Melting permafrost, upcoming danger

  Melting permafrost, upcoming danger -Dayoon

Permafrost is any ground that remains completely frozen for at least two years straight. Currently, it covers 14% of Earth's land. However, as Earth’s climate warms, the permafrost is thawing, leaving behind a huge amount of water. Melting permafrost can affect the ecosystem, our lives, and everything else. In this blog, I'll introduce three problems that melting permafrost will bring.

 Firstly, thawing permafrost will damage infrastructures including railroad, oil pipelines, and factories. There are a lot of infrastructures on the permafrost. As it's melting at a fast speed, it will start to collapse and break down. According to Oulu and Helsinki University, about 87% of infrastructures will be on the brink of collapse by 2050 if permafrost continues to melt at current speed. Railroads and oil pipelines will be in especially big danger as they transport natural resources and oil which are essential for us to live. It will give economical damage to every country.

 Secondly, melting permafrost will accelerate the speed of climate change. Plants grow up in permafrost for summer and are buried after a short while due to a sharp decrease in temperature. As this kind of phenomenon has been repeated over million years, an enormous amount of methane and carbon dioxide are buried in permafrost. Also, scientists estimate that there will be many toxic chemicals and radioactive matter that were produced during the industrial period. As permafrost melts, it will emit these things, increasing the speed of climate change dramatically.

 Thirdly, ancient viruses will start to wake up. As thousands of carcasses are buried in permafrost, there are a lot of unknown pathogens and viruses living in it. If permafrost continues melting, ancient viruses might attack humans, starting new pandemic. In fact, in 2016, anthrax bacillus, which was suspected to exist about twenty thousand years ago, infected more than two thousand reindeer, 96 people, and killed a boy. Because people do not know any solution to prevent and cure ancient viruses, this kind of event will happen more frequently and dangerously in the future. 

 If we do not take any actions right now, melting permafrost will bring unaffordable consequences in the future. It's time to act out