The role of permafrost will be the subject of a one-credit summer course for K-12 teachers June 25-27, 2008, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Held in association with the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost, The course will familiarize teachers with how the degradation of the permafrost will impact Alaska’s society, ecology, and hydrology.
Students will […]

National Public Radio and National Geographic are broadcasting a series on the impacts of climate change called Climate Connections. The series, part of Weekend Edition Sunday, looks at signs of climate change in the polar regions and other parts of the world, including sections on adaptations, causes of climate change, and profiles of people past […]

The International Polar Year will be emphasized in the national conference of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science(SACNAS), to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, October 9-12.
The conference will focus on global change– particularly climate change and its impact on all fields of science, ecosystems, and populations from […]

At its meeting in London, March 31-April 3, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) heard a call from environmental groups to tighten restrictions on shipping around Antarctica. The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) said many of the ships carrying the growing number of tourists are not ice-strengthened. Vessels that are not reinforced to withstand ice […]

Three of the Web Seminars scheduled by the National Science Teachers Association in May will offer teachers at all grade levels an opportunity to enrich their teaching about the polar regions. Each seminar is presented at 6:30 p.m. on its scheduled date and lasts for 90 minutes. Participation is free.
Presenters for the two-part seminars on […]

First the lights went out in Christchurch, New Zealand, at 8 p.m., on March 31, and then one by one city and small town lights around the globe followed suit. The lights-out was known as Earth Hour, an event organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-Australia) last year and taken global this year. It aims […]

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is offering a summer institute, July 14-18, for middle school and high school teachers to promote teaching of science concepts and processes related to the polar regions. The institute, titled International Polar Year: Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics Polar Connections, is sponsored by the STEM Education Institute and the Climate System […]

Doing Antarctic research while watching and listening for volcanic rumblings seems farfetched, but it is reality for researchers from the United States, Spain, Britain, Argentina, and Chile stationed on Deception Island. The five countries work here under the Antarctic Treaty, which protects the area from over-use by humans. The treaty is no protection, however, from […]

The consequences of global warming are often predicted in terms of washed-out coastal cities, displaced populations, and changed weather patterns, but only recently have some warned of armed conflict in the icy waters around the North Pole. A former U.S. Coast Guard commander writing in the March-April 2008 issue of Foreign Relations, says the ice […]

March 20 is Sun-Earth Day 2008, an annual event scheduled on or near the date of the spring equinox. It is sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to engage K-12 schools and the public in space science activities and interactions with space scientists.
This year’s theme is Space Weather Around the World. […]