War: the news is full of it. The war in Ukraine and the Gaza conflict have been popping up on our phone-screens, TVs and other devices weekly, if not daily. Then, last week, another message came up between all the news of destruction, horror and death: 2023 is on its way to become the warmest year in 125’000 years. For reference, 125’000 years ago is the most recent estimate, according to LiveScience, for when human relatives first began to migrate out of Africa.
At first, I was startled. Only a couple of days before I had been at an art exhibition at the Gray Space that had been co-organized by “Waste Land” and Leiden University. Aside from seeing a variety of beautifully fascinating works of art, all related to climate, waste, and sustainability, I heard a talk about exactly this topic: the long-term effects of climate change, in special relation to permafrost, the layer of constantly frozen soil that covers about 25% of the earth’s surface. According to ArcticToday, this layer consists of matter that has been conserved for up to 650’000 years. 650’000 ago was the time of the greatest ever occurring ice age, according to Earthguide, when the global temperature dropped by 5° Celsius because of the amount of ice collected.
Although this gives us the opportunity to make discoveries about what the world was like half a million years ago, it also poses a significant danger due to the climate crisis. This was the main objective of the talk, held by António Paulo as the representative of his group of four (Paulo, Elena (Lenu) Ursache, David Frančovič, and Bente Stallinga).
Paulo explained that permafrost consists of biological matter. When it melts, the decomposition process of this matter is set into motion, resulting in the release of excessive amounts of methane and Co2. ‘Excessive,’ so says Paulo, means that methane bubbles in the permafrost, can hold twice the amount of carbon that the UK alone produces in a year. The release of all these greenhouse gasses then again fuels climate change.
Additionally, Paulo stated that the melting of the permafrost will set free diseases like anthrax, the plague, and influenza, as well as many more that we don’t even know about, and which humankind has never coexisted with. The danger this entails is nearly unfathomable, which Paulo’s group artistically captured in a self-produced film on the topic called “From Frozen to Fatal”.
And yet, these two issues are mere bullet points among the list of issues that arise through the melting of the permafrost. Other points are, for instance, the nuclear waste stored in permafrost and the danger to the infrastructure of Nordic cities that are built on permafrost.
The solution to the problem to all of us seems obvious: stop climate change, communicate with one another, work together, and do everything to preserve the beautiful earth that we call our home. And yet, with all the war it seems that this is the opposite of what we are doing.
There is one perk to all this though. According to the Springfield Journal of Peace Psychology, different studies have shown that focusing on climate change as a shared human experience discourages the support for war in the face of this existential threat and instead encourages peaceful coexistence (yes, this is from a peer-reviewed article, you can find the reference below).
The conclusion that I drew from this is that we will finally manage to get our priorities sorted, talk to each other like adults, and work on a solution together. Or we will be in even deeper shit before we know it.
At the end of the day, we’re all mortal human beings, and I hope I can provide you with at least a little bit of consolation. Either we will all kill each other and thus save our planet from climate change (if that is even still possible), or we will all be killed by diseases and other disasters set in motion by the climate crisis, but at least that will happen peacefully.
I do hope though, that we will manage to pick the better part out of both options and peacefully save our planet with as few more lives going to waste as possible. It is on all of us to reach this goal together.
– Lilly
Reference (for all those of you who are so eager to read more academic articles 😉
Pyszczynski, Tom, Matt Motyl, Kenneth E Vail, Gilad Hirschberger, Jamie Arndt, and Pelin Kesebir. “Drawing Attention to Global Climate Change Decreases Support for War.” Peace and conflict 18, no. 4 (2012): 354–368.
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Private image taken at the Gray Space during the Exhibition, 24.10.2023
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This article sheds light on the long-term effects of climate change, particularly the dangers posed by the melting of permafrost. It emphasizes the need for collective action and peaceful coexistence to address this existential threat. It’s encouraging to know that focusing on climate change as a shared human experience discourages support for war. Let’s all work together to preserve our beautiful planet. A thought-provoking article highlighting the urgency of addressing climate change and the importance of peaceful coexistence in the face of this global threat. Let’s come together and work towards a sustainable future.
Ely Shemer