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“Together towards a sustainable Arctic”: An Earth Day Dialogue with Iceland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and chair of the Arctic Council, H.E. Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson
The future of the Arctic is critical not only for its four-million inhabitants and the unique ecosystems found in this northernmost region of Earth. A sustainable Arctic is key for global stability. Physical changes in the Arctic have globally significant climatic, environmental and geopolitical implications, and successful collaboration through the Arctic Council has kept the Arctic peaceful and stable since its establishment twenty-five years ago.
Join the Arctic Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and the Polar Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center for an engaging Earth Day dialogue with Iceland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson, about Iceland’s Chairmanship of the Arctic Council and what’s next.
As Iceland’s Chairmanship of the Arctic Council comes to a close, we will look back on the progress made in the past two years during the Icelandic Chairmanship to advance Arctic sustainability and science collaboration, and we will look forward to what’s next for the Arctic Council as we continue to see the region transform due to a rapidly changing climate.
Apr 22, 2021 01:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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The Frederik Paulsen Arctic Academic Action Awards are awarded to action-oriented scientific initiatives to improve and reverse the dramatic effects of climate change in a concrete way.
Applicants are invited to propose solutions to improve and reverse the effects of climatic change in one or more of the following categories:
- Preventing and reversing climate change through technological developments that can be accomplished through concrete and practical implementation.
- Containing and mitigating climate change through concrete actions and plans.
- Proposals for regulatory and policy change by way of legislation.
Rewards
- EUR 100,000
- Present the Winning Project at the Arctic Circle Award Ceremony
- Honorary Reception and Dinner
- Opportunity to Implement the Project Through the UArctic Network
The Award is linked to the name of Frederik Paulsen who for decades has been a strong promoter of Arctic and Antarctic research and cooperation as well as being a patron and a crucial supporter of many Arctic endeavours which have facilitated the cooperation between experts and scientists from many nations. Frederik Paulsen has also demonstrated strong respect for the culture and the livelihood of indigenous peoples. His support for the Arctic Circle and the UArctic is also a contribution to our success.
The Award will serve to promote and raise awareness of promising projects which address climate change through concrete actions and plans.
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The Canadian Studies Center is using this “virtual time” to build impact and community. In winter quarter viewers from around the world zoomed into Chief Tizya-Tramm’s discussion on the role of the Gwich’in people in international relations. Two courses – one in art and the other a Jackson School Task Force on pipelines – brought Indigenous artists and activists from Canada into UW classrooms. A dozen students from UW, the University of British Columbia and University of Victoria engaged in a virtual series of workshops on the Canada-U.S. relationship. UW’s Fulbright Canada Chair in Arctic Studies taught ARCTIC 401 from Brock University on the shores of Lake Ontario while a student from Tampere University in Finland zoomed into the course applying lessons in satellite imagery to the Boreal forest. And, over a dozen UW Arctic scholars provided new insights into the Arctic region to educators from 17 states and provinces. We hope you enjoy our stories below.
Highlights
- Watts receives Society of Scholars Fellowship
- Arctic security in Canada investigated by Fulbright scholar
- Book on Canadian studies by former director
- Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm on the environment
- First Nations art, resistance and governance in Canada
- More news from faculty, students and staff
- FLAS fellow looks at comparative immigration law
- New Arctic studies minor published in scholarship-to-policy blog
View the web version of the Canadian Studies Center Newsletter for April 2021
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Some highlights from the first quarter include:
- An international, virtual symposium with government, science and business leaders from Japan, China and South Korea, entitled “Asian Interests: The Path Forward in the New Arctic.” A public report will be issued in April 2021.
- Debut of the new opinion and editorial column, Polar Points.
- A high-level dialogue and expert discussion with the Center for Climate and Security, entitled “Climate Security Risks in the Arctic.”
- Evan T. Bloom, Former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Fisheries and Director for Ocean and Polar Affairs, U.S. Department of State joined the Wilson Center as a Senior Fellow. Mr. Bloom will focus his considerable expertise on both Arctic and Antarctic governance issues.
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Number Eleven! It's the ocean episode. As we finally enter the last leg of the MOSAiC expedition, we get to talk to Zoe Koenig who is an Arctic physical oceanographer at the University of Bergen and the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø. Zoe was leading team Ocean during leg 5 which clearly differed from the previous ones as the original MOSAiC ice floe had disintegrated and Polarstern now was looking for a new home.
Zoe always had a close relation to the ocean as she grew up in Brittany and spent her childhood's vacation sailing with the family off the French coasts. So the ocean has always been her special place of freedom, and even for some people it is just a blue out of the blue, she will always find a different shade of blue. The white is adding to the blue in the Arctic where the sea ice cover calms down the ocean moving; it's the quietness that fascinates Zoe.
This wasn't Zoe's first time drifting in the Arctic – during her PhD, she joined the Norwegian Young Sea Ice Experiment N-ICE on board the vessel Lance. And so she brought all her experience on how to measure the speed of the ocean, its temperature, and how salty it is into MOSAiC. Team Ocean was a small but busy team. To make sure no one gets bored by taking the same measurements over and over, Zoe introduced a rotating system so that everyone could run the different instruments. While they only built a light version of the previous ice camp during the last leg, Zoe and her team still had to work hard to maintain from refreezing the various holes in the ice to plunge the ocean instruments.
Polarstern had a shortage of cheese and chocolate during the last part of the cruise but Zoe and her team made it back healthy and in time to be heartily welcomed in Bremerhaven in October last year. But, sadly, the pandemic was still ongoing and it felt odd to come back to a world of people hidden behind masks and with no hugs.
Find all the IcePod episodes on the IcePod website