Thanks to global warming, the permafrost is no longer very perma, nor very frosty. We’ve noted before about how the ultimate release of huge amounts of greenhouse gases formerly trapped in the tundra could create a “self-perpetuating climate time bomb.” But we shouldn’t ignore the severe local impacts.

The New York Times has a front-page story on what global warming has done to the Alaskan village of Newtok:

Sea ice that would normally protect coastal villages is forming later in the year, allowing fall storms to pound away at the shoreline.

Erosion has made Newtok an island…. The village is below sea level, and sinking…. The ragged wooden houses have to be adjusted regularly to level them on the shifting soil.

Studies say Newtok could be washed away within a decade….

The corps has estimated that to move Newtok could cost $130 million because of its remoteness, climate and topography. That comes to almost $413,000 for each of the 315 residents.

Not that anyone is offering to pay.

The Global Warming Deniers always say we must adapt, but that is mostly empty rhetoric. The Bush administration is too busy dumbing down G-8 statements and muzzling U.S. climate scientsts to take real action.

The Alaskan quoted in the headline, Frank Tommy, 47, says, “It’s too muddy. Everything is crooked around here.” That last sentence would seem to be a fitting epitaph for the Bush Administration.

Being an an environmental pragmatist means making tough choices, choosing between alternative energy sources like hydrogen and turkey poop.

The Toronto Globe and Mail quotes us on the former:

When is the fuel-cell car going to be widely available? Car companies like Ford and General Motors say they could be ready to market fuel-cell vehicles by 2015, depending on the availability of fuelling stations. Expert panels have told the California and federal governments that target is optimistic. Hydrogen critics, like former U.S. Department of Energy official Joseph Romm, says: “Not in our lifetime.”

As for the Associated Press story quoting Climate Progress on turkey poop, that continues to be picked up by newspapers who recognize an important story when they see one — in New Mexico (“Turkey poop will power electric plant“) and in Canada (“Turkey coop waste will power first U.S. poultry litter electric plant“). Note the amusing lengths the ever-polite Canadians will go to avoid using the word “poop” in the headline.

And yes, Climate Progress believes that turkey crap is a better alternative energy source then hydrogen.