Permafrost Thawing
What is Permafrost?
Permafrost can be a complex topic to understand, but it holds a great amount of importance. The definition of permafrost as such is ground that has been frozen for at least two years. While 2 years may be the minimum requirement, much of the permafrost found in the world has been frozen for tens of thousands of years. 25% of the land cover in the Northern Hemisphere comprises permafrost, and it is thus a grave concern of great magnitude that with the warming climate, much of it could melt by 2050.
Impacts of Permafrost Thawing
Permafrost is crucial to humans and the rest of the world for several reasons. In many regions, this layer runs down many meters deep into the Earth’s crust and thus holds oceanic reservoirs of metals, microbes and energy resources. Permafrost holds twice the amount of carbon as the atmosphere. This means that as it thaws, this carbon is converted to CO2 and methane by bacteria that come active after years of dormancy and feed on the organic soil material. These newly converted gases are released into the atmosphere, further accelerating global warming and, as you may have guessed, causing more permafrost to melt, and releasing more gases. This creates a calamitous feedback loop with dangerous implications for all living organisms.
Furthermore, microorganisms that could potentially bring about new diseases that humans have lost the immune capacity to combat could also be freed up. Arctic permafrost contains the organic remains of several organisms and these could end up infecting the local fauna, which may act as vectors and pass it to humans. Thus, pandemics like COVID-19 could have an increased chance of occurring.
Aside from carbon, permafrost is also known to hold more than 15 million gallons of mercury. The melt could bring about the seepage of this mercury into water reservoirs, spelling disaster for irrigation, household use and ultimately, public health. While these may all sound like threats to come in the distant future, there are more current implications that the thawing permafrost has already brought about. In Bethel, Alaska, major roads have begun to warp and lose their shape and resilience due to the caving of the foundational ground under them. What is this ground made of? Permafrost, of course. What affects the roads does not stop there — houses and other structures have sagged and lost support, so much so that civil engineers and builders have had to improvise their designs and construction techniques.
In the 1970s, scientists drilling the ground would encounter the permafrost layer within 4–6 feet of drilling. Now that distance has effectively doubled. It is estimated that with every degree rise in global temperatures, 1.5 million sq. miles of permafrost will be lost forever. There is already a net positive carbon output from this layer. While silver linings exist for farming practices and such, the bottom line is that the disappearance of permafrost will cast a dark shadow on the earth and its inhabitants.
Read more about permafrost thawing here.
