Arctic Update Header
March 25, 2014

capital Today's Congressional Action:   

The House and Senate is in session and will consider non-Arctic legislation.

 

 

 

Media 

  

russian flag Russia Kicked Out of the G-8 Club. The United States and other Western powers on Monday kicked Russia out of their exclusive club, at least temporarily.  Western leaders replaced a Group of Eight meeting that Russia was to host in Sochi this June with a Group of Seven meeting in Brussels, effectively suspending Russia's G-8 membership in the process. The Hill

 

navy Navy Breaks Down Ice Camp North of Alaska. Cracks in polar sea ice north of Alaska will force the closing of an ice camp supporting a Navy submarine exercise, the Navy announced Monday. Ice Exercise 2014 will continue but temporary structures erected as Camp Nautilus about 150 miles north of Prudhoe Bay began to come down Sunday, the Navy said in the announcement issued from Norfolk., Va. Fairbanks Daily News Miner

 

Dissent Among Scientists Over Key Climate Impact Report. Senior scientists and government officials are meeting in Japan to agree a critical report on the impact of global warming. Members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will publish their first update in seven years on the scale of the threat.Leaked documents speak of significant effects on economies, food supplies and security. BBC News

 

New Video Announcement: Tram Powered International Tundra Experiment. Multiple instruments, configured along a tram like platform, sense the tundra below and gather detailed data while traveling along a 50 meter transect. "We are gathering measurements that we don't know exactly how they will be used," said Steven Oberbauer, professor of biological sciences, at Florida International University. The high-resolution information is more detailed than gained by a satellite or by a meteorological station that is situated in one spot. In the video, ITEX: Tram powered on www.FrontierScientists.com, Nathan Healey, post-doctoral research associate at Florida International University, describes the instruments and types of data they gather.  In a more detailed study, masters student Jose Luciani in video, ITEX: Node to Node on www.FrontierScientists.com, digitizes the growth variation of individual plants. Luciani wants to know if it is more advantageous to grow horizontally or vertically in the changing Arctic environment. FrontierScientists

 

Alaska's Leading Expert on Butterflies, Ken Philip Leaves Legacy for Smithsonian. Not many people trace the inspiration for their life's work to an experience they had at summer camp as a 6-year-old, but that was just one of the ways in which Kenelm "Ken" Philip stood out. There it is on the second line on a resume he wrote for National Moth Week: "Introduced to butterflies: Camp Treetops (in Adirondacks), 1938." More than seven decades after attending the rustic camp in upstate New York, he called the camp director to say how much the experience had meant. Alaska Dispatch

 

Explore the Arctic. This month, the World Wildlife Foundation launched the full version of ArkGIS, an interactive map on nature and risk in the Arctic. Overlay sea ice data, species ranges and more, then download your completed map. ArkGIS

 

An Old Emergency Oil Outpost Takes Scrutinized Strides Toward Commercial Production. ConocoPhillips Co. spent much of winter hauling heavy equipment and building materials across Alaska's frozen North Slope tundra from Deadhorse to an oil development site just inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. With frigid temperatures icing the fragile wetlands into a rock-hard surface, workers are blasting to extract gravel, installing pipeline pilings and building roads and small bridges at the remote Colville River Delta site, known as CD-5. EE News

 

Arctic Council Meeting in Yellowknife Begins Today. The Arctic Council is meeting in Yellowknife this week to decide the issues the international body will work on, and many are curious to see if Russia's attempt to seize Crimea in the Ukraine will affect the meeting. Members of the Group of Eight nations have suspended themselves from that body, leaving Russia the lone G8 member, but it remains a member of the Arctic Council, alongside Canada, the United States, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. CBC News

Legislative Actionfutureevents  

  

No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.

Future Events

 

Polar Research Board Spring Meeting, March 26-28, 2014 (Washington, DC). The Polar Research Board, part of the Division on Earth and Life Studies of the National Academies, will hold its spring meeting to receive updates on issues such as "Linkages between Arctic Sea Ice Loss and Mid-Latitude Weather Patterns;" "Adaptations Actions for a Changing Arctic;" and other study updates. The agenda is available here. 


