---

• n  ground that is permanently frozen

• Melting permafrost will release vast amounts of trapped carbon into the air LESS ICE MEANS MORE HEAT WHICH MEANS LESS ICE SPEEDING UP Ice reflects nearly all the sun's energy that .
• A similar feedback loop is melting permafrost, usually defined as land that has been continuously frozen for two years or more.
• As Alaska's climate warms, the permafrost beneath the beaches is thawing and the sea ice is thinning, leaving its 600 residents increasingly vulnerable to violent storms.

News & Articles

---

• As Arctic Permafrost Melts And Decomposes, More Greenhouse Gases Released
  Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Conditions within Arctic permafrost soils prevent dead plants and animals from decomposing, resulting in layer upon layer of organic carbon being sequestered just beneath the topsoil. However, rising Arctic temperatures are causing these soils to thaw at unprecedented rates, and NASA scientists are currently looking into just how much ...
  June 11, 2013 - redOrbit
• Is a sleeping climate giant stirring in the Arctic?
  Permafrost zones occupy nearly a quarter of the exposed land area of the Northern Hemisphere. NASA's Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment is probing deep into the frozen lands above the Arctic Circle in Alaska to measure emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane from thawing permafrost -- signals that may hold a key to Earth's climate future.
  June 11, 2013 - Science Daily
• Linking Weather Extremes to Global Warming [Greg Laden's Blog]
  Global Warming is the increase in the Earth’s temperature owing to the greenhouse effects of the release of CO2 and other gasses into the atmosphere, mainly by humans burning fossil fuel, but also by the release of Methane from oil wells and melting of Arctic permafrost, natural gas from leaky pipes, and so on. This…
  June 7, 2013 - ScienceBlogs

Quotes

---

• Hillary Rodham Clinton in Edmonton Journal
  We need all hands on deck because there is a huge amount to do, and not much time to do it,she said. "The melting of sea ice, glaciers and permafrost will affect people and ecosystems around the world, and understanding how these changes...
• Lisa Murkowski in Anchorage Daily News (registration)
  In Alaska, we have been feeling the impacts of a warming climate for decades. The permafrost is melting, Arctic ice is disappearing and wildlife habitat is changing,Murkowski said in a prepared statement Wednesday.
• Sarah Palin in Washington Post
  Palin wrote that Alaska's climate is changing but referred to "thawing permafrost and retreating sea ice" as "natural, cyclical environmental trends."