Permafrost Videos

"This weather does not belong to us. It belongs to someone else. If we don't have ice, we are going to die." With this prediction, an Inuit hunter sums up the dire situation for the indigenous peoples who live in northern and eastern Greenland. Nowhere on Earth, perhaps, is the evidence of climate change more apparent. The ice that covers 80 percent of the world's largest island is disappearing at the rate of 7 percent a year, a rate that has accelerated substantially in recent years. In some places, the ice shelf is already too thin to permit the Inuit to travel to traditional hunting grounds. The permafrost is also melting, producing a land that is boggy, unstable for buildings and difficult to cross by the traditional sleds. Worst-case scenarios predict that the carbon released by the melting permafrost could equal all the carbon already in the Earth's atmosphere. The Inuit, who survived for centuries by hunting seals and whales, are watching their way of life disappear before their very eyes.

"This weather does not belong to us. It belongs to someone else. If we don't have ice, we are going to die." With this prediction, an Inuit hunter sums up the dire situation for the indigenous peoples who live in northern and eastern Greenland. Nowhere on Earth, perhaps, is the evidence of climate change more apparent. The ice that covers 80 percent of the world's largest island is disappearing at the rate of 7 percent a year, a rate that has accelerated substantially in recent years. In some places, the ice shelf is already too thin to permit the Inuit to travel to traditional hunting grounds. The permafrost is also melting, producing a land that is boggy, unstable for buildings and difficult to cross by the traditional sleds. Worst-case scenarios predict that the carbon released by the melting permafrost could equal all the carbon already in the Earth's atmosphere. The Inuit, who survived for centuries by hunting seals and whales, are watching their way of life disappear before their very eyes.

Die Ausbreitung von W sten bedroht nach Einsch tzung von US-Forschern in gro em Ausma die Lebensr ume der Menschen. Besonders dramatisch sind die Verluste an bewohnbaren und landwirtschaftlich nutzbaren Fl chen in China und Nigeria, berichteten Wissenschaftler des Earth-Policy-Institut. Als Hauptgr nde nannten die Umweltforscher berweidung und falsche Ackerbaumethoden sowie den Anstieg des Meeresspiegels infolge des Klimawandels.

Die mittlere Wassertemperatur ist seit den 1960-iger Jahren in der s dlichen Nordsee um etwa ein Grad Celsius gestiegen. Das Wasser hat heute im Winter zwei Grad mehr als noch vor drei ig Jahren. Ausserdem ist der Salzgehalt h her geworden. Vor zehn Jahren wurde die erste metallische Assel vor Helgoland gefunden. Sie lebt normalerweise in viel w rmeren Regionen, die mit dem dem Mittelmeer in etwa vergleichbar sind.. Doch durch das Ausbleiben kalter Winter siedelte sie sich auch in der Nordsee an, genau wie die japanische Alge.

Wohin der Geologe Jorge Strelin auch reist: berall auf der S dhalbkugel findet er die Spuren des Klimawandels, die die Gletscher schmelzen lassen. "Unsere geomorphologischen Studien in der nord stlichen antarktischen Halbinsel zeigen, wie sich die Gletscher zur ckziehen." Das hat Folgen f r die Periglazialformen: Erdschichten, die durch Gefrieren in der Nacht und Abtauen am Tag st ndig in Bewegung sind. Er sieht, "wie Periglazialformen durch das Auftauen des Permafrost zerst rt werden." Ursache sei die erh hte Jahrestemperatur von zwei Grad seit Mitte der 1980-iger Jahre, die man in der antarktischen Halbinsel gemessen hat. Auch die Fauna ndert sich: Z gelpinguine aus w rmeren Regionen verdr ngen die Kaiserpinguine allm hlich.

During the summers of 2007 and 2008, year-round Arctic sea ice shrank to its lowest level since satellite records began 30 years ago. Some scientists now predict an ice-free Arctic summer by 2012. As snow and ice levels decline, sea-levels and weather patterns are affected which in turn impact plant, animal, and human life. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Could permafrost under Martian soil be the key to finding life on the red planet? Chris McKay, a planetary scientist for NASA, thinks there's a good chance we'll see evidence of ancient microbes if we just follow the ice. Podcast produced by David Levin. Interview by Anna Lee Strachan. NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Funding for NOVA is provided by ExxonMobil, David H. Koch, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television viewers. For more fun science stories, visit our website at pbs.org/nova/mars