Siberia’s Climate Transformation Goes Much Deeper
Siberia has faced a panoply of climate change-fueled disasters in recent years. Many of them can be tied back to the extreme heat that’s gripped the region.
The Arctic is warming three times as fast as the rest of the world, and the impacts are growing more pronounced by the day. Siberia has seen multiple instances of exploding tundra. The huge holes that have blown out in the tundra are likely due to thawing permafrost and the buildup of methane. Thawing permafrost coupled with lax inspection procedures is also likely behind a huge diesel spill last year that reached a sensitive lake in the region.
There’s also an unholy feedback loop at play. Wildfires release carbon dioxide—including a record amount last year—while thawed permafrost releases methane. Both are greenhouse gases that can warm the planet further. So not only is climate change making life miserable for those in Siberia, it’s creating conditions that could make the problem worse.
