Permafrost: What is it and What is Canada Doing to Keep it?

The first time I heard of permafrost, I had no idea what it was. I assumed that it was like the frost on top of grass in my backyard, but I knew there had to be more to it than that. I kept seeing the word across my daily reads of the New York Times, but I never stopped to read those articles since I usually just go for the daily crosswords. One day in 2017, however, I stopped to read one of the articles just to see what it was about. “Alaska’s Permafrost is Thawing.”

I learned:

• Permafrost is the “always-frozen” ground and soil that is spread across the Arctic and Sub-Arctic.
• It reaches hundreds of feet below the surface and is made up of decomposed plants that froze and died hundreds of years ago.
• Those hundreds of feet of frozen plants that stretch across the Northern regions of our world still contain the carbon dioxide that they held all those years ago.
  • Because of this, there is twice the amount of carbon in permafrost than in the current atmosphere.
• Now, with global warming, those hundreds of feet of hundred year old frozen plants are thawing out and releasing the carbon back into the air.

Now I understood why I was always seeing this in headlines, but I still wanted to learn more about it. I wanted to be able to see this thawing for myself. After a few more minutes of digging, I found this video:

After researching permafrost for a few days, I still couldn’t understand why it was thawing so fast and so exponentially. I finally stumbled on an article by Béla Lipták called “Global Warming as a Control Loop” and an article by NASA called “The Study of Earth as an Integrated System” which cleared everything up.

I learned:

• Forcings are a key term in climate change lingo which refer to the “initial drivers of climate” (NASA). One of which, for example, is greenhouse gas emissions.
• Feedbacks are another key term in climate change lingo which refer to positive and negative feedbacks, which are processes that either exacerbate or reduce the impact of the forcings.

The melting of permafrost can be classified as a positive feedback, meaning that it exacerbates the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. This means that, as greenhouse gas emissions increase, permafrost thaws and melts, creating more greenhouse gasses which make the permafrost thaw and melt even more, thus creating a never-ending loop of increased global warming.

This is not good.

To look further into this issue, I wanted to focus on a smaller region of permafrost. I chose to focus on the town of Tuktoyaktuk located in the Northwest Territories of Canada.

Tuktoyaktuk is a town on the coast of the Northwest Territories (NWT). The land has been increasingly sinking down the coast of the town for the past decade and is now threatening the houses and lives of the town. One house that was built moderately in-land is now only two meters away from the water.

All of this is because of humans. The carbon footprint we leave is unacceptable. But what can we do about it? I contacted William Gangon, a Concordia graduate who specializes in sustainability. Here’s what he had to say:

• We can:
  • Change our diets as a society – In the US, Americans eat up to 15 million tons of beef a year. To raise the amount of cows needed for today’s food industry, it takes an enormous amount of water and produces copious amounts of methane and other emissions. All of these factors exacerbate the issue of climate change. We can easily encourage the switch to partial-vegetarianism for the sake of ourselves and our future. Speaking as a full vegetarian from birth, it’s not too bad!
  • Reduce our energy consumption – a tremendous amount of energy is consumed when using everyday household products like washing machines and lights. Necessary energy consumers, like central cooling and heating of a house, don’t need to be switched off because they are essential to comfort in a home. Clothing dryers, however, consume immense amounts of energy while being as efficient as good, old fashioned, line-drying. By turning off and unplugging unused household appliances, incredible amounts of energy are saved and ones carbon footprint is dramatically reduced.

All of this is because of humans. The carbon footprint we leave is unacceptable. But what can we do about it? I contacted William Gangon, a Concordia graduate who specializes in sustainability. Here’s what he had to say:

We can:

• Change our diets as a society – In the US, Americans eat up to 15 million tons of beef a year. To raise the amount of cows needed for today’s food industry, it takes an enormous amount of water and produces copious amounts of methane and other emissions. All of these factors exacerbate the issue of climate change. We can easily encourage the switch to partial-vegetarianism for the sake of ourselves and our future. Speaking as a full vegetarian from birth, it’s not too bad!
• Reduce our energy consumption – a tremendous amount of energy is consumed when using everyday household products like washing machines and lights. Necessary energy consumers, like central cooling and heating of a house, don’t need to be switched off because they are essential to comfort in a home. Clothing dryers, however, consume immense amounts of energy while being as efficient as good, old fashioned, line-drying. By turning off and unplugging unused household appliances, incredible amounts of energy are saved and ones carbon footprint is dramatically reduced.

Start making changes! Look into more ways to reduce your carbon footprint! Get involved with climate committees to stay in the loop of what’s going on! Utilize energy-efficient products! Just remember: by taking all of these steps, you can help reduce the control loop of permafrost and climate change as a whole.