Is the Arctic Human Environment Moving to a New State?

A continuation grant has been awarded to Dr. John Kruse, Professor Emeritus, ISER (along with Dr. Lawrence Hamilton of the University of New Hampshire) as part of International Polar Year (IPY) research activities. The award from the National Science Foundation is for $468,404 and is the third year of a 4-year grant. This research builds directly upon the priorities and strategies contained in the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) plans for implementation during the IPY. Their long-range goal is to understand how socio-economic systems respond to rapid environmental change, and how local response interacts with broad forces of development and government policies to affect the well-being of Arctic residents. They have formed an advisory group made up of representatives of many indigenous organizations and plan to involve them in the assessment of the adequacy of existing information and in the identification of the most useful data and predictions. For more information e-mail afjak@uaa.alaska.edu.