Organizers: Global Health Economics and Sustainability & UArctic
Webinar Synopsis
Join us for a special webinar celebrating the first World Day for Glaciers on March 21, 2025, from 13:00-14:00 CET (GMT+2). This event will be moderated by the Next-Generation Science Diplomat Committee (NGSDC) with the University of the Arctic (UArctic) and hosted by the Global Health Economics & Sustainability (GHES) journal. This inclusive dialogue will complement events convened by UNESCO in Paris and New York, urging global action to protect glaciers and their crucial role in sustaining life on Earth for future generations.
Why Attend?
Global Significance: Understand the importance of glaciers in Earth's climate system and their role in sustaining life.
Water in All Forms: Recognize how water in its three phases—liquid (marine and terrestrial), gas (atmosphere and clouds), and solid (ice)—is essential for all life on our planet.
Third Pole Relevance: Learn about the Third Pole, often referred to as the "water tower of Asia," and its critical role in global water cycles.
The purpose of this webinar on the first World Day for Glaciers is to awaken dialogues across the International Year of Glacier Preservation in 2025 in context of the Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences (2025-2034). Moreover, this webinar is an opportunity to set in motion concrete planning with the 5th International Polar Year (IPY-5) in 2032-2033, which is the next step in the oldest continuous climate research program created by humanity, which began with IPY-1 in 1882-1883, following the ‘Little Ice Age’ that extended for more than three centuries in Europe. The IPY experiment has core relevance to climate research on Earth, independent of short-sighted and self-interested national interests.
Join Us:
With hope and inspiration, stimulated by the first World Day for Glaciers, this webinar is an opportunity to operate before-through-after the inflection point of current geopolitics. Be part of the conversation and contribute to shaping a sustainable future for our planet!
Schedule:
GHES & UArctic Webinar—21 March 2025
13:00-13:03 Webinar Introduction— Prof. Paul Arthur Berkman
13:03-13:10 World Day for Glaciers Details from UNESCO Headquarters— Dr. Alexandra Middleton
13:10-13:15 International Year for Glacier Preservation Events from UN Headquarters—Dr. Susana Hancock
13:15-13:25 Third Pole Relevance in Global Water Cycles— Dr. Kamrul Hossain (Invited Speaker)
13:25-13:45 Discussing Water Justice and Sharing 5th International Polar Year (IPY-5) details from the Arctic Science Summit Week—Dr. Zia Madani and Mr. Nicholas Parlato
13:46-13:56 Open Discussion—Moderated by Dr. Alexandra Middleton
13:56-14:00 Closing remarks— Prof. Paul Arthur Berkman
Join the webinar (scan the QR code or click the link)：
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/91862729123?pwd=DGbIkV3kU3TwfPbOCobqrb5EyUERU2.1
Meeting ID: 918 6272 9123
Passcode: 148138
https://live.bilibili.com/h5/21963219
Chair:
Prof. Paul Arthur Berkman
Professor Paul Arthur Berkman is a Fellow of the International Science Council and Founder of the Science Diplomacy Center, Inc. in the United States. He is a Faculty Associate with the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School; Consultant on Science Diplomacy with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR); and a Visting Distinguished Professor with the International Institute of Science Diplomacy and Sustainability (IISDS) at UCSI University in Malaysia. Paul wintered in Antarctica on a SCUBA research expedition with Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1981 and became a Visiting Professor at the University of California Los Angeles the following year at the age of 23, beginning his lifelong journey as a science diplomat. Paul is the senior editor of the Springer book series on Informed Decisionmaking for Sustainability.
Speakers:
Dr. Alexandra Middleton
Alexandra Middleton is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Oulu Business School, University of Oulu, Finland. With a PhD in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Oulu. Her work focuses on the intersection of environmental policies, climate change, and governance in the Arctic region. Over the years, she has extensively published in areas such as Arctic sustainability, highlighting legal, institutional, and policy perspectives. Alexandra is also a Fulbright Fellow, studying just transitions and actively engaging in science diplomacy. Her research is instrumental in shaping policies and fostering a deeper understanding of the Arctic region's unique challenges and opportunities. As a Citizen Science Ambassador for Finland, Alexandra Middleton actively promotes public engagement in scientific research, fostering collaboration between scientists and the community to address environmental challenges in the Arctic region.
