On the Pacific islands, entire cities are retreating inland under the pressure of water. Melting permafrost is changing landscapes, destroying animal habitats, releasing carbon and releasing dangerous microorganisms that have been trapped in the ice for millennia.
The melting of permafrost cannot be reversed within this generation as global temperatures continue to rise. Moreover, when permafrost thaws, so do ancient bacteria, as well as viruses in the ice and soil. These microorganisms can cause serious illness in humans and animals.
Dr. Susan M. Natalie explains that what happens in the Arctic determines the future of the entire planet. “Permafrost stores a lot of carbon. “It’s locked in there now, but when it thaws it gets released into the atmosphere, further exacerbating global climate change.”
Plant and animal material frozen in permafrost is called organic carbon. By itself, it does not decompose or rot, but as permafrost thaws, microbes begin to decompose the material and release greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide and methane – into the atmosphere.
“Permafrost contains organic soil that has accumulated over thousands and thousands of years,” Dr. Natalie points out. “This is a slice of fossil carbon that has not been part of the Earth system for many thousands of years.” Dr Sommerkorn adds that even at low levels of global warming, the impact of thawing permafrost is comparable to the greenhouse gas emissions of a medium-sized country.
Greenland’s ice sheet also heats itself: as meltwater falls, the energy is converted into heat in a process similar to the hydroelectric power generated by large dams. Thus, the gravitational energy of the meltwater generated at the surface is converted into heat as it is transferred to the base through large cracks in the ice.
Global climate change has allowed the development of a new scientific direction – glacial archeology, in which scientists examine finds stored for a long time in ice. Thus, an ice mummy was discovered in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, which had lain there for more than five thousand years, and in Mongolia, a melted glacier allowed archaeologists to discover the remains of argali and ancient weapons.
