When permafrost melts, what happens to all of that stored carbon?

2 December 2016 (Columbia University) – The Arctic’s frozen ground contains large stores of organic carbon that have been locked in the permafrost for thousands of years. As global temperatures rise, that permafrost is starting to melt, raising concerns about the impact on the climate as organic carbon becomes exposed. A new study is shedding […]

Thawing permafrost is wrecking Arctic cities

By  Alec Luhn in Norilsk14 October 2016 (Guardian) – At first, Yury Scherbakov thought the cracks appearing in a wall he had installed in his two-room flat were caused by shoddy workmanship. But then other walls started cracking, and then the floor started to incline. “We sat on the couch and could feel it tilt,” […]

Amid rapid change, major Arctic study highlights need to prepare for surprises

By Marion Davis25 November 2016 (SEI) – The Arctic Resilience Report [pdf], published today, is the first comprehensive assessment of ecosystems and societies in the region. It identifies 19 “tipping points” in natural systems that could radically reshape the Arctic in the coming century, and calls for urgent cooperation to build local communities’ resilience and […]

Meteorologists: Arctic warming demands action – ‘The Arctic is undergoing an unprecedented rate of change with consequences far beyond its boundaries’

28 September 2016 (WMO) – Dramatic and unprecedented warming in the Arctic is driving sea level rise, affecting weather patterns around the world, and may trigger even more changes in the climate system. The rate of change is challenging the current scientific capacity to monitor and predict what is becoming a journey into uncharted territory. […]

Arctic methane gas emission significantly increased since 2014 – ‘The rate of degradation of underwater permafrost has increased’

  4 October 2016 (Siberian Times) – A new expedition in the Laptev Sea suggests an increase in the rate of underwater permafrost degradation. The findings come from an expedition now underway led by Professor Igor Semiletov, of Tomsk Polytechnic University, on the research vessel Academic M.A. Lavrentyev which left Tiksi on 24 September 2016 […]

Unprecedented Arctic change demands action: World Meteorological Organization

28 September 2016 (WMO) – Dramatic and unprecedented warming in the Arctic is driving sea level rise, affecting weather patterns around the world and may trigger even more changes in the climate system. The rate of change is challenging the current scientific capacity to monitor and predict what is becoming a journey into uncharted territory. […]

Aquatic plants may accelerate Arctic methane emissions

[Keep in mind that Eos is a publication of AGU, which has voted to continue receiving sponsorship from the fossil-fuel industry. – Desdemona] By Rebecca Heisman22 September 2016 (Eos) – Climate change has caused a boom in aquatic plant biomass on the Arctic tundra in recent decades. Those plants, in turn, are releasing increasing amounts […]

Two more outbreaks of anthrax hit northern Siberia due to thawing permafrost

31 August 2016 (Siberian Times) – The Yamalo-Nenets region has suffered not one but three separate outbreaks of lethal anthrax since 7 July 2016, with bloodsucking insects – especially gadflies and mosquitoes  – playing a key role in the spread, we can confirm. A strong new warning from scientists suggests that there is a ‘dangerous’ […]

Permafrost carbon: Catalyst for deglaciation

By Andrew H. MacDougall22 August 2016 (Nature Geoscience) – Between 17,500 and 14,500 years ago, a period sometimes referred to as the Mystery Interval1, atmospheric CO2 concentrations began their post-glacial rise from about 190 ppm in glacial times to approximately 270 ppm by the beginning of the Holocene. The rise in CO2 during the Mystery […]

Siberian Arctic climate on a cliff-edge

By Olga Gertcyk10 August 2016 (Siberian Times) – The shoreline on remote island retreats by 74 metres in seven years due to increased wave power of unfrozen sea, and thawing permafrost. The stunning speed of the coastal erosion on Wiese Island in the northern Kara Sea – shown here – is a graphic example of […]

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