The Cook Inletkeeper and Center for Biological Diversity have sued th U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and its parent agency Department of Commerce. Their suit is filed in the United District Court for the District of Alaska. They are challenging a regulation that permits the oil and gas company Hilcorp Alaska LLC to “take” marine mammals incidental to oil and gas exploration and development activities in Cook Inlet, Alaska, including 2-dimensional (2D) and 3-dimensional (3D) seismic airgun blasting. The term “take” has the definition in, and the regulation is issued under, the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act.
From: ChinaDialog/Ocean
Episode two of China’s Polar Frontiers by Sustainable Asia looks at how climate change is opening up new opportunities in the frozen north
From: High North News
Those of us who deeply care about the Arctic Council and the future of the Arctic should be aware of what is happening and should do our utmost to speak for the values the Arctic Council represents, urges Timo Koivurova, former advisor to the Finnish Chairmanship of the Arctic Council.
From: University at Buffalo Now
Global climate change is transforming the world’s ecosystems, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the Arctic region, say three UB faculty members, editors of a wide-ranging new book on the subject.
“Some have come to view the Arctic as the earth’s ‘environmental canary,’” write the editors of “The Big Thaw: Policy, Governance, and Climate Change in the Circumpolar North” (SUNY Press). “In days gone by, when a caged canary taken into mines stopped singing, coal miners knew that the carbon monoxide gas level was so high that they had to escape the chamber. The thawing Arctic may be the earth’s early warning system.”
From: CNBC
From: Nunatsiaq News
The current chair says the ‘meaningful engagement’ of the Arctic Council’s 39 observers is an asset to the region
Iceland is seeking to leverage growing interest in the Arctic to improve the living conditions in the region through greater involvement of the organization’s observers.
“There is general agreement that observers should have some kind of meaningful engagement. The trick is how to do that. Iceland,” said Einar Gunnarsson, an Icelandic diplomat currently responsible for directing the work of the Arctic Council. “Iceland is focused on the council’s engagement with observers. But we are talking about two-way engagement.”
From: High North News
With more meetings and reports of meetings, is the poster child of Arctic governance overrated? Has the Arctic Council become a paper polar bear – outwardly powerful, but inwardly ineffectual?
Last week, more than 120 Arctic experts and politicians gathered in the small town of Hveragerði in Southern Iceland for the first SAO plenary meeting since the Arctic Council’s passed from Finland to Iceland earlier this year in Rovaniemi.
