Beste Evert,

You pose some interesting questions about permafrost melting. Using Google Earth as an artisitic source of inspiration is a great approach. Permafrost landscapes provide particularly fascinating landscapes often reminiscent of modern art and no better way to see these than with satellite or airphoto images.
To answer your questions:
1) Satellite and air photos provide especially effective tools to study environmental change over time. Field work, sample sites, data collection and monitoring are critical components of satellite based landscape studies. There are global monitoring networks have reasonably long records of permafrost monitoring (active layer dynamics, ground temperature, permafrost depth etc.). The Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost is an example: http://www.gtnp.org/index_e.html. A good practical example is the East Siberian and Alaskan Transect Project: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/snowice/Permafrost-lab/projects/projects_completed/proj_transects.html

2) The image of the Siberian Tundra you used shows a typical permafrost wetland landscape. It is in the continuous permafrost zone and it does not show any dramatic melting, but it demonstrates typical arctic lake permafrost dynamics. In fact a number of lakes have disappeared over time and within the dried up lake bottoms permafrost is building again.

3) To understand the relationship between permafrost melting and climate change, you have to understand that the building of permafrost (aggradation) and the melting of permafrost (degradation) are two processes that occur more or less simultaneous. The active layer of soil which freezes in winter and thaws in summer is an example of this. The figure below demonstrates the varying thickness of the active layer and the aggrading permafrost which is filling in a former lake again. ( source: http://piru.alexandria.ucsb.edu/collections/geosystems/geosystems17-17.jpg

4) Your blog talks about methane and the BBC series. It is interesting to note that one of the research sites is quite close to your “painting”. I have inserted below one of the illustrations and provided a link to the location on GE. This study talks about the melting of Yedoma , a Pleistocene loess permafrost with a high ice content and rich in organic matter. Source: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7107/abs/nature05040.html
The landscape studied here is different from your area; in particular fewer thaw lakes and more sloping terrain. If you study this area in detail you can also see the rich fire history. Wildland fires occur frequently and are expected to increase significantly due to global warming.

5) For comparison I have included an image from Barrow Alaska showing the age of thaw lakes in ice rich permafrost. The source: http://www.geography.uc.edu/~kenhinke/dtlb/

Gegroet