Circumpolar Newsings
Speech: Arctic challenges and the future perspectives of Arctic cooperation 
(Carl Bildt, Minister for Foreign Affairs Sweden, speech at Carleton University 17 May 2012) -- I am deeply honored to speak here today at the Carleton University. Our two countries - Canada and Sweden - are connected in many ways. We share a similar culture and lifestyle. Our societies are based on the same set of fundamental values. And in both our countries we have a tradition of strong attachment to nature, despite an equally strong tradition of rough and forbidding weather conditions. More than anything, however, I believe we are linked together by geography: by the fact that both Canada and Sweden are countries that stretch into the vast, remote and cold part of the world called the Arctic. This simple fact has had a major impact on our history. It will - perhaps to an even greater extent - shape our future. And for many of us it will always be part of what it means to be Swedish and - I presume - Canadian. Take our national anthems as an example. While you are singing of "The True North strong and free", we sing "Thou ancient, thou free, thou mountainous North". Simply put, we are both Northerners.
Posted 18 May 2012; 2:30:53 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, International, May12, Norway
Ancient history of circumarctic peoples illuminated
(University of Pennsylvania press release, 18 May 2012) -- For many of these populations, this is the first time their genetics have been analyzed on a population scale. One study, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, focuses on the Haida and Tlingit communities of southeastern Alaska. The other study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, considers the genetic histories of three groups that live in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Establishing shared markers in the DNA of people living in the circumarctic region, the team of scientists uncovered evidence of interactions among the tribes during the last several thousand years. The researchers used these clues to determine how humans migrated to and settled in North America as long as 20,000 years ago, after crossing the land bridge from today's Russia, an area known as Beringia. Penn houses the Genographic Project's North American research center. "These studies inform our understanding of the initial peopling process in the Americas, what happened after people moved through and who remained behind in Beringia," said author Theodore Schurr, an associate professor in Penn's Department of Anthropology and the Genographic Project principal investigator for North America.
Posted 18 May 2012; 12:01:50 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, May12, Research
(YLE News via Eye on the Arctic, 16 May 2012) -- The midnight sun is bringing nightless night to the municipality of Utsjoki in Finland's Far North starting Wednesday. The sun will not set again in Utsjoki until mid-July. White nights only occur above the Arctic Circle and are caused by the tilt of the Earth's axis toward the sun.
Posted 18 May 2012; 11:47:59 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Environment, Finland, May12
email to: agra...@yukoncollege.yk.ca
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