Posted April 23, 2021 Permafrost, or continuously frozen ground, covers about 24 percent of the Northern Hemisphere, including 50 percent of Canada, more than 60 percent of Russia, and almost 85 percent of Alaska. Scientific understanding and modelling of long-term permafrost dynamics are still at the development stage [1, 2] but the effects of thawing permafrost on Arctic coastline erosion and infrastructure collapse are already causing concerns. Ice under permafrost soil. Photo: SeppFriedhuber/Getty Images Global warming and Arctic permafrost thaw Permafrost is a substantial sink of CO2 and methane, making it significant to the global climate, and release of these greenhouse gases from thawing permafrost is predicted to be similar in magnitude to that caused by land-use change [3]. Further effects of permafrost warming in the Arctic include increased flooding, precipitation, and coastline erosion, already occurring in some regions [2, 4].