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Katie Orlinsky

Wild horses graze along the Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia. Keeping the grasslands healthy is thought to reduce permafrost thaw, which, if left unchecked, could speed up negative effects of climate change.

The Batagaika crater in eastern Siberia, half a mile wide and growing, is the largest of many across the Arctic. As climate change thaws permafrost, the ground collapses, forming craters or lakes.

Newtok, in Alaska, is sinking. As the permafrost underpinning the 350-strong settlement thaws, the ground is crumbling, causing the already low-lying settlement to confront the threat of inundation from the Bering Sea, which also provides the town with its subsistence. Now, with the sea just feet from some homes, the entire town is facing the possibility of relocation.

Global heating also threatens centuries-old ways of living and subsisting. Here, a young whaler stacks meat in his family’s permafrost cellar in Barrow, Alaska. This natural cooling mechanism is being compromised by the melting of permafrost and the thawing of ground that has remained frozen for thousands of years. Wildfires in regions previously frozen – such as those in Siberia in 2021 – are burning and releasing CO2 from tundra and peatland, the most carbon-dense ecosystems in the world.

The lush green of Pleistocene Park weaves its way around northern Russia's blue lakes in this aerial view of the refuge.

A blueberry picker gathers fruit at Atlantic Blueberry Co. in Mays Landing, New Jersey, where most workers live on site and make between $10.30 and $13.20 an hour. Workers continued to collect the harvest and work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A team of sled dogs race on the Herbert Glacier, near Juneau, Alaska. This group of dog breeds has not interbred with wolves – a surprising discovery.

The village of Newtok, Alaska, population 380, is sinking as the permafrost beneath it thaws. On a summer bird hunt, four Yupik boys—from left, Kenyon Kassaiuli, Jonah Andy, Larry Charles, and Reese John—cross a flooded walkway.