Thawing Permafrost

Context: 

The study, ‘Thawing permafrost poses environmental threat to thousands of sites with legacy industrial contamination’, was published in the journal Nature Communications.

About Permafrost:

• Permafrost is essentially any ground that stays frozen — 0 degree Celsius or lower — for at least two years straight. 
• These permanently frozen grounds are often found in Arctic regions such as Greenland, Alaska (the United States), Canada, Russia and Eastern Europe.
• According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), permafrost is composed of “a combination of soil, rocks and sand that are held together by ice. The soil and ice in permafrost stay frozen all year long.” 
• However, although the ground remains perennially frozen, permafrost regions aren’t always covered with snow.

Findings of the Study:

• Infrastructural Development:

• • Countries and corporations began building infrastructure on the Arctic’s permafrost. 
  • The region witnessed a further expansion of industrial and economic development during the Cold War — it became a centre for resource extraction and military activities. 
  • This led to the accumulation of industrial and toxic waste on or in permafrost which was never removed.

• Accelerated Warming:

• • As the Arctic is getting warmer nearly four times as fast as the rest of the planet due to climate change, permafrost is thawing rapidly, which could destabilise not only the industrial sites but also the contaminated areas. 
  • Once the destabilisation takes place, toxic substances would be unleashed across the region, threatening numerous species living there and the health of people who depend on them.

• Release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere: 

• • Arctic permafrost alone holds an estimated 1,700 billion metric tons of carbon, including methane and carbon dioxide. 
  • That’s roughly 51 times the amount of carbon the world released as fossil fuel emissions in 2019.

• Release of Viruses: Thawing permafrost would unleash thousands of dormant viruses and bacteria. 
  • Some of these “could be new viruses or ancient ones for which humans lack immunity and cures, or diseases that society has eliminated, such as smallpox or Bubonic plague.

News Source: Indian Express