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April 7, 2014

capital Today's Congressional Action:   

The Senate is not in session. The House will consider non-Arctic legislation.

 

 

Media 

    

antifreeze fish Senate Ratifies Treaties to Stop Fish Piracy. The U.S. Senate yesterday ratified two international treaties that Alaska's senators say will help crack down on illegal international fishing. One is an agreement to restrict ships from using ports if they engage in what's known as IUU fishing. Sen. Mark Begich says the practice robs legitimate fishermen of some $23 billion a year. Alaska Pubic Radio 

 

How Old is This Whale? A New Way to Tell: An Improved Technique Could Reveal Volumes About Humpbacks' Lives. Whales occupy an outsized place in our imagination. They are mammals, like us, but grand and mysterious, from their enormous size to their social lives to the great depths they swim in. For all our fascination with whales, there's also a surprising amount we don't know about them-including basic information like how old individual whales are, or how long they're capable of living. Marine researchers have long sought an accurate technique for "aging" whales, because knowing how old whales are is key to answering many other questions about their lives. But such a technique has been elusive-until now. Boston Globe 

 

Arctic Sea Ice, Past its Winter Peak, Sends Mixed Messages About How Rapidly it's Melting. Arctic sea ice reached its maximum annual coverage two weeks ago, hitting a peak of 14.8 million square kilometers (5.7 million square miles) on March 21, the spring equinox, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The ice cover was the fifth-lowest maximum since satellite records began in 1979 and fits a long-term pattern of decline, the center said. March conditions send mixed messages about what will happen later this year when sea ice shrinks to its seasonal minimum, the milestone that is much more important to biological and climate trends, said the director of the Boulder, Colo.-based center. Alaska Dispatch 

 

Canadian Research Reveals New Clue to Rapid Arctic Ice Melt. A new study of the Arctic's vast Mackenzie River Delta has discovered that an unexpected aspect of climate change is having a very big effect, according to Lance Lesack, a professor in both the Department of Geography and Department of Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. While the study was looking at a specific phenomenon regarding an earlier break-up of ice jams in the Mackenzie delta, the discovery may help to explain why Arctic sea ice is melting so fast. Alaska Dispatch 

 

Scientist Explains Why the Jet Stream is Slowing Down. Dr. Jennifer Francis from Rutgers University was featured earlier this evening on NBC's "Our Year of Extremes: Did Climate Change Hit Home?" Her name may not be familiar, but her work has been quoted on KSDK many times. Dr. Francis has been able to show that the jet stream is slowing down which, in turn, has made significant contributions to events like the record heat and drought across North America two years ago and the cold weather we had this past winter. KSDK 

 

New Scientific Journal Puts Barents Under the Microscope. Three academic institutes from the far north of Russia, Finland and Norway have banded together to launch a new international academic publication presenting research on the peoples, economies, and politics of the Barents region. The first issue of the English language journal has just been published in electronic form. YLE 

 

Putin Putin Readies Arctic Territorial Claims. Meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Friday, Minister of Natural Resources Sergey Donskoy confirmed that Russia will have its Arctic claims prepared after summer. The claims will be submitted to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) in spring 2015, the minister said. Russia this year successfully got the CLCS's support for its expansion in the Sea of Okhotsk, and has high hopes that the Commission will approve also the far bigger claims in the Arctic. Barents Observer 

 

Putin Tells Security Service to be on Alert, Warns of NGOs. Putin urged the FSB to develop Russia's border infrastructure in the Arctic, adding that after the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan this year, Russia's "allies" in Central Asia "might need our help" to prevent destabilization in the region. Radio Free Europe 

 

Finland Wants More Arctic Action. Mia Bennett, a PhD student in Geography at the University of California, spoke with Timo Lohi, who is heading up the Arctic Corridor project based in Finland, and she shares her insights with The Maritime Executive: The Arctic Corridor is described as a "new cross-border economic area as well as a transport and development corridor." Financed by municipalities in Northern Lapland, the City of Rovaniemi, and the Regional Council of Lapland, the project began approximately five years ago as a means of capitalizing on the potential of Arctic resources and the Northern Sea Route (NSR), which shortens the distance between Asia and Europe by up to 40%. Lohi, who works on marketing and networking for the Arctic Corridor, explained, "We would like to connect these opportunities here in Finland, Norway, and Europe to this new transport route. The shorter distance is business opportunity for our company." To connect Finnish businesses into the NSR, a crucial part of the project is a proposed railway connection between Rovaniemi, Finland and Kirkenes, Norway. Earlier this month, the project released a video visualizing their aspirations for the transportation route. Arctic Corridor is marketing their efforts to a wide spectrum of interests but has honed in specifically on mining, especially since the industry is developing in northern Finland. The Maritime Executive 

Legislative Actionfutureevents  

  

No Arctic legislation was formally considered Friday.

Future Events

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

The Arctic Biodiversity Congress, December 2-4, 2014. (Trondheim, Norway). The Arctic Biodiversity Congress will present and discuss the main scientific findings of the ABA; facilitate inter-disciplinary discussion, action and status updates on the policy recommendations in the ABA; provide scientific, policy, management, NGO, academia, Indigenous peoples and industry audiences the opportunity to collaborate around the themes of the ABA; advise CAFF on national and international implementation of the ABA recommendations and on the development of an ABA Implementation Plan for the Arctic Council; highlight the work of CAFF and the Arctic Council on circumpolar biodiversity conservation and sustainable development; and, contribute to mainstreaming of biodiversity and ecosystem services, ensuring that the recommendations of the ABA are implemented by not just governments, but many organizations and people across disciplines.

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