Global warming is both the Earth's natural process as well as the warming of the Earth through anthropogenic (manmade) sources. Permafrost is frozen ground underneath the active layer in the northern hemisphere. The melting of the permafrost caused by global warming effects the environment here in Barrow, Alaska. Some effects of melting permafrost include: collapsing tundra/erosion, melting of ice cellars and village infrastructure.

Global warming is the Earth's natural process, but humans accelerate this process by combustion, which is the burning of fossil fuels in the presence of oxygen (O₂). Carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water (H₂O) are products of fossil fuel combustion. Both CO₂ and H₂O are greenhouse gases. A couple of anthropogenic ways that humans do to speed up global warming are industrial processes in cities and the use of vehicles. Many industries burn coal and the chemical equation for burning coal is C₁₃₅H₉₆O₉NS+O₂→X+CO₂+H₂O.

The thawing of permafrost may also worsen and accelerate the heating process of global warming. This is due to the release of greenhouse gases, such as methane (CH4) and other hydrocarbons from the thawing permafrost. The combustion of methane is CH₄+2O₂→CO₂+2H₂O. Methane, water and carbon dioxide are important greenhouse gases that trap the sun's heat creating a warmer atmosphere, this is also known as the greenhouse effect. The Arctic has an abundance of stored methane. When the permafrost thaws, it creates trapped methane under lakes and lagoons. Very often you can see lakes or lagoons bubbling, even in the coldest temperatures in winter! Unfortunately, the ultraviolet radiation of the sun keeps reflecting off the snow and ice of the North Slope increasing the cause of greenhouse effect. These heat-trapping gases being released from under the frozen Arctic ground may be a bigger factor in global warming than the cutting down of forests (Zhang).

Permafrost is considered to be a soil type and is located underneath the active layer in Polar Regions, such as the Alaska's North Slope. It consists of 0.022% of the total water in the world and is located in about 24% of the land in the Northern Hemisphere (Zhang). Permafrost is supposed to stay frozen all year round, but in cases like in the Arctic, global warming results in thawing permafrost. The effects of global warming on permafrost results: in collapsing tundra/erosion, melting of ice cellars and the structures of houses.

Have you ever seen permafrost before? Well, we have and it's part of our everyday life in an arctic village. The effects that global warming has towards the permafrost do not make its surroundings very pretty, in our home village of Barrow. You can visibly see the permafrost at the edge of the tundra along the coast. As you go along the coast, you can see that every edge along the border of the tundra falls, and this happens every year. As global warming does its horrible magic to make the atmosphere warmer, the permafrost underneath the active layer begins to thaw and separate resulting in huge chunks of tundra falling down, down and down. During the fall storms when the big waves hit, it washes away the loose tundra chunks that have fallen. This causes erosion of our land because the permafrost is the tundra's stability. So it's very important that the permafrost stays frozen because it keeps the land together.

The picture above shows erosion in another Iñupiat community called Shishmaref. Permafrost projections was published in 2005 using the Community Climate System Model (Lawrence). This model suggested that by 2100, as little as 1.0 million square kilometers of permafrost will remain (Lawrence). The melting permafrost will increase the amount of freshwater being discharged into the Arctic Ocean by 28 percent (Lawrence).

Growing up in Barrow, ice cellars, also known as sigluaq, keep our traditional foods frozen throughout winter and summer. Traditional foods include whale, walrus, seal, caribou, and fish. The sigluaq prevents the food from getting bad. Throughout the years, the elders of the North Slope noticed that the ice cellars started collecting water and collapsing, causing the people to relocate their ice cellars. The melting permafrost results in gases such as methane being released into the sigluaq making it unusable.

During the summer months, the most damage occurs. Houses in the North Slope are situated on wood pilings so when permafrost thaws, the pilings often shift resulting in lop sided houses. When the shifting occurs, sometimes the doors on houses are hard to open or shut. It also results in cracks on the walls in houses. This is hard or impossible to maintain. It happens every year and if one's house is not affected they are very lucky!

The melting of permafrost from global warming affects everyone everywhere. The natural process of the greenhouse effect is being accelerated from anthropogenic causes, such as the burning of fossil fuels from industries and emissions from vehicles. Greenhouse gases such as methane are being released from the thawing permafrost on the North Slope. The thawing permafrost also affects our daily lives in the village of Barrow and other small villages on the North Slope by causing land erosion, melting ice cellars and adverse conditions in the village infrastructure.