Thawing Arctic Permafrost seems like a Distant Threat. It’s not.
Researchers working close to the edge of the eroding coastline at Peninsula Point, N.W.T., in 2019. (Photo: Weronika Murray)
Susan Nerberg, Broadview.org, August 5, 2020
The sandhill cranes were oblivious to the destruction. About 500 metres from their tundra nest on Pelly Island in the Northwest Territories, a chunk of cliff four storeys high crashed into the ocean, sending the odour of broken earth and sulphur into the spray. The massive block of frozen mud and ice toppled so fast a group of scientists working nearby on the island’s shore didn’t have a chance to yell “Holy crap!” before it bombed the Beaufort Sea. But the sandhill cranes didn’t seem to notice, continuing their calls amid the rumble from the falling cliff.
If the catastrophic erosion of Pelly Island is an indication, climate change smells like brimstone and sounds like fury. . .
“Thawing Arctic permafrost seems like a distant threat. It’s not. People displaced by the collapsing ground could be Canada’s first climate refugees. But the thaw should worry everyone. ”