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Joe Romm at "THINKPROGRESS" has paid the $32 it will cost you to read the latest AGW / Climate Change shocker reported in "Nature" by researchers at NOAA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC.) A February 2011 study found that vast deposits of Arctic permafrost will be a major source of greenhouse gas emissions in the 2020s, with billions of tons of CO2 being released by 2100. The latest research is even more alarming, and shows that thawing, decomposing permafrost will release far more methane (CH4) than originally assumed. Methane is up to 100 times more potent than CO2 in trapping heat over a 20 year period. And because current climate models do not project the effect of methane release from thawing tundra, it is clear that IPCC projections should be set considerably higher (M.I.T. has doubled its 2095 warming projection to 10°F.). Bottom line: "We calculate that permafrost thaw will release the same order of magnitude of carbon as deforestation if current rates of deforestation continue. But because these emissions include significant quantities of methane, the overall effect on climate could be 2.5 times larger."
And this is not even the worst case scenario. Read the full article.
