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Vladimir Romanovsky is a Professor of Geophysics at the Permafrost Laboratory at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Prof. Romanovsky gives a brief overview of how permafrost is warming and the consequences on infrastructure and the carbon cycle as well as the importance of the IPY ‘Thermal State of Permafrost’ research project in providing new data sets.

Paula Kankaanpää is the Director of the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland. Prof. Kankaanpää offers a brief description of the new EU Arctic Information Centre initiative she is coordinating.

Jean-Claude Gascard is an Emeritus Research Director at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. He was the coordinator of the DAMOCLES project under FP6 and is now coordinator of its follow-up project, ACCESS under FP7. Prof. Gascard gives an overview of the ACCESS project in this interview.

Arctic Futures Symposium, John Farrell, Executive Director of the US Arctic Research Commission, talks about the role of the agency he works for and the importance of doing Arctic research.

Tom Barry is the Executive Secretary of the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) working group of the Arctic Council. Mr. Barry talks a bout the work CAFF does, the Artic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA), the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programme (CBMP), how CAFF monitors various species, and the benefits CAFF delivers to policymakers and industries such as fisheries.

Lawson Brigham is a Distinguished Professor of Geography and Arctic Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and chaired the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment (AMSA) the Arctic Council released in 2009. Prof. Brigham was able to describe the current situation of maritime transport in the Arctic, what’s being done to improve infrastructure, and reasons for increased interest in shipping in the region.

Anders Leverman, Professor of Dynamics of the Climate System at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, discusses his work looking at the dynamics of the global climate system, tipping points, and the consequences of a warming Arctic on the global climate system.

William Eichbaum, Vice President of Marine and Arctic Policy at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), discusses why the Arctic is an important region and how changes in the Arctic can affect other parts of the planet. He also states that the Arctic is receiving and advocates limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

Gillian Triggs, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney, enumerates reasons why it would be difficult to have an “Arctic Treaty System” similar to the current Antarctic Treaty System and highlights differences between the Arctic and the Antarctic from a legal perspective.