The ‘Blue Diamonds’ of the Arctic Are Disappearing. And That’s Only Half the Story.
The Arctic’s countless lakes, often called ‘blue diamonds,’ are not static features of the landscape. They are dynamic sensors of past ice ages and present climate change, created by glacial erosion and preserved by permafrost. Now, as permafrost thaws, old lakes are disappearing while new, methane-emitting thermokarst lakes are forming—a feedback loop that accelerates global warming.