When the Earth shifts

While the world around me is muted beneath a thick blanket of snow, I can distinctly hear the silence as I step onto the land. June 2024. Summer. -3°C. Polar day, which means the sun will not set. 24 hours of daylight. These conditions serve as a stark reminder that I am standing on a truly unique piece of land in the Northern Hemisphere, Spitsbergen.

This feeling deepens when I stand on the sea ice at 78° North latitude. It feels strange to be standing in the middle of the sea, where only a slight difference in water temperature allows me to stand on this frozen seawater and keeps me from having to swim. A mere 1.8°C difference is all that keeps the sea ice solid. If the temperature shifts even slightly, ¹ it will turn from solid ice to liquid saltwater. I worry when I realise that the surface temperature of the polar seas has risen by 0.51°C in the past decade. This sea ice will not ² take much longer to become part of the liquid sea as well. By that point, I will be safely back on land. For the polar bear, however, her habitat is being destroyed. It will no longer be possible for her to hunt from the ice flows of the sea ice.

As I return to land, I am confronted by the thawing ground beneath my feet. Seeing the ice wedge into polygons [image 1], I realise that the ground is shifting in this remote part of the Earth’s cryosphere ³ . Permafrost — the once permanently frozen layer — is becoming ⁴ increasingly unstable. This layer, formed over millennia from compressed organic material, is beginning to thaw due to global warming, causing profound changes. For thousands of years, communities have lived in Arctic areas within these permafrost zones, where the frozen ground is essential. Once a stable foundation, it has now turned into a fragile landscape with severe consequences for both the environment and the communities that rely on it.
The infrastructure built on this ground is crumbling. Roads, buildings, and bridges are sinking as the thawing permafrost destabilises the land and thermokarst appears ⁵ . Coastal communities face the threat of erosion, and entire villages are being relocated inland to escape the effects of a warming climate ⁶ .

The loss of permafrost also disrupts the balance of Arctic ecosystems. Vegetation that is critical to the survival of animals, such as reindeer, is changing. This is affecting the food supply for both wildlife and the human communities who have relied on hunting and fishing for generations. Like the polar bear, these communities are also losing their traditional hunting and fishing methods. For indigenous reindeer herders like the Sami in Scandinavia and the Nenets in Siberia, permafrost is not merely frozen soil — it is a natural compass that guides their migration by helping them understand where the ground might turn into deep swamp. With this knowledge, they carefully decide where to set up their camps. During the winter, they stay in the tundra. Then they migrate to the Arctic coast once summer arrives, guided by an ecological intuition tied to the seasons and the landscape. However, this age-old balance is now disrupted, as larger parts of the permafrost thaw in the summer, turning the surface layers of vast areas wet, soft, and muddy. This creates dangerous conditions for both the reindeer and the herders. Their nomadic traditions are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.

Most communities in the Arctic Nordic region live in a continuous permafrost zone. A concerning issue for these places is the legacy of past oil and gas activities. Holes were drilled into the permafrost to store toxic substances like drilling fluids. Now that the inactive layer is beginning to soften and break down, these storage sites are collapsing and releasing these toxic substances into the environment, further endangering both human and animal life.

But perhaps the most alarming consequence is the release of greenhouse gases. As the permafrost thaws, organic material begins to decompose, creating methane — a potent greenhouse gas that accelerates global warming. This vicious cycle is a large contributor to the very changes that are threatening the region.

During my artist residency in Spitsbergen, I had the opportunity to witness some of the scientific efforts being made towards researching climate change. In Ny-Ålesund, I was intrigued by the measuring equipment and research conducted by scientists from around the world. While I am not a scientist myself, my work intersects with scientific themes. I approached my research on Spitsbergen as an opportunity to contribute artistically to the conversation. I researched methane emissions, recording the sounds of methane bubbles emerging from pingos and the tundra, capturing and amplifying the invisible shifts beneath the ⁷ Earth’s surface. Using a hydrophone to record these sounds, I made the hidden methane audible in order to use these recordings as part of my ongoing project: An Archive of the Arctic Echoes.

On Sami National Day (February 6, 2025), I spent the night in the Sami hut, Jiennagoahti, reflecting on the struggles of the Sami people. Despite being Europe’s oldest indigenous group, the needs of the Sami remain largely ignored by governments. However, the Sami have always listened to the Earth and lived in harmony with its rhythms. I was deeply moved by the sound work of Elina Waage Miklalsen, who raised the question: “What does it mean when the Norwegian government does not listen to its own supreme court?” This question, along with my experiences, has reinforced the importance of listening — not only to the sounds and frequencies we can hear but to the silences, to what is often unheard.

An Archive of the Arctic Echoes seeks to give voice to those that are often invisible or inaudible. By capturing the sounds of methane bubbles rising from the tundra, then amplifying and playing them as instruments, I aim to bring the unseen to light. These ecological shifts are difficult to understand, but they demand our attention. Listening is not just about the land — it is also about the people who have lived in harmony with it for generations. The Sami have long been ignored and suppressed by governments that fail to recognise their rights, knowledge, and traditions. Although their deep understanding of the Arctic landscape holds wisdom that modern societies urgently need, their voices continue to be silenced. But what happens when the Earth shifts beneath us and we refuse to listen? Can we learn to tune into the frequencies that go beyond our human senses — to hear both the land and the people who have always understood its rhythms? And most importantly, can we act on what we hear to protect not only the land and the Arctic, but also those who have safeguarded its knowledge for centuries? An Archive of the Arctic Echoes is about more than just documenting environmental change — it is about learning to listen differently, to engage with the Earth, and to amplify those unheard voices.

Footnotes

1. Peter Braesicke et al., World Ocean Review 6: The Arctic and Antarctic – Extreme, Climatically Crucial and in Crisis(Hamburg: Maribus, 2019), 32, 1accessed February 24, 2025, https://worldoceanreview.com/en/wor-6/ . ↩
2. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Arctic Report Card 2023: Sea Surface Temperature (Silver Spring, MD: NOAA, 2023), 2accessed February 24, 2025, https://arctic.noaa.gov/report-card/report-card-2023/sea-surface-temperature-2023 . ↩
3. An ice wedge is a formation that develops when the ground contracts and cracks due to extreme cold in winter. In spring, meltwater seeps into these cracks and refreezes, forming a vertical sheet of ice. This cycle repeats each year, gradually expanding the wedge, with its widest part near the surface. When multiple ice wedges grow and connect, they create distinctive polygon-shaped patterns in the landscape. ↩
4. Cryosphere encompasses all frozen water on Earth, such as glaciers, ice caps, permafrost, and sea ice. ↩
5. Thermokarst is a type of landscape deformation that occurs when permafrost thaws and ground ice melts, causing the land to sink. This process 5 creates uneven depressions that can fill with water, forming thermokarst ponds or lakes. ↩
6. Westerveld, L., T. Kurvits, T. Schoolmeester, O. B. Mulelid, T. S. Eckhoff, P. P. Overduin, M. Fritz, et al. Arctic Permafrost Atlas. Arendal: GRID-Arendal, 6 2023. ↩
7. A pingo is a hill that forms when water trapped in the ground freezes and expands, pushing the soil above it upward. Inside, it contains a core of ice, 7 and as it melts, methane can be released. ↩