Isabel Gomez Peña
Isabella Solano Bello
Yesid David Jeico Mejia Soto
The Last Coming is a book filled with illustrations to explain about permafrost. It was created from many different perspectives because it’s a problem that affects all of us, we all experience and witness on practically a daily basis, climate change. Our main goal is to raise awareness about the consequences of the melting of permafrost, a silent threat that very few people are aware of.
“Flying over Yakutia, in northeastern Russia, I watched the dark shades of the boreal forest blend with patches of soft, lightly colored grass…The plane rumbled upward, climbing above a horizon of larch and pine, and lakes the color of mud. It was impossible to tell through the Antonov’s dusty porthole, but below me, the ground was breathing, or, rather, exhaling”. (Yaffa J. The New Yorker, 2022)
Permafrost is any ground that has been frozen for at least two years, consisting of soil, rocks, and sediments bound together by ice, which acts as cement. The problem arises when climate change is causing much of the planet's permafrost to melt. More and more tundra is vanishing and turning to mud and sludge. Vegetation is also disappearing, affecting animals and the food chain. In addition, all the biological material that has been trapped in the permafrost is being released. These materials decompose at high speed and release ozone-damaging amounts of CO2 and methane, accelerating global warming, and creating a cycle that we must stop.
Our expectations with this book are to explain how important permafrost is for the planet. For this, we want to educate people by teaching them what permafrost is, what it is composed of, and what are the environmental factors keeping it from melting. Moreover, we want to show the human actions that have led to climate change risking the existence of the permafrost and endangering all life that coexists with it. We will show this through the eyes of many people that have experienced firsthand the consequences of our own decisions.
Bibliography:
Nast, C. (2022). The Great Siberian Thaw. Retrieved 3 April 2022, from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/17/the-great-siberian-thaw
Permafrost: una de las grandes amenazas para la Tierra - Iberdrola. (2022). Retrieved 3 April 2022, from https://www.iberdrola.com/sostenibilidad/que-es-el-permafrost
¿Sabes qué es el permafrost y por qué es tan importante?. (2022). Retrieved 3 April 2022, from https://www.naturalizaeducacion.org/2021/02/03/permafrost/