Alaska Native Leaders Call on International Community to Address Climate Change. This week marked the first-ever Arctic Science Ministerial, a summit conceived by President Obama after his visit to Alaska last year. Delegates from 25 countries, both Arctic and non-Arctic, gathered in the nation's capital on Wednesday to hash out plans for better understanding climate effects in the region. On Tuesday, an equally important meeting took place in advance of the Ministerial. More than 30 Alaska Native and Arctic indigenous leaders came together to describe what climate change really feels like for communities that have lived closely to the land for decades. WNYC

 

Biologist Comments on a Startling New Finding in Climate Change Research. The steady march of global warming over the past century has led to the thawing of permafrost-a layer of subsurface soil in the Arctic that usually remains frozen year-round. While that's troubling for local ecosystems, it could have disastrous global impacts as well. As this permafrost melts, it sets off a biochemical chain reaction in the soil that could dramatically increase the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, accelerating further climate change. San Diego State University biologist Donatella Zona wrote about this issue in a commentary article this week in the journal Nature. Phys.Org

 

More Arctic Tourists Mean More Conflicts with Polar Bears. More polar bears are being shot dead on Norway's remote Arctic islands, where dangerous encounters with humans are getting more frequent as visitors increase and global warming melts the sea ice on which the creatures roam. Halfway between the northern tip of Europe and the North Pole, the Svalbard archipelago of snow-capped mountains and glaciers is home to 2,654 people and 975 polar bears, according to a 2015 tally by the Norwegian Polar Institute. "Four polar bears have been shot so far this year," Vidar Arnesen, a chief police inspector for the governor of Svalbard, told Reuters. "In a normal year, one or two would be shot." "There are more contacts between humans and the animals," he said aboard the Polarsyssel, the governor's ship, used for inspections and rescue operations. Skift

 

Canada Calls for Arctic Wildlife Enforcement Network. As black market prices for elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns have reached historic highs, Canada is calling on circumpolar countries to join forces to prevent trafficking of iconic Arctic wildlife products such as polar bear skins and narwhal tusks. "Over the last ten years the prices of a lot wildlife commodities have gone up worldwide," said Sheldon Jordan, director general for Wildlife Enforcement at the department of Environment and Climate Change Canada. "For example, rhinoceros horn is worth is weight in gold." RCI Net

 

USGS Glacier Research Shows 'Tangible Evidence' of Warming. In 1966, a team of U.S. Geological Survey scientists journeyed to two small glaciers in Alaska to dig snow pits needed for measuring snow depth and density at the remote mountainous locations. Those early findings, repeated twice a year for the last 50 years, became the baseline for the government's Benchmark Glacier program, the longest continuous glacier research in North America. The program provides data on glacier health in a warming climate. E&E News

 

On 20th Anniversary, Experts Say It's Time to Review Arctic Council Mandate. Over the past 20 years, the Arctic Council has proved to be "Canadian foreign policy at its best," say the country's top experts in Northern issues. But with the global political climate shifting and the race to claim Arctic territory heating up, one of the council's founders says it's time to revisit the mandate of the agency. CBC News

 

KNBA- Climate Change a Possible Threat to Drinking Water Sources in Alaska. The lack of running water and flush toilets in more than three thousand Alaska homes causes health problems, but another issue looms even larger:  that's the effects of climate change on drinking water sources. That's according to scientists at the international Water Innovations for Healthy Arctic Homes conference in Anchorage this week.  Andrew Madeiros is a researcher with York University in Toronto, Canada. He started his career as a paleo limnologist - that is, someone who studies lakes over the eons. He said his interests shifted to the modern era as he studied freshwater sources in Nunavut, Canada's northernmost region. As permafrost that had held water on the surface - for say ten thousand years - melted, he saw dramatic and startling changes. KNBA

 

Alaskan Village Fights for Clean Water Before it Disappears. Modern sewer and water facilities have long been the dream of the residents of the tiny barrier island community of Kivalina, which is fighting a battle between the warming ocean that's eroding its shoreline and a lack of money needed to move the community to higher ground. The Native village's 400 residents have no centralized sanitary service, other than a single line that serves the school, the health clinic, and a community facility with clothes washers and showers. Each homeowner must haul drinking and washing water from a large tank in the center of town or from the local river. E&E News