Arctic Rewilding: A Wild Solution To Climate Catastrophe
As the planet continues to warm, Arctic permafrost is thawing at an alarming rate. James takes a closer look at the problem and a possible solution on the horizon.
Illustration by Amelia Brooks.
For a long time, humankind has waged war with the earth, fighting for its place and dominating nature through mass agriculture and fossil fuel consumption which has amounted in a quickly warming atmosphere, festering with carbon emissions and pollutants. Amongst new efforts to lower global emissions and the temperature of the climate, a climate disaster has quietly been looming in the form of the Mammoth Steppe, Permafrost, which if not dealt with soon, is believed to lead to a near future crisis. A pandora’s box. The mammoth steppe, amorously named after its primeval inhabitants, is a large area of permafrost in Eastern Arctic Siberia which is chiefly composed of the remains of millions of tons of organic matter such as the carcasses of mammoth and ancient vegetation, frozen in a state of decay. With the warming of the planet increasing, this has led to the thawing of areas such as the mammoth steppe which as a result, has been releasing carbon emissions into the atmosphere and adding to the rising temperatures.
Sergey Zimov is a Russian scientist and ecologist, known most notably as the Director of the Northeast Scientific Station - the third largest arctic research station - and one of the founding members of Pleistocene Park. Through his fielding research along the Kolyma River, Eastern Siberia, he discovered that layers of permafrost were thawing at an alarming rate, giving way to soft earth, exposed organic material and thick growing grasses and vegetation. In a 2019 National Geographic article by Craig Welch, titled ‘Arctic Permafrost Is Thawing’, the writer recalls his visit to the site and meeting with the ecologist. He describes the experience, ‘Twigs, other plant matter, and Ice Age animal parts—bison jaws, horse femurs, mammoth bones—spilled onto a beach that sucked at Zimov’s boots.’ Setting a vivid image as if out of a fictional wasteland.
It has been estimated that this area of permafrost, could be holding as much as ‘three times the biomass of all of the Earth’s rainforests combined and globally estimated at around 1600 gigatons of carbon.’
Welch further states that due to the increased speed at which the temperature of the Arctic has been rising, ‘researchers now suspect that for every one degree Celsius rise in Earth’s average temperature, permafrost may release the equivalent of four to six years’ worth of coal, oil, and natural gas emissions – double to triple what scientists thought a few years ago. A frightening thought considering that this data is now only being evaluated and accounted for in efforts to cool global temperatures.
In an active motion to slow and even prevent further thawing of the permafrost, Sergey Zimov has suggested that a solution lies in rewilding, which means to restore the research area of Eastern Siberia, now known as Pleistocene Park, back to its ancestral livelihood in the hopes of stopping an irreversible change.
Illustration by Amelia Brooks.
Rewilding is a practice that is gradually becoming more popular today, in which unused agricultural land and fields are left to be reclaimed by wilderness in order to revive natural equality and or balance to pastures, giving back sustainability through any climate, provided they are populated with a natural ecosystem. This idea has successfully been employed in areas such as Canada, Alaska and the suburbs of Amsterdam, in which a large area of pasture was given back to wild horses. It is also a way for us to give back to the earth and redeem a more balanced connection with nature itself.
In an essay published in 2014 titled, ‘This Wild Field Manifesto Is A Work In Progress’, Zimov outlined the thoughts behind Pleistocene Park building on his research and the ideas of rewilding – a plan which is now being executed. Zimov suggests the rather radical idea that in order to slow the rate at which the permafrost is thawing, the landscape needs to be transformed back to how it would have existed during the time of the Pleistocene. A flat plain, rich with grassland and shrubbery and populated heavily with herd animals which then would have been horses, goats, bison, oxen and of course, elephants and the woolly mammoth.
Illustrations by Amelia Brooks.
By re-introducing similar herd animals on mass such as horses, reindeer, moose and musk ox, it is Zimov’s thought that the animals will naturally promote and maintain wild ecosystems which will redesign and re-cultivate the land, as a result. He states, ‘All that is required to recreate pasture ecosystems is to fence off a territory where grasses and herbs grow. The second step is to collect animals which can live off this territory (…) naturally they will divide pastures and occupy all ecological niches according to their professions/roles.’
Each animal will manage their environment, feeding on the herbs and grasses, breaking down areas of coverage such as woodland and forests. Zimov describes this exchange between wildlife and pasture as a ‘Bio-cycling.’ It is the cyclical nature in which an ecosystem naturally maintains balance and self regulates, returning carbon materials and nutrients back to the earth.
In doing so, the top layer of ground will be exposed to colder air and this will allow the temperature of permafrost below to stay frozen.
With the continual development and growth of Pleistocene park and their research, it has become one of Zimov’s ambitions to return perhaps the most important animal to the cause – The Woolly Mammoth. In connection to a laboratory in Boston, Massachusetts, efforts are being made to artificially recreate a hybrid of the mammals from Mammoth samples found at Pleistocene Park. Whilst this rewilding project remains a long-term experiment, it is exciting to think we could be seeing the return of such an ancient beast perhaps within the next decade.
James Osborne
James Osborne is an artist and writer who graduated from Falmouth University in 2019. He has since found recognition and representation through a variety of galleries and institutes, with his work exhibited across the South West. Through his painting, drawing and writing, James explores ideas of presence, depicting landscapes through a quiet and spectatorial lens. His practice is very much in response to a love of the environment and entwined with the act of walking - finding a reconnection.
You can find more of his work on his website www.jamesosborne.uk or on Instagram @jimosborne_studio.