Review of The life of permafrost—a history of frozen earth in Russian and Soviet science, by Pey-Yi Chu (2020). Toronto, Buffalo, and London: University of Toronto Press. 288 pp. ISBN-978-1-4875-0193-8.

摘要

Permafrost is commonly defined as a condition where the ground frozen to a temperature of 0 °C or less for at least two consecutive years. But is permafrost a thing (a terrestrial substance defined by temperature) or a state of nature (a set of geochemical relations)? Thoroughly grounded in both archival sources and scientific knowledge, Pey-Yi Chu’s admirable book provides a history dealing with this confusion. Chu shows that terms like Eis-Boden, Boden-Eis and vechnaia merzlota have reflected different attempts to grapple with the nature of this condition, and throughout the book she italicizes the terms to emphasize their status as conceptual artefacts.