My World Is Melting

Norwegian journalist Line Nagell Ylvisåker lives with her family in Longyearbyen, the world’s most northerly town.

The settlement is in Svalbard, an archipelago in a region where temperatures are rising faster than anywhere else on the planet.

In 2015, a devastating avalanche struck the town center, claiming the lives of a young girl and a father. The following autumn brought rain and landslides. When winter arrived, a second avalanche smashed into yet more of Longyearbyen's homes.

The recurring storms and mild weather began to make Line feel worried. In search of answers, she talked to a meteorologist who was herself buried in the first avalanche. She visited a trapper who had spent 40 inhospitable winters in Svalbard. She followed the sea currents and weather systems, hunted for the fossils of Svalbard's ancient forests, and encountered three polar bears while out hiking with her children.

Along the way, she recorded the changes Longyearbyen had been through and reflected on the paradoxes of a town built on coal mining and tourism.

An unflinching and fearlessly personal report from the Arctic.