Deep Future by Curt Stager

Author:Curt Stager [Stager, Curt]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-4434-0558-4
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2011-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

Scientists from Queen’s University, Ontario, collecting the last samples from what used to be a pond at Cape Herschel, Arctic Canada, now drying out as a result of recent climate change. John Smol

I asked John if he has noticed other signs of change, as well. “Sure,” he replied. “Native ice-dependent species are losing out, but lots of other stuff is moving up from the south. We’re now seeing robins on Baffin Island, and bees are showing up on the tundra flowers. The Inuit have no traditional names for some of these new species, and they’re even having trouble telling when to harvest the local berries because the growing seasons are changing so much.” Among the more unpleasant differences is the arrival of biting insects. “Our study site is so far north that we never had much trouble with mosquitoes before; it was just too cold up there. But now we’re starting to run into them in the field.” One win for the bugs, one more loss for the scientists.

Is he depressed about these changes, or just “scientifically concerned” about them? “Depressed,” he answered without hesitation. “But not quite despairing, either. I still rage about what’s going on, but that’s because I still have hope that we can stop things from getting a lot worse.”

Elsewhere, hard permafrost soils are thawing, turning vast stretches of tundra into quagmires. Such places are seeing new meltwater ponds appear, quite the opposite of the situation at rocky Cape Herschel. And much of the northern coast is low-lying, so newly ice-free ocean waves cut deeply into soft, formerly protected shores. Few maps of the expected encroachments of sea level on the world’s ports and beaches show the circumpolar regions clearly, so it can be difficult to envision exactly what this means for Arctic geography. But it appears likely that the changes will be large, especially where loosely consolidated land slopes most gently upward from the sea.

Horrifying examples of this process are already under way, not so much from rising sea levels but simply from the warming of frozen soils and the loss of protective coastal ice. Many native settlements along the shores of northern Alaska and Canada were built upon permafrost-cemented sediments close to the beach, but what was once a firm foundation is now becoming loose and waterlogged. That is a serious problem in and of itself; some folks now have to wait until nocturnal cold solidifies local roads before traveling between villages. But in the face of an unsheathed ocean, the softening earth also becomes easy prey for the hungry waves, particularly when storm winds pile them high and heavy against the shore. Parts of the Beaufort Sea coast retreated by 43 to 46 feet (13 to 14 m) per year between 2002 and 2007, dumping exposed villages and archaeological sites into the water from steep, crumbling permafrost bluffs.

As disturbing as they are to watch, these scenes of buckling roads, house-eating potholes, and collapsing coasts are temporary signs of a polar world that is currently in transition.

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