Permafrost covers nearly 25% of the Northern Hemisphere. But humans continue to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, so the planet continues to warm, and permafrost becomes less permanent. That has the potential to cause us lots of problems. According to research published this week by the European Space Agency, the loss of permafrost could cause serious health threats, including the release of greenhouse gases, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, undiscovered viruses, and radioactive waste that has been trapped in the ground for centuries.
Here’s the deal with permafrost: While the ground only has to stay frozen for two years straight to get the label, much of it has been locked in a perpetual state of below freezing for up to a million years. Those freezing temperatures do more than just keep layers of Earth frozen: They also lock into place lots of the planet’s history, some of which has never been exposed to or touched by humanity.
