Dear APECS-community,

A very unique event is taking place in Berlin April 24-30, 2012: The Greenland Eyes International Film Festival. 

Greenland Eyes International Film Festival, taking place at renowned Arsenal Cinema April 24-30, 2012, offers a unique experience of one of the most fascinating places on earth. The festival is exceptional in its combination of multiple perspectives on today’s Greenland such as film, art, music, storytelling, politics and scholarship.

Greenland Eyes is proud to provide the Berlin audience with the first chance to get a comprehensive insight into films from and about Greenland. Starting with some examples from German-Greenlandic film history likeEskimo Baby (1917), starring Asta Nielsen, and SOS Iceberg (1932), starring Leni Riefenstahl, the festival focuses on the emerging Greenlandic film production and on international films showing today’s Greenland beyond widespread representations of a deserted ice-covered island, ‘eskimo exotism’ or sublime nature. Instead, the festival’s program will zoom in on urban Greenland; negotiations of the postcolonial situation; and reception of globalized pop culture in Greenland. Among others, the festival will screen (only for the second time in Germany) the first international Greenlandic feature film Nuummioq (2009), the international or German premieres of the first Greenlandic feature filmTikeq, Qiterleq, Mikileraq, Eqeqqoq, a low budget production from 2008; the most popular film in Greenland ever, Qaqqat Alanngui (2010); and the award winning short film ECHOES (2010) about the remains of the cold war in East Greenland.

The film program will be supplemented with the workshopGreenland Film in Context at Humboldt University’s Nordeuropa-Institut, focusing on theoretical and practical aspects of filmmaking in and about Greenland. We will be welcoming numerous guests, noteably from Greenland and Denmark, to share their expertise on traditional and recent representations of Greenland; current political and cultural debates; and the contemporary scene for visual arts in Greenland. Greenlandic singer-songwriter Nive Nielsen and actor and storyteller Makka Kleist will contribute additional features to an understanding of today’s Greenland. We are proud to announce our cooperation with .HBC, a beautiful music and culture venue at the center of Berlin, which will host the finissage party.

Welcome! Willkommen! Tikilluaritsi!

For more information, please click here. 

Researchers have updated HadCRUT - one of the main global temperate records, which dates back to 1850.

One of the main changes is the inclusion of more data from the Arctic region, which has experienced one of the greatest levels of warming.

The amendments do not change the long-term trend, but the data now lists 2010, rather than 1998, as the warmest year on record.

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Three penguin species that share the Western Antarctic Peninsula for breeding grounds have been affected in different ways by the higher temperatures brought on by global warming, according to Stony Brook University Ecology and Evolution Assistant Professor Heather Lynch and colleagues. The work by Lynch and her team is contained in three papers that have been published online in Polar Biology,Ecology and Marine Ecology Progress Series (MEPS).

Lynch and her colleagues used a combination of field work and, increasingly, satellite imagery to track colonies of three penguin species -- Adélie, chinstrap and gentoo. The Adélie and chinstrap migrate to the peninsula to breed, while the gentoo are year-round residents.

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The Hubert Wenger Award

In 1996 the Polar Libraries Colloquy (PLC) passed a motion at its 16th meeting in Anchorage, Alaska establishing the Hubert Wenger award to commemorate Hubert's outstanding contribution to polar libraries. The award is funded though the proceeds of the Circumpolar Auction held at each Colloquy. Donations to the award are welcome.

The purpose of the award is to provide financial assistance to one or more delegates who might otherwise be unable to attend a PLC biennial meeting. The award covers the full cost of registration for the meeting. Funds are not available to cover any delegate's travel or accommodation costs. Delegates who have received two Wenger awards in the past are not eligible to apply for further funding.

To apply for an award, contact the PLC Secretary:

Laura Kissel
Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program
134 University Archives
2700 Kenny Road
Columbus, Ohio 43210
USA
kissel.4@osu.edu

Applicants should provide the Secretary with:

• their curriculum vitae
• the title and abstract of their proposed presentation. The presentation should be a full paper rather than a poster.
• a cover letter or email stating why their organization is interested in participating in the PLC meeting.

If an applicant is from an organization that has recently attended a PLC meeting, it is expected that the applicant or his/her organization will have paid the latest PLC membership dues.

Deadline for application is March 31 of the year of the Colloquy meeting. The next deadline is March 31, 2012.

Mining exploration and development happening widely across Canada's northern territories.

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The Greenland ice sheet is likely to be more vulnerable to global warming than previously thought. The temperature threshold for melting the ice sheet completely is in the range of 0.8 to 3.2 degrees Celsius of global warming, with a best estimate of 1.6 degrees above pre-industrial levels, shows a new study by scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Today, already 0.8 degrees of global warming has been observed. Substantial melting of land ice could contribute to long-term sea-level rise of several meters and therefore it potentially affects the lives of many millions of people.

The time it takes before most of the ice in Greenland is lost strongly depends on the level of warming. "The more we exceed the threshold, the faster it melts," says Alexander Robinson, lead-author of the study now published in Nature Climate Change. In a business-as-usual scenario of greenhouse-gas emissions, in the long run humanity might be aiming at 8 degrees Celsius of global warming. This would result in one fifth of the ice sheet melting within 500 years and a complete loss in 2000 years, according to the study. "This is not what one would call a rapid collapse," says Robinson. "However, compared to what has happened in our planet's history, it is fast. And we might already be approaching the critical threshold."

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PEARL forced to stop year-round monitoring of greenhouse gases, pollution

Canadians have donated about $10,000 to help keep a unique High Arctic research station from closing after its federal funding stops, says the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences.

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The authorities are investing up to €20 million on the reconstruction of the local passenger port, which will become part of a major facelift of the Murmansk waterfront.
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With air temperatures from 4 to 8 degrees above average, the ice extent in the Barents Sea in February reached the lowest level recorded since satellite surveillance started.
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Lukoil invests 600 million RUB (€15,5 million) in the construction of new gasoline stations in Arkhangelsk Oblast.
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Norway’s largest live firing exercise takes place today and tomorrow during the Cold Response exercise in Northern Norway.
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Full reconstruction of the runway and terminal building with regional and European funding.
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Russia’s first offshore platform for permanent oil-drilling in the Arctic is soon ready to start production. Drilling is planned to start in March.
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First Chinese attempt to traverse the Northern Sea Route will take place this summer. It will be the first time ever a Chinese icebreaker sails into the Barents Sea.
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Russian, Finnish and Norwegian partners join forces to create a science exhibition centre onboard the world’s first nuclear powered icebreaker moored in Murmansk.
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The number of new HIV infections went down in Murmansk last year. In Russia in general, the number went slightly up.
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Shell has been training a dachshund and two border collies to detect oil spills beneath snow and ice.

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