WILLIAM BRANGHAM (CORRESPONDENT): It is summer in the Arctic right now, so somewhat milder temperatures would be expected. But this heat wave, which has triggered huge wildfires in Siberia and increased melting of the permafrost, are likely the warmest temperatures ever recorded, and now are only going to make climate change worse. Dr. Merritt Turetsky is the director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado-Boulder. And she joins me from a cabin in Canada.
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BRANGHAM: Can you just help us understand, what is going on in the Arctic right now? What is driving this intense heat wave?
MERRITT TURETSKY: Let me start with an analogy. So when we come down with a fever, when our bodies spike a temperature, we stop, we realize that there's a problem, and we provide care. And that's exactly what's happening today. The Arctic is feverish, with temperatures spiking above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in multiple locations. So these extreme temperatures are very unusual. They are record-breaking. But this is part of a longer-term trend. In fact, last year, last summer was a very warm period in the Arctic, and Siberia and parts of Russia experienced the warmest winter on record. And it's part of a trend that we anticipate will become more frequent in the Arctic because of climate change.
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TURETSKY: So this is part of a persistent warming trend. But at the same time, the best tools that we have at our disposal in the scientific community, our climate models, predict more extreme conditions. And this is true all around the world. We're seeing more extreme conditions in storms, more extreme conditions in precipitation. And that's the same in the Arctic. We're seeing more extreme temperature changes. And this is consistent with our predictions into the future.
BRANGHAM: So what are some of the impacts of that? I mean, for people who might look at this and think, “I don't live in the Arctic, the Arctic is very far away from me,” what are some of the consequences of this warming trend in the Arctic?
TURETSKY: These Arctic changes will affect everyone on the globe for a number of reasons. The first is that, when the Arctic is warm, it changes weather patterns all around the world. The heat wave is triggering very rapid wildfires. And the Arctic is literally and figuratively on fire. And this is likely to get worse as this heat wave continues through the summer. The emissions from those wildfires, of course, release greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. So that affects [the] climate of the entire planet through the greenhouse gas effect.
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BRANGHAM: I mentioned also that there is the warming and melting of the permafrost. For people who may not be familiar with what permafrost is and why its melting could impact climate change as well, can you explain that?
TURETSKY: Permafrost is the glue of Arctic ecosystems. It is literally the backbone upon which all of the soils and the vegetation and the animals in the Arctic depend upon. Permafrost is frozen ground. So it can be frozen rock, frozen soil, frozen sediment. It's defined by its temperature. And the Arctic today is shaped by permafrost. But we are seeing widespread evidence on multiple continents in the Arctic that permafrost is thawing as a result of climate change. And in many places, this can cause catastrophic impacts on the landscape.
