The whiskey that Shackleton took on his expedition was Mackinlay's Rare Old Scotch, a whiskey that hasn't been made for some time and the recipe was lost. Distiller Whyte and Mackay, who has sponsored the Antarctic conservation expedition, hopes to replicate it.

Originally, the conservators just wanted to get the two crates of whiskey that were buried for a 100 years at Cape Royds on Ross Island, but much to their joy, they have also discovered another brew; brandy.

Al Fastier of the NZ Antarctic Heritage Trust said "We were lying on our stomachs on the permafrost completely under the hut removing the ice enclosing the boxes, to say it was a pleasant job would be untrue. We got the two boxes out and were very excited and pleased with ourselves and then we looked through the layer of ice behind the second box and could see through the opaque ice the words whisky again. There's still liquid sloshing around indicates that there's alcohol in the bottles and we can see the neck of one bottle and it's still got a lead seal around the cork."

TVNZ, 6th February 2010

USA Today, 5th February 2010

Independent (Ireland), 6th February 2010

AFP/Google, 5th February 2010

Mirror - UK, 6th February 2010

AOL News, 6th February 2010

Global Post, 7th February 2010

TecEyeNet, 7th February 2010

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's proposal brought protests from government and industry.  Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan said "You're talking about an area that's critical to the economic lifeblood of the entire state, and you have a designation that could severely hamper any future development in this area."

While environmentalists and industry are battling over the outcome, there's also disagreement over what happened to the Belugas in the first place. In the early 1980s, scientists believed there were about 1,300 belugas in Cook Inlet, but a decade later, that number dwindled and the environmentalists, government and industry point the finger at the village of Tyonek for the cause as Tyonek resumed its subsistence hunting of belugas in the early ‘90s.

According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, during that time the population dropped by 50 percent. 

Tyonek, outraged over the accusations, released a statement in which Tyonek Chief Executive Officer Tom Harris writes "Tyonek harvested no more than three whales in any given year. While it may have been true that by some reports 150 whales were harvested in Upper Cook Inlet during a single year, it is also true that not more than three of those whales made it to Tyonek." Tyonek blames overharvesting of salmon and over-hunting by people other than the residents of Tyonek. Tyonek voluntarily gave up the hunts in 1999, but more than a decade later, the population is still slim.

Many worry that if quick action isn't taken, these ghosts of the Arctic waters will become real ghosts. 

Read more:

KTUU, 2 February 2010

KTUU, 3 February 2010

KTUU, 28 January 2010

For Beluga Population figures, see NOAA

Readers can pore over the pages of faded pencil handwriting that make up one of the most famous diaries in the world; that of Captain Robert Scott - his journal of the final months, days and hours of his doomed 1911-1912 expedition to the South Pole.The reader will also be able to look at extensive extracts from the two earlier volumes.

They can take a look at his famous last words, which he wrote shortly before he and his team members died in March 1912; "It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more – R. Scott – For God's sake look after our people".

Scott knew that they would not make the journey back as he wrote "these rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale. Our wreck is certainly due to this."  He also writes about the heroism of his team, including the "very gallant gentleman" Captain Lawrence Oates, who walked out of the tent into the storm, saying: "I am just going outside and may be some time."

The curator of the history of science at the library, Katrina Dean, said: "Scott's Antarctic diaries have played an important role in shaping images of polar exploration, so it's great that people all over the world can explore the original diaries online."

Read more:

Guardian.co.uk, 3 February 2010

She found seven in ten children are either obliged to skip meals or go a whole day without because the family couldn't afford to buy food. It is a staggering number and Egeland didn't doubt the emerging portrait of hidden hunger and malnutrition. But one thing she also learned in the many years she has worked been in the Arctic: "Inuit don't complain."  Egeland is the lead author of a major study by McGill researchers and the territorial government published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

She said "I knew we would identify a problem. I didn't understand that there would be children who would not eat for a day because there was no money for food." adding that interviewers told her that parents and caregivers were often "teary-eyed." They weren't looking for sympathy, just reporting the collective reality of life in the Arctic.

