The largest component of the Earth’s cryosphere is permafrost – and it’s changing. The late 20th century and now the first decade of the 21st century have witnessed the warming of permafrost, increased discharges of northern Eurasian river systems, decreased discharges from western North American rivers, the changes in and disappearances of thaw lakes, boreal and tundra wildfires of enormous scale, changes of cloud cover, precipitation and atmospheric circulation, changes in terrestrial snow cover, and the rise of global mean sea level; Earth, Wind, Fire and Water in flux. Non-stationary processes pose challenges to interpretation of long- and short-term trends and modeling future states of permafrost ecosystems. We welcome papers of recent progress toward assessment, evaluation of uncertainty, and projections of the changes in the elements permafrost, taliks and active layer, and their linkages with changes of snow cover, river discharge, groundwater storage, thaw lakes, wildfire and methane emissions with energy cycle feedbacks on scales from the global to the local.