yeah well well so the data that has been collected in siberia and across russia's far east are alarming normally the vegetation binds greenhouse gases in the summer and only releases very small amounts back into the atmosphere in winter. so out here you can see that. here monitor which is. cool but for the past few years the permafrost that stalling more and more in the summer is releasing ever increasing amounts of methane and c o 2 during the winter at. 2 the moment the biosphere is acting as it could be say as a friend as a moderate break on climate change so a for about 40 percent of the carbon dioxide we emit is being absorbed by the biosphere and that's acting to slow down climate change if i wasn't happening

climate change will be even faster than that it is one of the big concerns we have as a system scientists is understanding how long well the biosphere keep acting as a brake and is there a danger that at some time in the future. if this break will turn into the accelerate. scientists from all over are turning their attention to the permafrost and its potential impact on climate change. this group of researchers from prague is being hosted by the institute of applied ecology of the north in the republic of soka. the researchers have just returned from a crater that is carved into the permafrost. these soil samples are a gift to the institute but. in return the researchers hope to obtain permission to exhibit some of their spectacular finds in a museum at home remains of a mammoth and the mummified remains of an extinct horse from the pleistocene epoch you. fear. they will do this if they were.

in the crater in which the fossilized remains were found was named the bottom gaika crater but locals call it the gateway to the underworld. it's easy to see why. in the 1960 s. a small section of forest was cleared to make way for a new road. the problem frost originally beneath the trees began eroding. at 1st the hole was just a few metres deep. the student on average the make a crater is between 40 and 60 meters deep and in some places it's 100 meters deep

it's 1.5 kilometers long and about one kilometer wide right now but it's hard to determine exactly how wide it is because it's expanding so quickly because these kinds of catastrophic events could become increasingly common hypnosis and not just in residential areas but anywhere in the wilderness wherever there are pipelines and natural gas facilities our entire infrastructure could be impacted. as opposed to. most of the cities in siberia and in russia's far east could be affected about 25000000 people in all. how big would the impact be if all the world's permafrost were to melt so far there isn't enough cross regional research to answer that but there are findings regarding the polar region from a global terrestrial network for permafrost in 1906 the problem frost melted to a depth of 45 centimeters in the summer by 2017 it melted to

a depth of 87 centimeters a nearly 100 percent increase over just 20 years. this poses a danger to both people and infrastructure. natural gas and oil pipelines are particularly affected. greenpeace has estimated that leaks in pipelines caused by foreign soil are leading to about one percent of oil being lost that oil some $5000000.00 tons of it each year seeps into the ground. the residents of the arctic city of cherokee in the far northeast of russia are bearing witness to this rapid transformation. temperatures are rising in exorbitant. asphalt on the streets is beginning to buckle. and several buildings are showing signs that the solid ground on which they want stood has begun to sink.

the city of chere ski on the kalinda river is also home to nikita zeem off. even though temperatures drop here to minus 60 degrees celsius in the winter the erosion of the permafrost soil appears unstoppable this is especially apparent at the former water treatment plant. like all the buildings here it stands on pillars. the earth began to sink here just 2 years ago now the crater is already 10 meters deep. into the stars is going to go to so what it was here a week ago there with them those 2 points with you in the air and now we came they

really could go up down there is the fusion ish go in underneath there for the way this is this ice has been there all that and eventually all that full fuel co-op's over so this process kind of go in and it's centimeters a day maybe tens of them to me that someday when the whole day of the week of the open the powerful and now with climate getting warm up then for the both of getting warm and we begin to bake and it off like that so all the infrastructure in the next few decades will probably become up. elsewhere the heat of the sun is relentless this is cameroon and central africa here in the stream bed of the mile below river signs of despair are everywhere. and. the north of cameroon receives 2 months of rainfall

a year at most in august and september during the rest of the year people must walk far to find water or dig deep. older people who live here say that water used to flow abundantly through the mile below river into the log on river and eventually discharging into lake chad. but those days are gone. into what kind of power works for the current charity organization in the region his job is to ward off the looming humanitarian catastrophes. access to drinking water is an enormous problem for people and animals here in the far north of cameroon.

often visits villages near the prevention capital of. today he's in home to many herders. has been a social worker for many years and knows the signs of an impending humanitarian catastrophe. in the summer of 2018 the region was on the brink. of much of. a look at nana only women used to fetch my own but now it's so bad the entire family has to help. now when young people want to build a house they have no water when we want to work there is no water a young man wants to be a farmer or work in sales and there's no water. so it's already begun young men are leaving they're going to the big cities john day and. people are starting to leave. we no longer know how we will be able to manage.

the drought is especially hard on people who must find water not just for their families but also for their livestock. the guy gulf who believes he is about 60 years old and has always tended his herds.