Food insecurity - defined as a shortage of food that is safe, nutritious and meets the requirements for a healthy and active life - is only part of the story for Inuit families, who are often living on income support in overcrowded public housing that is sorely in need of major repair Egeland said. "We need to find ways to enhance food security for families in the Arctic. Food insecurity is all too prevalent in homes with Inuit preschoolers in Canadian Arctic communities."

The study is the first publication of the Inuit Health Study, a comprehensive investigation conducted with major funding from the International Polar Year project.

Read more:

Ottawa Citizen, 1. February 2010

The vessel, which is both used as an icebreaker and research ship left Christchurch, New Zealand on Jan. 12th and , after completing its survey of the Cape Burks area, began sailing toward Terra Nova Bay.

Scientists and engineers from the ship checked the possibilities for a new Korean base. Things they were looking at were building conditions, fresh water sources, geographical features, weather conditions and thickness of ice around Cape Burks. However, on-site experts said that the area they had previously thought could accommodate a new base was covered by large rocks and close to a penguin rookery. They said that a nearby location had been investigated as a possible alternative.

According to an official at the Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs, Korea needed their own icebreaker and research ship as "Of the 20 countries that have bases in the Antarctic, we were the only country that didn't have its own icebreaker, and this limited the scope of our research and capabilities. We are hoping Araon will have a major role in helping the country secure natural resources and develop new sailing routes, and also contribute in the efforts to build more bases in the polar regions."

Read more:

The Korea Herald, 2nd February 2010

Hanapolis, 27th January 2010

Taken as sent to us:

Today we are releasing the results of a new national survey on public responses to climate change. This report focuses on public beliefs and attitudes and finds that public concern about global warming has dropped sharply since the fall of 2008:

The percentage of Americans who think global warming is happening has declined 14 points, to 57 percent.

• The percentage of Americans who think global warming is caused mostly by human activities has dropped 10 points, to 47 percent.
• Only 50 percent of Americans now say they are “somewhat” or “very worried” about global warming, a 13-point decrease.

In line with these shifting beliefs, there has been an increase in the number of Americans who think global warming will never harm people or other species in the United States or elsewhere.

The survey also found lower public trust in a variety of institutions and leaders, including scientists. For example, Americans’ trust in the mainstream news media as a reliable source of information about global warming declined by 11 percentage points, television weather reporters by 10 points and scientists by 8 points. They also distrust leaders on both sides of the political fence. Sixty-five percent distrust Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sarah Palin as sources of information, while 53 percent distrust former Democratic Vice President Al Gore and 49 percent distrust President Barack Obama.

Finally, Americans who believe that most scientists think global warming is happening decreased 13 points, to 34 percent, while 40 percent of the public now believes there is a lot of disagreement among scientists over whether global warming is happening or not.

Despite growing scientific evidence that global warming will have serious impacts worldwide, public opinion is moving in the opposite direction. Over the past year the United States has experienced rising unemployment, public frustration with Washington and a divisive health care debate, largely pushing climate change out of the news. Meanwhile, a set of emails stolen from climate scientists and used by critics to allege scientific misconduct may have contributed to an erosion of public trust in climate science.

It is also clear that public understanding of climate change fundamentals - that it is happening, is human caused, and will have serious consequences for human societies and natural ecosystems here in the United States and around the world - is heading in the wrong direction. These findings underscore the critical need for more and improved climate change education and communication.

I'll be back in touch soon. Next week we will release a report on Americans' policy preferences, followed by a report on their climate and energy behaviors, followed by an update on Global Warming's Six Americas.  As always, thanks for your support and interest in our work. 

A copy of the report

Lt.-Cmdr. Bruce Grychkowski, project manager of Northern Watch, said "We're looking at surface shipping and any underwater vehicles that may be moving through the area," Northern Watch plans to plant a series of surveillance devices deep underwater at a choke point along the passage on the Barrow Strait.

