Posts Tagged ‘permafrost’

Alaska’s Permafrost is Melting

By Henry Fountain | The New York Times YUKON DELTA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Alaska — The Arctic is warming about twice as fast as other parts of the planet, and even here in sub-Arctic Alaska the rate of warming is high. Sea ice and wildlife habitat are disappearing; higher sea levels threaten coastal native villages. But…

Read More

Arctic stronghold of world’s seeds flooded after permafrost melts

By Damian Carrington | The Guardian It was designed as an impregnable deep-freeze to protect the world’s most precious seeds from any global disaster and ensure humanity’s food supply forever. But the Global Seed Vault, buried in a mountain deep inside the Arctic circle, has been breached after global warming produced extraordinary temperatures over the winter,…

Read More

As Earth Warms, the Diseases That May Lie Within Permafrost Become a Bigger Worry

By Sara Goudarzi | Scientific American This past summer anthrax killed a 12-year-old boy in a remote part of Siberia. At least 20 other people, also from the Yamal Peninsula, were diagnosed with the potentially deadly disease after approximately 100 suspected cases were hospitalized. Additionally, more than 2,300 reindeer in the area died from the infection.…

Read More

Anthrax Outbreak In Russia Thought To Be Result Of Thawing Permafrost

By Michaeleen Doucleff | NPR.org| August 3, 2016 Russia is fighting a mysterious anthrax outbreak in a remote corner of Siberia. Dozens of people have been hospitalized; one child has died. The government airlifted some families out because more than 2,000 reindeer have been infected. Officials don’t know exactly how the outbreak started, but the…

Read More