Dr. Susana Hancock
Susana Hancock is a champion for social and environmental change with an international mindset and extensive engagement with non-partisan organizations, including project development and governance. Curious and adept multidisciplinary leader in international social diplomacy and environmental justice working in challenging and diverse political and economic climates around the world. Susana is the 2022-2023 President of the Association for Polar Early Career Scientists, an Arctic lead establishing the current UN Decade of Ocean Science, is an expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Science Manager for Arctic Basecamp Foundation, and a team scientist with The Greenland Project, Jubilee Expedition and the North Atlantic-Arctic Ocean Science Strategic Framework. Susana completed her undergraduate education at Connecticut College and holds three graduate degrees from the University of Oxford in England.
Dr. Kamrul Hossain
Kamrul Hossain, an international law expert by training, is a Research Professor and the Director of the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law (NIEM) at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland. He is the Chair of the University of the Arctic’s Legal Research and Education and leads the Thematic Network on Arctic Law. Hossain holds the Adjunct Professorship of International Law at the University of Lapland. His research broadly covers international environmental law, ocean governance, and human rights laws, particularly as they apply to the Arctic. He specifically focuses on climate change, climate justice, and human rights applicable to Arctic Indigenous peoples. Over the years, he has extensively published in almost all areas of Arctic governance, including climate change, environmental governance, biodiversity, geopolitics, the law of the sea, human rights and human security, etc., highlighting legal, institutional, and policy perspectives. In his research, he increasingly bridges a link between the Arctic and other Polar regions, particularly the Third Pole Himalayan region, as part of the global environmental systems concerning the impacts of climate change. He collaborates nationally and globally with scholars and institutions on issues related to the circumpolar Arctic and other polar regions. He has been the Principal Investigator of several international and national competitive research grants from renowned funding instruments.
Mr. Nicholas J. Parlato
Nicholas J. Parlato is a settler scholar and political ecologist from Baltimore, MD. Nicholas has lived, worked, and traveled across the circumpolar North as an educator and student, and is currently completing his PhD at the International Arctic Research Center at University of Alaska Fairbanks’s Troth Yeddha’ campus. His research interests concern how Western governance systems, politics, and institutions interact with forms of Indigenous jurisprudence to shape complex relationships among the Arctic’s diverse socionatural assemblages. Nicholas has served as the co-lead for the APECS Science and Diplomacy Project Group, as the early-career co-chair of the 2024 Arctic Observing Summit Utility, Benefit, & Adaptation Working Group, and as a fellow in the Arctic Institute's Arctic Winter College, the East-West Center's North Pacific Arctic Conference, and the NSF-USC Workshop "Arctic Clash". He is also among the four organizing members of the Next-Generation Science Diplomats Committee with the UArctic Thematic Network on Science Diplomacy.
Dr. Zia Madani
Zia Madani (PhD) is an early-career researcher in Public International Law with a focus on Law of the Sea. Dr. Madani is an Assistant Professor of International Law at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, and previously was a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellow at Kobe University. He has been a researcher, an assistant professor as well as the head of the Department of Law of the Sea and Ocean Policy in the Iranian National Institute of Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences (INIOAS) since 2011. He was also the 2018 Visiting Scholar to the University of Tasmania. Dr. Madani has worked at the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) as an Expert on Marine Scientific Research for Special Arbitration under Annex VIII of UNCLOS, as well as a member to the UNESCO-IOC Intersessional Working Group on issues related to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). He has been following legal and policy developments in Polar Law since 2013 and has been in charge for the legal examination of Iran’s recent interest in Antarctic presence as well as the legal prospects of its Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) accession.
GHES Editorial Office
Email: ghes.office@accscience.sg