Speaker: Dr. Kimberley R. Miner, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab and University of Maine
Learn how the cascading impacts of Arctic permafrost melt threaten humans, settlements, species, and our shared planet.
The northern hemisphere is covered by nine million square miles of permafrost, ground that continuously remains frozen for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. In this Migration in Harmony webinar, you will learn from preeminent scientist Dr. Kimberley R. Miner about the cascading impacts of permafrost melt in the Arctic and beyond the circumpolar north. Permafrost is one of the largest greenhouse gas stores on the planet. As climate change warms the Arctic at nearly three times the rate of the global average, permafrost is beginning to thaw, causing a cascade of risks to people, places, and our shared planet. When the organic material begins to decompose, permafrost thaw can destabilize major infrastructure, discharge mercury levels dangerous to human health, and release billions of metric tons of carbon.
Dr. Kimberley R. Miner is a Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, and Climate Change Institute Research Assistant Professor at the University of Maine. At JPL, Kimberley works on the Arctic Methane Project, looking at the impacts of climate change in the Arctic. Kimberley researches climate change with multi-national teams in Canada, Switzerland, Italy and Alaska. During her Ph.D., she developed the first health assessment of glacial meltwater pollution. For this groundbreaking work, she was awarded fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, and the Switzer Foundation.
Migration In Harmony is an international, cross-disciplinary network of Arctic migration researchers funded by the National Science Foundation. Learn more and sign up here.