Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences

Professor Amanda Lynch was recently named to the Advisory Council of the The Hague Institute for Global Justice: North World Approach. Building upon the success of The Washington Compact for Off World Governance, The Hague Institute for Global Justice is pioneering a new frontier in global governance with The North World Approach. This initiative is a necessary step towards ensuring sustainable, cooperative, and just governance in one of the world’s most strategically significant and rapidly changing regions—the Arctic.

Since US President Donald Trump stated his ambition to acquire Greenland by sale or by force, the upcoming election in Greenland and political discourse among the almost 60,000 Inuit inhabitants has acquired a new level of intensity. In a new article in the Journal of the North Atlantic & Arctic, authors Dr. Charles H. Norchi from the University of Maine School of Law and Dr. Amanda H. Lynch from Brown University cast light on the past, present, and future issues of international interest that Greenlanders face in the upcoming elections.

After President-elect Trump's comments about taking control of Greenland and the Panama Canal, Professor Amanda Lynch sat down for an interview with NPR's Leila Fadel to discuss the impact of climate change on these important trade routes.

Professor Amanda Lynch, who has studied climate change in the Arctic for nearly 30 years, spoke to the New York Times about president-elect Trump's calls to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal. She notes that the new trade routes created by ice melt could heighten the risk of environmental disasters. “An oil spill or some other toxic accident on that route is inevitable and could already have happened and we just don’t know it,” she said.

This week, the eleventh session of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Research Board considered critical developments in Artificial Intelligence for weather forecasting under the leadership of Board Chair Professor Amanda Lynch.

New research shows that, rather than an opening of the passage, the safe shipping season declined along several “choke points” through the Canadian Arctic, especially on the northern route. The finding matches expectations that ice will survive longest in the Canadian Arctic, noted DEEPS Professor Amanda Lynch, who was not involved with the study.