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The Arctic Futures Symposium is an annual conference that brings together Arctic stakeholders in Europe's capital to discuss issues of importance to them.

The International Polar Foundation and its many Arctic stakeholder partners invite participation in the 14th edition of the Arctic Futures Symposium on November 28th and 29th in Brussels, Belgium. The Symposium will take place at the Town Hall Europe, located at Square de Meeûs 5-6, 1000 Brussels, Belgium.

This year's Symposium will focus on:
Managing the Challenges of a Changing Arctic
Avenues for Arctic Cooperation
A Safe and Secure Arctic
Arctic Youth : Meeting Challenges and Creating Opportunities
Cultivating Arctic Communities
Implementing the Green Transition in the Arctic

The IASC Network on Arctic Glaciology meeting and Workshop on the dynamics and mass budget of Arctic glaciers will be held in Obergurgl, Austria, on 22-24 January 2024.

This in-person meeting will be held at the University Center, which also offers accommodation during and around the meeting. The meeting will start on Monday January 22 (around 9:00) and finish around noon on Wednesday January 24. The recommended arrival date is Sunday January 21. Rooms in the University Centre are available from January 21-25. There is no registration fee for the meeting.

Organizers welcome contributions on all aspects concerning the mass balance and dynamics of Arctic glaciers, including the Greenland Ice Sheet, and that utilize a broad range of methods, including field observations, remote sensing and modelling. In addition to this, the meeting will include a special cross-cutting activity on “Societal impacts of glacier and snow cover changes in a warming Arctic”, which aims to provide an inter-disciplinary forum that brings together atmospheric scientists, snow experts, glaciologists and social scientists.

Please register for the meeting and submit your abstract by the deadline of 24 November 2023.

The Government of Iceland (Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Climate, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries), with financial support from the The Nordic Council of Ministers and The Nordic Council, will host the Second International Symposium on Plastics in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Region at Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre, in partnership with Pinngortitaleriffik, Grønlands Naturinstitut, Senter for hav og Arktis, International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), OSPAR Commission, GRID-Arendal, UArctic, UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, Wilson Center, United Nations Environment Programme, IASC.

The conference will build on the first symposium held in March 2021 and invites contributions on new scientific and local knowledge as well as policy-related initiatives in the field of plastic pollution to discuss ways and means to reduce the impact of plastics on Arctic ecosystems. The symposium will include platform presentations, posters and panel discussions. The Scientific Steering Committee for the symposium suggests the following themes:

1. Monitoring and assessment of plastic pollution in the Arctic.
2. Methodological developments to determine macro, micro and nano plastics.
3. Sources and transport of plastic in the Arctic and sub-Arctic.
4. Impacts of marine litter in the Arctic (environmental, economic and social).
5. Arctic challenges and solutions for improved waste management.
6. Tackling plastic pollution: international collaboration, policies, best practices and novel developments from around the world.

Important Dates

• Extended deadline for abstracts is 1 June 2023.
• Early bird registration extended to 30 September 2023.

In 2023, Canada experienced the worst wildfire season on record, including record high area burned, numerous community evacuations in the Northwest Territories and beyond, and poor air quality from smoke in both Canada and the Eastern seaboard. Farther west in Alaska, 2023 saw a near complete absence of wildfire until late July, only to be followed by a late season surge. This presentation will review and contrast the Alaskan and Canadian fire seasons and discuss what lessons we can learn from the tale of two extremes.

Register on our website to join the virtual event on November 21st at 11am AKST.

Land Back is a movement to reclaim Indigenous jurisdiction, offering ‘a new way to communicate old demands.’ Fish Back shares the same concerns—seeking to address theft of Indigenous fisheries, harms that have followed from colonization, and the need for restoration across ecological, economic, political, cultural, and spiritual spheres. This talk offers an invitation to envision what we can re-establish and reclaim through a re-constitution of Indigenous law and governance over fisheries. Together, we will discuss what roles knowledge co-production, environmental assessment and policy, community-based management and governance, and co-management regimes may (or may not) play on the path towards realizing more just futures for fish, fisheries, and fishing peoples.

Speaker will be in Fairbanks, Fairbanks Troth Yeddha' Campus O'Neill Bldg., Room 201
Lena Point Fisheries Facility, Room 101
Anchorage 1007 W. 3rd Ave, Suite 100

Zoom
Please register in advance.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Funded by the National Science Foundation’s Research Traineeship (NSF-NRT) and Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) programs, the Tamamta Program centers on bridging Indigenous and Western sciences to transform graduate education and research in fisheries and marine sciences. Stay tuned for more updates about all of the Tamamta Fellows and their incredible work and research interests across Alaska.

