But with northern Canada warming about three times as fast as the rest of the world, climate change threatens the permanence of vast stretches of this frozen ground — and the ecosystems and communities it supports. For the people living in the subarctic Dehcho region of the Northwest Territories, the changes have been stark. “Our Elders definitely noticed a real change in how things look,” Dehcho First Nations Grand Chief Gladys Norwegian told The Narwhal in an interview. “They don’t have to be scientists to know, they just feel it and see it.” While the impacts are felt most acutely in the North, permafrost thaw has implications for the global climate as well.