Oran Reed Young, Professor Emeritus at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Director of the Arctic Research Institute (US)

Oran Young: Nonstandard means of transportation are important for people’s prosperity in the Arctic

Experts from Russia, Iceland, Norway, the US, Canada, Mongolia, China, Japan, South Korea and Sweden are going to discuss transportation problems in the North and the Arctic at the 2nd International Northern Sustainable Development Forum that will be held online on September 27–30, 2020 in Yakutia.

The forum will open with a plenary session and continue with thematic sections, roundtable discussions, meetings of the forum’s working groups and international organizations, project presentations, lectures, foresight sessions and workshops. Experts will discuss ways to improve the transportation infrastructure in the North, in particular sea and river ports, airports, roads, railways and trunk pipelines. They will focus on the development of aviation in the Arctic, including small planes, and all-terrain vehicles.

A famous scientist Oran Reed Young, Professor Emeritus at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Director of the Arctic Research Institute (US), has already confirmed his participation in the plenary session.

“I would like to focus my remarks on nonstandard means of transportation, including virtual transportation, which are very important for the prosperity of human communities in the Arctic. This includes such issues as ensuring broadband internet access, developing telemedicine, addressing issues of food safety, promoting the local transportation infrastructure in conditions of melting permafrost, providing aid during natural disasters such as floods and fires, and organizing field research,” Oran Young commented.

It is noteworthy that this will be the first online event of such a scale in Yakutia. The full forum program and registration details are available on the official website. The forum events will also be streamed live.

The forum is organized by the government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Northern Forum international organization of northern regions and Northeastern Federal University.