Arctic Initiative

Are you interested in the Arctic?
Do you have compelling thoughts and ideas to share?
If so, the Arctic Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School, invites you to take part in our new student-led podcast series.

A Climate Week Event co-organized by the Woodwell Climate Research Center and the Arctic Initiative

This session focuses on a warming-driven phenomenon—the rapid thawing of Arctic permafrost—that is contributing simultaneously to the most vexing of Arctic warming’s impacts both in the region and around the world. This session will target experts and non-experts who are interested in understanding the science and policy issues at the heart of this widely underestimated facet of the global climate-change challenge.

Register here.

Study Group Leader: Joel Clement, Senior Fellow, Arctic Initiative

The Arctic Knowledge Systems Study Group will explore ways to collaboratively employ indigenous and scientific knowledge to improve resilience in the Arctic. It will consist of 6 sessions in which we will discuss inclusion of indigenous perspectives and how to improve for the future. All sessions will be held on Tuesdays beginning September 15 from 12:00pm - 1:00pm (ET).

Space is limited! To apply to join the study group please email Brittany Janis your resume and 100 words on why you are interested in participating. 

Students in this year's Arctic Innovators Course will present their 15 ideas for the fast-changing Arctic region. 

Join us and vote for your favorite idea!

Register via the RSVP link to get your unique login credentials. 

Harvard Kennedy School's Arctic Initiative and the Wilson Center's Polar Institute recently released a report entitled "Policy and Action on Plastic Pollution in the Arctic Ocean." This report describes the nature of challenges posed by Arctic marine plastic pollution and provides targeted recommendations to policymakers and researchers; it is based on a workshop the two organizations co-hosted with the Icelandic Chairmanship of the Arctic Council.

Join the authors from both the Wilson Center and Arctic Initiative for a Ground Truth Briefing Teleconference, to learn more about the report and recommendations to policymakers for combating plastic pollution in the Arctic Ocean. 

To join the call use the below virtual teleconference dial-in:
Toll Number: 1-312-470-7179
Toll-Free Number: 800-369-2054
Passcode: 6238346

Fran Ulmer, HKS Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow, will be presenting on “Geopolitical Implications of the Rapidly Changing Arctic.”

Please note that this week's seminar will take place in the David Ellwood Democracy Lab, not Bell Hall.

As always, this event is free and open to the public; no RSVPs required. Buffet-style lunch will be served. To view the full semester schedule for the Energy Policy Seminar Series, click here.

Elizabeth Arnold, Chair and Professor of Journalism, University of Alaska, and former NPR national correspondent, will address new ways to improve climate change coverage. The national media continue to sound the alarm about climate change, but the gloom and doom narrative may fail to engage the public in a meaningful way.  A former fellow at the Shorenstein Center, Arnold documented a pattern of reporting that conveys a catastrophic vision with little in the way of how individuals, communities and governments are responding. After a decade of reporting from some of the most remote areas of the Arctic, Arnold advocates a solutions-focused approach to more effectively communicating climate change around the world.

The seminar will be moderated by Cristine Russell, ENRP Senior Fellow & HKS Adjunct Lecturer. It is sponsored by the Belfer Center's Environment & Natural Resources Program (ENRP), Arctic Initiative & SEE PIC: the HKS student interest group for Sustainability, Energy & Environment.

Please submit RSVPs via the link below.

Refreshments will be served.

Join the Environment and Natural Resources Program (ENRP) for a conversation with David Festa, Senior Vice President of Ecosystems at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), about what it takes to build climate resilience. David will look at the three major challenges to most climate adaptation projects: financing, building equity, and aligning diverse stakeholders and conflicting policy structures. He’ll share lessons learned from his years of work at EDF on water rights and coastal erosion in dialogue with Professor Henry Lee, ENRP Director.

Lunch will be served.

Please RSVP to isabelfeinstein@hks.harvard.edu.

Moderator: Joel Clement, Senior Fellow, Arctic Initiative

Speakers: Gunn-Britt Retter, Head, Arctic and Environmental Unit, Saami Council

Deenaalee Hodgdon, Student, Brown University; Indigenous Activist

Raina Thiele, Founder and President; Thiele Strategies

Join the Arctic Initiative for an engaging and illuminating conversation with three indigenous leaders: Gunn-Britt Retter, Head of Arctic and Environmental Unit of the Saami Council; Deenaalee Hodgdon, Brown University student and indigenous activist, who is a Deg Hit'an Athabaskan and Supiaq woman from the villages of Anvik and South Naknek, Alaska; and Raina Thiele, Founder and President of Thiele Strategies who was born and raised in Alaska and is Dena'ina Athabascan and Yup'ikas.

Please RSVP to Brittany_Janis@hks.harvard.edu.

Each year the Belfer Center's Arctic Initiative sends a delegation of students to attend the world’s largest Arctic gathering, the Arctic Circle Assembly. This year, after a competitive application process, four students were selected to represent Harvard at the Arctic Innovation Lab. Come and hear their presentations before they leave for Iceland to pitch their ideas for a changing Arctic. 

Lunch will be provided.

Please RSVP to brittany_janis@hks.harvard.edu by October 2 to secure your seat.