Noons for Now: Canada Needs Permafrost Climate Services with Stephan Gruber (Carleton U)
The Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) revealed the benefits of ambitious mitigation and effective adaptation and, conversely, the escalating costs and risks of delayed action. But how do we best enable this effective adaptation and ambitious mitigation when it comes to permafrost thaw? With more than 1/3 of the exposed land surface, Canada is a permafrost country in a global climate crisis. We need operational services to connect and deliver the knowledge that exists in the many diverse permafrost stakeholder groups. This Noons for Now discussion will briefly introduce the challenge of permafrost thaw globally and in Canada, and then ask how we can work toward better informing forward-looking adaptation.
Stephan Gruber investigates permafrost thaw in polar and mountain areas and how observations and model data can be turned into products to inform adaptation decisions. He works at Carleton University in Ottawa and holds the Canada Research Chair in Climate Change Impacts/Adaptation in Northern Canada. Stephan is the Scientific Director of NSERC PermafrostNet; previous roles include lead author of the mountain chapter and member of drafting team for the Summary for Policymakers of the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, lead author in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Program and Co-editor-in-chief of The Cryosphere.
Resource List:
Stephan’s Published Work
Stephan Gruber. “Derivation and analysis of a high-resolution estimate of global permafrost zonation.” The Cryosphere, 2012.
Stephan Gruber, et al. “Permafrost and climate in Europe: Monitoring and modelling thermal, geomorphological and geotechnical responses.” Earth-Science Reviews, 2009.
Stephan Gruber, et al. “Permafrost Thaw and Destabilization of Alpine Rock Walls in the Hot Summer of 2003.” Geophysical Research Letters, 2004.
Stephan Gruber as Lead Author on IPCC Special Report, Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. IPCC, 2019.
Stephan Gruber, and Wilfried Haeberli. “Permafrost in steep bedrock slopes and its temperature‐related destabilization following climate change.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 2007.
Website Based Permafrost Research
Permafrost Research @ Carleton University. (This site provides an entry point to finding relevant faculty, students, facilities, projects, publication, expertise, and news concerning Permafrost research at Carleton University.)
NSERC PermafrostNet. (Hosted by Carleton University; Unites scholars and stakeholders from government agencies, industry and Indigenous communities with the common goal of boosting Canada’s ability to adapt to large scale permafrost thaw.)
Nonfiction Books on Permafrost
J. van Huissteden. Thawing Permafrost Permafrost Carbon in a Warming Arctic. Springer International Publishing, 2020.