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impacts of climate change
Impacts of Climate Change - Part 4
BUND/Friends of the Earth Germany
Siberia's houses rest on unstable
ground
The 200 000 inhabitants of Jakutsk are
tough. No other place on earth is subject to
such large temperature fluctuations as this
Siberian town with a range of minus 50
degrees Celsius in winter to plus 30 in
summer. Jakutsk lies on so-called permafrost.
The ground is permanently frozen and even on
the hottest days of the year just a few
centimetres at the surface thaw. In this way
the permafrost has been conserving geological
development for thousands of years. It
presents a true treasure trove for scientists
who can source important facts concerning our
climate. They even found a frozen mammoth on
one occasion.
Yet now citizens of Jakutsk could
literally be losing ground to climate change.
In the last 30 years the average temperatures
in Siberia have risen by 2 to 3 degrees
Celsius. Last year scientists from the west
Siberian Tomsk University and the British
University of Oxford made a shocking
discovery: over an area as large as Germany
and France the permafrost is beginning to
melt for the first time since the end of the
ice age around 11 000 years ago.
The consequences are conspicuous. Locals
have for some time now been observing that
woodland is tilting due to the thawing
permafrost. They named this phenomenon "drunk
trees". However, the longer it lasts the less
amusing it becomes because the repercussions
for Siberia's infrastructure are becoming
more acute.
Nuclear power stations
falter
Following conclusions made by the
International Arctic Research Center, houses,
mining pits and factories are considered to
be at risk of collapsing. Oil pipellines are
close to bursting point, and railway tracks
and airports cannot be used on the soft
surface. Tarmacked areas and roads crack and
sink in the mud. In some regions the number
of days on which the roads are accessible has
declined from a good 200 to around 120 per
year. How safe nuclear power stations are on
this spongy ground is also unclear.
Whilst the inhabitants suffer the local
repercussions, scientists are fearing an
entirely different consequence. Great
quantities of organic material, thousands of
years old, lies frozen in the permafrost and
with that an enormous amount of carbon. When
the ground thaws, bacteria begins to
decompose this material. As a result of the
decay billions of tonnes of methane would be
produced and released into the atmosphere.
The fears of the scientists become clear when
one realises the effect that methane has on
the atmosphere. Methane is a highly active
greenhouse gas that fuels climate chance
twenty times faster than carbon dioxide. Once
the permafrost is thawed it will be
impossible to prevent its disappearance. A
vicious circle kicks in. Climate change
causes permafrost to melt, methane is set
free and this is turn increases the pace of
climate change.
The majority of houses in Jakutsk remain
undamaged. The inhabitants have learned how
to cope with the most difficult climatic
conditions for centuries. They have even
established a research institute, the only
one of its kind in the whole world, which has
for 60 years been investigating how to build
houses and roads on permafrost. It's now time
for the institute to turn its attentions to
the issue of how to build houses on thawing
ground.
translation: Hilary Myska
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