Association of American Geographers Polar Geography Sessions, April 8-12, 2014 (Tampa, Florida).  Polar Geography Sessions are being planned in areas such as Sustainable Development in the Arctic, Urbanization and Transportation in the Arctic, etc. Contact Scott Stephenson (stephenson@ucla.edu) for more information, and see attached flyer. 

 

Arctic Science Summit Week April 5-8, 2014 and Arctic Observing Summit, April 9-11 (Helsinki, Finland). ASSW is a gathering for Arctic research organizations. Any organization engaged in supporting and facilitating arctic research is welcome to participate. The ASSW meeting in 2014 will be arranged during April 5-8 in Helsinki Kumpula Campus, in the facilities of FMI and Physics Department of the University of Helsinki. Second circular here

 

Alaska Policy Commission. May 6-7, 2014 (Anchorage, Alaska). The Alaska Arctic Policy Commission (AAPC) has more important work to do in 2014. The Commission will strive to gather public input and engage with Alaskan communities, state agencies, federal partners, and the international organizations working in the Arctic. In order to meet our goals AAPC will convene three in-person meetings over the course of 2014 and focus on implementation and final recommendations. The draft agenda is available here

 

International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences, May 22-24, 2014. ICASS is held every three years, bringing together people from all over the world to share ideas about social science research in the Arctic. ICASS VII, held in Akureyri in June 2011, attracted 450 participants from 30 different countries. ICASS VIII's theme is Northern Sustainabilities. By using the plural, ICASS underscores both that 'sustainability' has social, cultural, economic, political and environmental dimensions, and that definitions of the concept vary. Yet, while debating specific definitions, most would agree that working toward sustainable ways of living in the North and on approaches to sustainable engagement with the North, are critical both to the North's and to the world's future. Community sustainability in the North, whether for small settlements or large urban conglomerations, requires new models of food and energy security, and of access to employment, health care and social and cultural services for residents.

 

Arctic in the Athropocene. June 23-July 2, 2014 (Potsdam, Germany). Under the overarching theme "Arctic in the Anthropocene", this two-week interdisciplinary and interactive event will be the first in a series of Potsdam Summer Schools to be held annually. The goal is to bring together early-career scientists and young professionals from research departments, governmental and non-governmental agencies and organizations, as well as the private sector from all around the world. Participants will deal with global challenges and address urgent questions on how to shape sustainable futures in the Arctic and beyond from a scientific and socioeconomic point of view. 

 

Alaska Policy Commission. August 26-27, 2014 (Kotzebue-Nome, Alaska). The Alaska Arctic Policy Commission (AAPC) has more important work to do in 2014. The Commission will strive to gather public input and engage with Alaskan communities, state agencies, federal partners, and the international organizations working in the Arctic. In order to meet our goals AAPC will convene three in-person meetings over the course of 2014 and focus on implementation and final recommendations. 

 

Arctic Circle, October 31-November 2, 2014 (Reyjavik, Iceland).

The Arctic Circle is nonprofit and nonpartisan. Organizations, forums, think tanks, corporations and public associations around the world are invited to hold meetings within the Arctic Circle platform to advance their own missions and the broader goal of increasing collaborative decision-making without surrendering their institutional independence. The Arctic Circle will organize sessions on a variety of issues, such as: Sea ice melt and extreme weather; Polar law: treaties and agreements; The role and rights of indigenous peoples; Security in the Arctic; Shipping and transportation infrastructure; The prospects and risks of oil and gas drilling; Clean energy achievements and sustainable development; Arctic resources; Business cooperation in the Arctic; The role of Asian and European countries in the Arctic; Greenland in the new Arctic; Fisheries and ecosystem management; The science of ice: global research cooperation; Arctic tourism; The ice-dependent world: the Arctic and the Himalayas. 

 

Alaska Policy Commission. November 13-14, 2014 (Anchorage, Alaska). The Alaska Arctic Policy Commission (AAPC) has more important work to do in 2014. The Commission will strive to gather public input and engage with Alaskan communities, state agencies, federal partners, and the international organizations working in the Arctic. In order to meet our goals AAPC will convene three in-person meetings over the course of 2014 and focus on implementation and final recommendations. 

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