Not so permafrost: The melting Arctic landscape is a problem for us all

Rapid loss of land, soaring greenhouse gas emissions and unstoppable feedback loops are among the immediate implications of permafrost loss, writes Harry Cockburn

Coastal erosion on the coast of the White Sea, northwest Russia (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Nowhere is the world heating up as quickly as the Arctic. Temperatures above the Arctic circle are rising three times faster than the global average rate of warming.

The resultant loss of sea ice and snow which reflect the sun’s energy back into space mean that both the seas and the land are exposed to increasing levels of sunshine, which they can now absorb.

While warming oceans mean sea ice formation is increasingly hampered, along with a broad array of negative impacts, a similarly extensive number of impacts are also occurring on land.

Among these is the rapid melting of the permafrost – a process which not only structurally compromises the land, but also makes an oxymoron of the very term that refers to what was once permanently frozen ground, but is now friable and increasingly at risk.

The loss of permafrost in the Arctic is highly alarming. Not only due to the impact it directly has on people – such as the subsidence of roads, and even whole towns – but also because when the long frozen ground thaws it releases a concoction of gases, including the climate-altering greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane.

The Arctic tundra is an enormous storage facility for these gases which have the power to raise global average temperatures, but this facility is now beginning to leak its toxic contents.

Just like water bursting through a dam, at first there is a trickle, but without urgent action, it will turn into a dangerous torrent.

A new study led by scientists at the University of Hamburg which assesses the vulnerability of Arctic coastlines to erosion due to permafrost melt, concludes that "not only is more and more land mass being lost in absolute terms with each degree of temperature increase, the annual rate of erosion increases – in metres, but also in millions of tons of carbon released.”

Maintaining permafrost as a store of carbon is vital for maintaining life on our planet as we know it. Previous research suggests permafrost around the world holds around 1,600 billion tonnes of carbon – roughly double what is already in the atmosphere.

The global average atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2020 was around 412.5 parts per million – up from 278 parts per million between 1750 – 1800, ice core measurements have shown.

While humans have kickstarted the boom in greenhouse gases and are now beginning to realise the mistake, this could already have set in place dangerous processes that could be even harder to halt than burning fossil fuels.

The upshot is the creation of a worrying, unstoppable feedback loop, in which the greenhouse gases released in the Arctic supercharge existing global warming, stripping back snow and ice cover even further and allowing ever more permafrost to melt, thereby releasing even more carbon and methane into the atmosphere.

This feedback loop would raise global temperatures further - a process which is already resulting in more extreme weather.

This too can create feedback loops in the Arctic, as stormier seas erode the vulnerable coasts more quickly and therefore releasing more greenhouse gases from the land this way.

Other studies have also suggested the melting of permafrost could release ancient microorganisms from the ice, such as viruses or bacteria, and should they become reactivated as they warm, could pose new deadly threats to animals, plants and humans.

The loss of permafrost is yet another item on the list of terrifying reminders that all greenhouse gas emissions must be brought to heel sooner than current plans allow.