Join the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy (ACCAP) for this month's NWS Alaska Climate Outlook Briefing. Rick Thoman will will review recent and current climate conditions around Alaska, discuss some forecasting tools, and finish up with the Climate Prediction Center’s forecast for December 2023 and the winter season. Join the gathering online to learn what’s happened and what may be in store with Alaska’s seasonal climate.

Register on the ACCAP website for the online event being held on Friday, 17 November at 12:00 p.m. AKT.

The 11th Annual World Congress of Ocean-2023 (WCO-2023) will be held in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. WCO series congress contribute to offering professionals in the field of ocean a multidisciplinary informative cooperative platform, and it has been the most definite and grand Ocean event in Asia. The conference offers the business leaders, academic researchers, and government agents around the world to meet and exchange ideas in research technologies and application experiences face to face, finding gaps in the technology development and build future collaboration. The 3-day conference is an effective series of activities including Plenary Forum, Parallel Sessions, Welcome Banquet, Exhibitions, Posters and Tours etc.

Programmed Chapters at a Glance:

• Opening Ceremony and Keynote Forum
• Track 1: Ocean Economy and Finance
• Track 2: Maritime Law
• Track 3: Coastal and Ocean Engineering
• Track 4: Ocean Energy Development and Utilization
• Track 5: Emerging Ocean Science and Technology
• Track 6: Marine Management and Environment Protection
• Track 7: Smart Port, Green Shipping & Shipbuilding
• Track 8: Marine Biotechnology
• Track 9: Aquaculture and Fisheries

Important Deadlines

• Deadline for online Early Bird Registration: 28 February 2023
• Deadline for Abstract Submission: 15 October 2023
• Deadline for Regular Registration: 10 November 2023

This session will cover an overview of the Arctic Council and Gwich'in Council International (GCI), highlighting initiatives related to governance, climate change, and promoting Indigenous Knowledge on a global level. The speaker will discuss how decision making on the local level has an impact on the international level, and vice versa. They will also provide a deeper dive on the significance of increased wildfire in the boreal forest on global climate change and how the Arctic Council's permanent participants are meeting this challenge.

Content of Webinar: Drilling and sampling of permafrost; differences between subsurface exploration in permafrost regions and temperate regions; importance and basics of in-situ permafrost temperature measurements; visual classification of frozen soils (ASTM D4083); in-situ geophysical testing using multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW), electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), and distributed acoustic and temperature sensing (DAS, DTS); laboratory testing of frozen soils.

Brief Introduction of Instructor: Dr. Ming Xiao is a Professor of Civil Engineering (with specialty in geotechnical engineering) in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Penn State. His current research focuses on permafrost degradation, permafrost coastal erosion, and their impacts on civil infrastructure and local communities in the Arctic. He is the President-Elect of the USPA and the Chair of USPA’s Permafrost Engineering Education Program (PEEP). He is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in the States of California (since 2007) and Ohio (since 2005).

Format: The webinar is offered on Zoom. The webinar is 1 hour long, including a 50-min lecture and 10-min Q&A. Certificate of Professional Development Hours (PDH) will be provided to participants who request it after each webinar. The webinars are free for USPA members. The webinars will be moderated. The seminars will be recorded and uploaded on the USPA website. Future participants can register and watch the webinar individually and receive PDH. Registration fee for non-USPA members to watch the recorded webinar is the same as in the live webinars.

The Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit conference 2023 continues the successful forum initiated in 2013. The first conferences went under the name “In the Spirit of the Rovaniemi Process” to honor the visions that in the late 80’s and early 90’s started the official Arctic cooperation between Arctic states. The current name "Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit" underlines that these conferences are not looking to the past but they are building for the future while remembering the original Arctic spirit of Rovaniemi. The biannual Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit conference series gathers policymakers, representatives of academia and other stakeholders for Arctic discussions in Rovaniemi, the birthplace of official Arctic cooperation.

The Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit conference, initiated by the city of Rovaniemi and the University of Lapland, reminds that Rovaniemi has a strong tradition in hosting major Arctic initiatives and events. The strength of Rovaniemi lies in the geographical location of the city at the Arctic Circle coupled with a well-functioning academic Arctic infrastructure. During the years, the Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit conferences series has developed into Finland’s foremost Arctic event. The ambition has been to grow in quality and relevance, not in size, in order to offer meaningful Arctic discussions and meetings and thus spread the real Arctic Spirit of Rovaniemi.