The Arctic is increasingly featured in global media. Alaska, as the Arctic extension of the United States, is prominent in many of those stories. Keeping up with “Arctic issues” has become a major challenge – a Google search on that term currently generates 44 million hits. The explosion of global interest in all things Arctic has spurred an equally rapid growth in the number of conferences, articles, journal papers and webinar discussions. For example, just in the next few months, the following major meetings will be held to discuss the Arctic and related topics such as global energy development and Arctic science:
- Environmental Protection in the Arctic, March 1, 2013, UAA, Anchorage, Ala.
- Tufts Energy Conference, March 2-3, 2013, Medford, Mass.
- The 43rd Annual Arctic Workshop 2013, March 11-13, 2013: Amherst, Mass.
- The Economist’s “Arctic Summit: A New Vista for Trade Energy and the Environment,” March 12, 2013. Oslo, Norway.
- 28th Wakefield Symposium: Responses of Arctic Marine Ecosystems to Climate Change, March 26-29, 2013, Anchorage, Ala.
- Arctic Science Summit Week, April 13-19, 2013. Krakow, Poland.
- American Polar Society 75th Anniversary, April 15-18, 2013, Woods Hole, Mass.
- Arctic Observing Summit 2013, April 30- May 2, 2013, Vancouver, BC.
- International Conference on Arctic Ocean Acidification, May 6-8, 2013, Bergen, Norway.
For Arctic residents and stakeholders, and for those who are not yet sure if the Arctic issues are something they should be concerned about, it can be hard to decide what information to access or which meeting is most relevant to attend.
Fortunately the U.S. Arctic Research Commission (USARC) has made the task of tracking Arctic news and events easier for all of us. Each day the USARC summarizes news most relevant to US residents in the Arctic Update, a daily email newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter for free by registering online at the USARC website. You may still find it challenging (as I do) to process all the news and determine which items require follow up, but the editors do a great job making Arctic news easily accessible to all of us.
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The U.S. Arctic Research Commission does a great job of compiling daily news updates. I’d like to share another good example.
For nearly a decade, the Top of the World Telegraph e-newsletter has been published by the Institute of the North, and has served as a dependable weekly aggregate of Arctic news and information for over 1,500 subscribers. The Telegraph supports the Institute of the North’s mission to inform public policy and cultivate an engaged citizenry around the North. We compile stories each week that represent issues and current events affecting the Circumpolar North.
In addition, each weekly installment features an editorial from leading subject matter experts across the Arctic. Most contributions touch on one of the main themes of the Telegraph – energy, transportation, governance, and communications.
To learn more and to subscribe please visit https://www.institutenorth.org/programs/arctic-advocacy-infrastructure/top-of-the-world-telegraph/.