The Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, also called the High Seas Treaty, is a formal agreement that must be followed to protect and use marine life in areas not controlled by any country. It is part of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The agreement was completed during a meeting of government representatives at the United Nations on March 4, 2023, and officially accepted on June 19, 2023.
The Ross Sea is a deep bay in the Southern Ocean, located in Antarctica between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land. It is part of the Ross Embayment and is the southernmost sea on Earth. The sea is named after James Clark Ross, a British explorer who visited the area in 1841.
The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, also called the Madrid Protocol, is an additional agreement to the Antarctic Treaty. It was signed in Madrid on October 4, 1991, and became effective on January 14, 1998. The Madrid Protocol sets aside Antarctica as a “natural reserve, devoted to peace and science” (Article 2).
The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme was created in 1991 as a group within the Arctic Council. Its main job is to help the governments of eight Arctic member countries—Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States—with environmental issues like pollution. AMAP works together with scientists, Arctic Indigenous peoples, and political leaders from these eight countries.
The Arctic Council is a group of top leaders from different governments who work together to solve problems in the Arctic region. Right now, eight countries have control over the land inside the Arctic Circle, and these countries are part of the council: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. Other countries or groups can join as observers, and groups that represent Arctic indigenous people can join as permanent participants.
The Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of Indigenous peoples who share similar cultures and histories. They traditionally live in the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon (historically), Alaska, and the Chukotsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The Inuit languages belong to the Eskaleut language family, also called Inuit-Yupik-Unangan or Eskimo–Aleut.
The Juneau Icefield is an ice-covered area located just north of Juneau, Alaska. It stretches north into British Columbia and covers an area of 3,900 square kilometers (1,500 square miles). The icefield spans 140 kilometers (87 miles) from north to south and 75 kilometers (47 miles) from east to west within the Coast Range.
Anchorage, Alaska (Dena’ina: Dgheyay Kaq’; Dgheyaytnu) has a subarctic climate with the code Dsc according to the Köppen climate classification because its summers are short and cool. The weather in Anchorage is hard to predict from day to day. Some winters have several feet of snow and very cold temperatures, while summers are usually mild but cooler than summers in the contiguous United States and interior Alaska.
Phoenix has a hot desert climate (Köppen: BWh), which is common in the Sonoran Desert. It is the largest city in the Americas with this type of climate. Phoenix experiences very hot summers and short, mild winters.
The Bullitt Center is a commercial office building located at the intersection of the Central District neighborhood and Capitol Hill in Seattle, Washington. It officially opened on Earth Day, April 22, 2013. The building was designed to be the greenest commercial building in the world and received a special award called “Living Building” from the International Living Future Institute in April 2015.