It’s not very often that we get to witness the earth changing. Unless there is a volcanic eruption or an earthquake, geological changes tend to be very slow and difficult to observe.
Now, thanks to global warming, this is no longer the case.
According to a report published on RFERL, Scientists studying Siberia’s frozen tundra are reporting a drastically changing landscape in which permafrost is melting and having a profound affect upon local communities and ecosystems.
For example, as the ground melts, numerous lakes are beginning to form where there were never lakes before. Not a bad thing really–we all like lakes–except that such an action releases carbon and methane into the atmosphere which then contribute to global warming.
On the other end of the spectrum, lakes which have existed for many years are starting to disappear as the permafrost melts and the waters are absorbed into the earth.
The melting earth is also sucking up Siberian homes which were built upon the rigid permafrost but are now sinking into muddy tundra. There are homes in Yakutsk, for example, where the windows have already sank below ground level.
This is not good. There are 10 million square kilometers of permafrost in Russia and as it melts, the impact will be felt around the globe.
Visit now before Siberia becomes one gigantic, methane-producing swamp.