Permafrost
Solutions
Permafrost melting is simply due to climate change. Our team is dedicated to spreading awareness about this issue, and have researched ways in which we can cut down greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.
Individual Contributions
Reduce: Reduce the amount of waste you produce in your household by buying less single-use products, disposable goods (i.e lighters, paper cups, plastic bottle items), purchase products made from recycled materials and/or products that you can recycle.
Reuse: Reuse anything and everything if possible (example: pictured on the right: crocs shoes reused as plant hangers), such as using an old bag when buying groceries, instead of using plastic wraps/bags use reusable containers, etc.
Recycle: Recycle all items that are able to be recycled instead of throwing them in regular garbage.
IMAGE CREDIT: pinterest
IMAGE CREDIT: Tristan Stedman
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy harnesses the power of the wind, sun, water, tides and other planetary resources (like geothermal heat, which comes from the Earth’s core) to produce electric power. It generates electricity without producing greenhouse gases—or produces very little when compared to traditional energy sources such as burning fossil fuels. Investing more into technologies that create energy from natural sources will be very helpful in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Nuclear Power
Nuclear power provides roughly 20 percent of U.S. electricity with virtually no greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, for nuclear power to play more of a role, the industry needs to overcome high costs and concerns about nuclear waste disposal.
IMAGE CREDIT: Oliver Berg/dpa/picture alliance
IMAGE CREDIT: Photo by Pixabay
Electric Cars
All electric and “plug-in” hybrid cars can be charged at home or a public charging station. These vehicles are powered by the same electricity that comes from local power plants and are cleaner than gasoline or diesel-reliant cars.
Countries should push for citizens to stop driving regular cars and create incentives for people to solely drive hybrid or fully electric vehicles.
Plants
Plant communities in permafrost environments, including trees, shrubs and mosses, play a vital role in controlling the temperature of soil, and therefore the presence of permafrost. Plants shade the soil from the warmth of sunlight, and their roots extract water leading to drier soils which are better insulators. Mosses in particular, act like effective down insulation, trapping air, which restricts the penetration of heat to the ground below. Even after their death, plants affect permafrost by creating organic soils that cover much of Northern latitudes. Like moss, if these organic soils are dry, they are excellent insulators.
Animal Placement
Mammals roaming around the cold areas could compact snow, and the highly densified snow becomes a stimulant to colder soil.
In research comparing the soil temperature between a park in Siberia where herbivores walked around and the land outside the park, the soil temperature had an annual difference of 1.9 degrees celsius.