Polar Permaculture dome glows with pink grow lights in Longyearbyen’s early morning light.

“A Yup’ik hunter on Saint Lawrence Island once told me that what traditional Eskimos fear most about us is the extent of our power to alter the land, the scale of that power, and the fact that we can easily effect some of these changes electronically, from a distant city. Eskimos, who sometimes see themselves as still not quite separate from the animal world, regard us as a kind of people whose separation may have become too complete. They call us, with a mixture of incredulity and apprehension, “the people who change nature.”

Barry Lopez in Arctic Dreams

The plume of smoke released from its coal-powered plant exposes Barentsburg’s location from across Isfjorden.