The Northern Watch program calls for the installation of a set of six different monitors at Gascoyne Inlet on Devon Island with one sensor array deep underwater 11 kilometres out to sea. Two others will track automatic identification broadcasts now mandatory on both large ships and planes. Finally, an optical system will use laser and infrared imagers to peer across the icy waters to the far shore. A weather station will complete the project.

Nobody will man these devices, and data will be beamed up to an overhead satellite. In October, scientists in Halifax will begin a 12-month test to see how well the devices work in the harsh Arctic environment.

Grychkowski said that the sensors should give Canada a much better idea of who's using the Arctic than do current satellite scans. Northern Watch "is looking at the same area all the time," he says. "A satellite will visit the area so many times a day."

According to Grychkowski, if all goes well, a comprehensive surveillance system could be up and running by 2012.

Rob Huebert of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, feels it is about time "I'm increasingly becoming convinced that we're seeing a substantial arms buildup in the Arctic," he says. "The Arctic in general is becoming a busier place. It just is required that we know who's up there."

"There is activity up there," says Grychkowski. "We are demonstrating we have the capability to do unmanned surveillance in an area that has the government of Canada's interest."

Read more:

The Canadian Press/Google, 31 January 2010

Now it seems that the ship suffered more damage than originally thought and is being pulled from service by Travel Dynamics International for the rest of the winter season for repairs.

The company said in a statement: "Initial photographs taken by divers in Ushuaia, Argentina in early January suggested that the damage to Clelia II's starboard propeller ... might be reparable. However, when the ship was pulled out of the water in dry-dock in Punta Arenas, Chile, this initial assessment was discovered to be overly optimistic."

Read more:

Cruise Critic, 28th January 2010

USA Today, 28th January 2010

David Mech, a senior research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, began studying Arctic wolves 24 years ago.  Previously, he had studied wolves in the United States for years which was problematic as they are endangered and afraid of humans. Mech solved the problem by capturing wolves, putting radio collars on them, then tracking their movements by airplane.

The Arctic wolf is a different matter as these animals, a subspecies of the gray wolf and not endangered, had never been hunted or trapped by humans because they live so far north. As they never really had contact with humans, Arctic wolves are unafraid of people. 

The ancient Inuit stone marker Inukshuk (in-OOK-shook) is a carefully balanced pile of unworked rocks and slabs. They were built by the Inuit through time to guide travellers, assist with hunts, warn of danger or indicate caches of food.

When the design for the Olympic emblem was to be chosen in 2005, the Vancouver organisers choose the Inukshuk, and gave it a more human look.  The emblem is to represent hope, friendship, hospitality and teamwork and it got the name Ilanaaq (ih-LAH-nawk), meaning friend. It was cast in Canada's red and two shades of blue, along with green, yellow and gold, to evoke the host country's sweeping forests, mountains, islands and sunsets.

First Nations people in Arctic regions from Alaska to Greenland also used such markers and they can be found around the world, including one on the summit of Pike's Peak in Colorado and elsewhere in the western United States, where they were built by Navajo and other Native Americans.

Peter Irniq, an Inukshuks builder, former commissioner of the northern Nunavut Territory and an Inuit cultural teacher who lives in Ottawa, said that the markers played a key role for the nomadic people in the frozen, unforgiving climate of northern Canada and were built to withstand winds of more than 150 kilometres an hour. He added "They're symbols of survival. Whenever I'm around Inukshuks in the Arctic I am never scared because I know that Inuit have lived there before me for many, many thousands of years and have survived from hunting and fishing."

Norman Hallendy, who has written two books on the subject, said the markers served a multitude of roles. "It was really part of their life support system. Some were reminders of a dangerous place, some pointed to the safest or easiest ways to get home."

Read more:

The Canadian Press, 27th January 2010