eskimo?' It Helps to Look Deeper.
As the word 'Eskimo' gets ready to depart from writing and polite conversation, I've regretted having to say goodbye, so I called an old friend who hasn't liked the word for a long time. While I was growing up in Turnagain, oblivious to race except for my parents' lessons to treat everyone the same, Dalee Sambo Dorough was growing up Inupiaq in Inlet View, enduring racist taunts at her elementary school, where she was the only Alaska Native. Alaska Dispatch News
 [Canada] Overcrowding in Inuit Homes Linked to Children's Lung Infections: New Study. Overcrowding in Nunavut households appears to explain why young Inuit children in Canada suffer one of the highest rates of lower respiratory tract infections in the world. That's according to a new a study published Feb. 15 in the International Journal of Circumpolar Health. Nunatsiaq Online
High Sediment Mercury Level in Arctic: Study. There are high sediment mercury levels in the Arctic which are more prone to pollution in the region, a recent study has revealed. The study was conducted on 'Kongsfjorden', one of the Fjords located at Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, by a group of researchers from Kottayam Kerala' School of Environmental Sciences affiliated to the Mahatma Gandhi University. Business Standard
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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).