The 6th Open Assembly the Northern Research Forum will be held in Hveragerði, Iceland, from the 4th to 6th of September 2011. The overall objective of the Assembly is to address the impact of dwindling ice – terrestrial as well as ocean bound – on the complex interface of nature and society in all climatic zones of the world, with an emphasis on the Arctic, the Antarctic and the Himalayans.
Due to the global warming, the ice is gradually becoming a concept of global politics affecting societal life in quite dramatic ways on a global scale. The Assembly discusses particularly the challenges and threats which might follow the decreasing of ice, as well as the economic, social and political consequences of the melting. The Assembly programme includes also excursion to two waterfalls and to the Solheimajökull glacier.
Dr. Lassi Heininen from the University of Lapland, Chair of the Steering Committee of the Northern Research Forum, notes that the theme might seem self-evident or abstract but points out that the theme is extremely important for example to the Himalayans where the natural ice is melting to freshwater.
”When the climate change proceeds the glaciers gets smaller and the sea ice gets thinner. This process makes the ice into an interesting question of global politics, too.”
The 6th Open Assembly the Northern Research Forum gathers experts, political decision-makers, civil servants, researchers and students together, from the Arctic and Himalayan countries.
“The experts of these tow interesting and strategically important regions meet now for the first time in an international expert meeting”, Dr. Lassi Heininen says.
For more information, please see or contact::
The Northern Research Forum
Dr. Lassi Heininen, University of Lapland, Faculty of Social Sciences, tel. +358 40 484 4215, lassi.heininen (at) ulapland.fi
ULapland/Communications & External Relations/SV