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

Charlotte Wrigley's book, 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. It examines people who are creating commerce out of thawing permafrost, including scientists wishing to recreate the prehistoric "Mammoth steppe" ecosystem, Indigenous people who forage the tundra for exposed mammoth bodies to sell their tusks, and government officials hoping to keep their city standing as the ground collapses under it. Wrigley shows that discontinuity, which eventually evolves into extinction, has implications for the entire planet.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 04 April 2023
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

Climate scientists regard permafrost as a "ticking time bomb" for the planet, and apocalyptic narratives about the devastating effects of permafrost thaw on human survival are emerging from the Arctic. In her book Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood, Charlotte Wrigley explores how permafrost, and its disappearance, redefine extinction as a lack of continuity, both material and social, and something that affects not only life on Earth but also nonlife.

Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood approaches the topic of thawing permafrost and the emerging new economies and mitigation strategies 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 who wish to recreate the prehistoric "Mammoth steppe" ecosystem by eventually rewilding resurrected woolly mammoths, Indigenous people who forage the tundra for exposed mammoth bodies to sell their tusks, and government officials who hope to keep their city standing as the ground collapses under it. Warming begets thawing begets economic activity, and as a result, permafrost becomes discontinuous, both as land and as a social category, in ways that have implications for the entire planet.

Discontinuity, as Wrigley shows, eventually evolves into extinction. Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood offers a new way of defining extinction through the concept of "discontinuity," presenting a meditative and story-focused engagement with permafrost as more than just frozen ground.

Weight: 318g
Dimension: 140 x 216 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781517911829