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Heat-trapping gas once frozen in Arctic ground is slowly leaking and warming the planet
Scientists say thawing permafrost could add nearly half a degree of warming by 2100 as Arctic land collapses and releases stored greenhouse gases.
The Arctic has shifted from a reliable carbon sink to a source, venting more heat-trapping gases than it absorbs as thawing permafrost releases methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Warming four times faster than the rest of the globe, the Arctic is melting ground that remained frozen for millennia, allowing long-sequestered organic matter to decay into greenhouse gases.
Arctic ecologist Sue Natali co-authored a September study projecting permafrost thaw will increase warming by 20% this century, while a Woodwell Climate Research Center team identified more than 40,000 landscape slumps using satellites.
University of Alaska Fairbanks geophysicist Vladimir Romanovsky warns that once-stable ground is now collapsing, destabilizing infrastructure like homes, roads, and pipelines as permafrost loses structural strength.
Scientists emphasize this is an immediate crisis, not a 100-year problem, as current U.N. warming projections of 2.6 degrees C fail to account for thawing permafrost emissions.
As the permafrost around the Arctic, which has been frozen for thousands of years, begins to thaw, carbon dioxide and methane are being released into the atmosphere. This thawing, occurring in regions stretching from Alaska to Canada and Siberia, is reportedly accelerating as temperatures rise.