00:00We can no longer take for granted the seasons or the ways of the land.
00:06The world is changing, and the effects of thawing permafrost can be seen around cities like Fairbanks, Alaska.
00:14Once healthy forests are collapsing into newly formed lakes.
00:18But to get a clear picture of what's really going on, it helps to see what's happening below ground.
00:25The Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory permafrost tunnel in Fox, just north of Fairbanks, Alaska,
00:33was excavated over 40 years ago by the U.S. Army to research tunneling and construction techniques in permafrost.
00:42Today it remains an active research lab where you see firsthand how animal remains and vegetation
00:49that died up to 40,000 years ago remain literally frozen in time.
00:55But all that is changing as the ground warms up and the frozen vegetation begins to rot and release methane.
01:03The large bodies of trapped frozen water are also starting to thaw,
01:08leading to the collapse of surface ground and the formation of new lakes.
01:14What we are seeing is a disaster in the making.
01:18If all of that methane was emitted, let's say over a 20-year period,
01:23global temperatures will rise by 5 to 8 degrees centigrade.
01:27And when would that happen?
01:29It has already begun to happen on a smaller scale.
01:32My fear and our fear is that in a few years' time,
01:36because this heating of the Arctic Circle region is still continuing,
01:40this may release rather quickly.
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