Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood : Permafrost and Extinction in the Russian Arctic

Exploring one of the greatest potential contributors to climate change-thawing permafrost-and the anxiety of extinction on an increasingly hostile planet Climate scientists point to permafrost as a “ticking time bomb” for the planet, and from the Arctic, apocalyptic narratives proliferate on the devastating effects permafrost thaw poses to human survival.In Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood, Charlotte Wrigley considers how permafrost-and its disappearance-redefines extinction to be a lack of continuity, both material and social, and something that affects not only life on earth but nonlife, too. Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood approaches the topic of thawing permafrost and the wild new economies and mitigation strategies forming in the far north through a study of the Sakha Republic, Russia’s largest region, and its capital city Yakutsk, which is the coldest city in the world and built on permafrost.Wrigley examines people who are creating commerce out of thawing permafrost, including scientists wishing