Irbet Tong

One day, your mom sent you to the store to buy jam for tea. You walk along a road that winds through a slowly collapsing yakutian village, where houses sink into the ground and the land loses its grip. In Sakha Sire, the degradation of permafrost is especially visible in places like Sylan, Usun-Kyuyol, Zyryanka, Churapcha, and Yukechi — and many others. Soon it will reach the boy’s home too — a child of the Sakha people, whose house sits right in the heart of a thermokarst zone. It’s one of the consequences of industrialization and widespread deforestation, heating the planet and unraveling the balance. Thermokarst, Sylan Village Troubled by what he sees, the boy begins to wonder what part he can play in healing his homeland, where families are being displaced and entire homes stand empty as the ground sinks and floods roll in. His path is a slow walk, filled with quiet reflections,...