De-Permafrosting

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 September 2022

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Above the Arctic Circle, much of the land is underlaid by permafrost. But climate change is causing it to thaw. This is not good news for the planet. As the carbon rich ground warms, microbes start to feast… releasing greenhouse gases that will warm the Earth even more. Another possible downside was envisioned by a science-fiction author. Could ancient pathogens–released from the permafrost’s icy grip–cause new pandemics? We investigate what happens when the far north defrosts. Guests: Jacquelyn Gill – Associate professor of paleoecology at the University of Maine. Jim Shepard – Novelist and short story writer, and teacher of English at Williams College, and author of “Phase Six.” Scott Saleska – Global change ecologist, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, and co-founder of IsoGenie. Originally aired September 6, 2021 Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact sales@advertisecast.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
0:04.2	I'm Matt Kaplan, the host of Safeguarding Sound Science, Evolution Edition.
0:09.6	Evolution is the unifying principle of biology, yet it still breeds controversy a century
0:15.3	and a half after Charles Darwin.
0:17.7	Join us as we meet the passionate researchers and communicators who are expanding our knowledge
0:23.0	and fighting to keep good science in our schools and politics. Subscribe to Safeguarding Sound
0:29.3	Science on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you like to listen.
0:48.9	Imagine that you've just made the most exciting discovery of your career, but at the same time, you wish it had never happened?
0:51.3	Well, that's what it feels like for some scientists discovering rare
0:54.2	ice age bones in the melting permafrost. Produced at the SETI Institute, this is big
1:00.8	picture science. I'm Seth Chostack. I'm Molly Bentley. Scientists are making incredible discoveries
1:06.4	in the Arctic, pulling a menagerie of animals from the ice that haven't walked the world in 30 or
1:12.4	40,000 years. I was just really struck by this sense of, on the one hand, complete and total
1:19.2	magic and wonder at having walked into this glittering ice age time machine and seeing just
1:24.9	bones poking out of the frozen soil all around me.
1:30.3	It was incredible, just everywhere you look to a different animal.
1:35.0	And then coming out into the reality of a warming world and realizing I was listening to climate change,
1:38.4	I was watching climate change unfold right in front of my eyes.
1:42.1	The world's thawing permafrost could reveal more than the lost beasts of the Pleistocene.
1:47.4	It could revive dangerous microorganisms locked away for thousands of years.
1:51.6	We are certain of one thing, though.
1:53.7	Permafrost holds large reservoirs of carbon, and that is a ticking time bomb.
	...

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