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The connection between the native Americans and North American Inuit to the Inuit living in Greenland has long puzzled the minds of researchers. Also, the migration patterns of people over the northern hemisphere have for a long time interested people. Now it has been found out by the research team of Professor Eske Willerslev and his PhD student Morten Rasmussen, from Centre of Excellence in GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, that people preceding the Inuit living in Greenland today crossed into the New World from north-eastern Siberia between 4,400 and 6,400 years ago in a migration wave that was independent of those of Native Americans and Inuit ancestors. The discovery was made by analysing a tuft of hair that belonged to a man from the Saqqaq culture from north-western Greenland 4,000 years ago. This discovery is an achievement both in gene technology as wel as in archaelogy and can be of significant help to scientists as they seek to determine what happened to people from extinct cultures.

For more information, please visit the news section of the University of Copenhagen

It can be agreed by most people that the Arctic as one of the last wildernesses in the world is invaluable. For the earth's bio- and cultural diversity the Arctic as it appears today, covered with ice and snow, is irreplaceable and most environmental organizations agree that reducing climate change is the only way to preserve this fragile nature. The Pew Environmental Group has, however, estimated the financial value of the Arctic sea ice to the world by estimating the value of the area in terms of the climate services it provides. According to the organizations preliminary calculations the loss of Arctic snow, ice and permafrost is estimated to cost the world in 2010 US$ 61 billion to $371 billion in lost climate cooling services. By 2050, the cumulative global cost is projected to range from US$2.4 trillion to $24.1 trillion; and by 2100, the cumulative cost could total between US$4.8 trillion and $91.3 trillion.

To learn more about the Pew Environmental Group and their melting Arctic sea ice project, please visit the Pew Charitable Trusts homepage

This book brings together the knowledge, concerns and visions of leading Arctic experts in the natural and social sciences, and of prominent indigenous leaders from across the circumpolar North.

For more information: http://publishing.unesco.org/details.aspx?&Code_Livre=4722&change=E

Recently, a new international study on The Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) was released revealing an impressive migratory pattern of the small seabird. An international research group with researchers from Greenland, Denmark, the US, UK and Iceland successfully mapped the impressive migratory pattern of 71,000 km from Greenland to the Weddell sea on the shores of Antarctica and back. What is interesting is that the Arctic tern flyes two different patters depending whether it is going north or south and spends almost a month on an island in the North-Atlantic before heading south. In addition, the birds separate on the coast of northwest Africa on their way south, half of the birds continuing down the coast of Africa the other half crossing through the Atlantic Ocean flying down south along the east coast of South America.

The migration of the Arctic tern is the longest animal migration known today, which is very impressive considering that the bird is just over 100 grams.

For more information, please visit the Arctic tern Migration Project homepage

(image: Carsten Egevang)