In subarctic climates — ones in which the mean annual temperature is below 32° — the soil is frozen all year round. It’s damn cold, but a nice base on which to build. Until climate change starts melting the permafrost, of course.
These two now crooked buildings can be found in Dawson City, Canada. Carleton University geographers have shown that the average temperatures have been increasing, melting the permafrost, and destabilizing the town.
This image reminds me that I am only barely beginning to understand climate change and its consequences. How we will pay for climate change, and who will do so, is something I suspect I’ll learn much more about in the coming years.
Via Boing Boing.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 4
ArcticBliss — August 15, 2012
This photo is also a good illustration of why modern buildings on Canada's permafrost, unlike the two shown in the photo, are built on stilts in order to keep the warmth generated inside the buildings from warming the frozen soil beneath. The buildings in the photo are historic sites, constructed during the gold rush and built directly on the ground.
Shoshannah Forbes — August 16, 2012
I had to read that line twice until I realized that you where referring to 32°F. The fact that I'm reading this in 32°C didn't help...
4TimesAYear — April 12, 2015
Found another article about this - that town has had to move twice. It's also built on a bog. It has nothing to do with "climate change."