From anthrax to mammoth remains, extraordinary materials are being unearthed as vast swaths of frozen land in Arctic regions thaw from global warming. In places like Canada and Alaska, the "slumps" of land caving in as it softens are relatively small. But in Siberia, there's an enormous crater in the permafrost that's widening even faster than anyone thought it would, with its cliff face retreating 40 feet a year, according to a new paper. As the land collapses, we're getting an illuminating look at Siberia's long-vanished animals along with the bodies of Gulag prisoners and other buried secrets of the past. In a guest essay published today, the writer Sophie Pinkham argues that the widening Batagaika crater should serve as a warning to Russia and the rest of the world of the toll of digging up and burning huge quantities of fossil fuels and exploiting the earth for precious minerals. "Permafrost melt is disfiguring land in many of the countries that bear the largest responsibility for the crisis — as if mocking the human error that led them to pillage the oil and minerals in the ground without considering the consequences," she writes. Yet still we behave as if we are undaunted by "the threat of greater disruption still to come with climate change," she notes. Here's what we're focusing on today:
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Thursday, May 23, 2024
Opinion Today: The land’s revenge
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