It is estimated by the 2007 International Counsel of Climate Change report that by the middle of the century 20% of all permafrost in the northern hemisphere may have disappeared.
This is a problem for Natives living in the north and for the entire world. For natives this means entire towns being washed away and poisonous gases being released. For the world these gases mean further intensification of global warming.
According to predictions 45 billion metric tonnes of greenhouse gasses could seep into the air in the next 30 years as permafrost melts. By 2100, 300 billion tonnes of carbon (in the form of carbon dioxide and methane) could be released.
But these are just estimates very little is known about how soon or how much carbon will be released and how this will affect our climate. Still the threat is here and it will not go away as global temperatures only promise to rise.
“The analogy is that it’s a big train about to derail,” said Dr. Merritt Turetsky, a University of Guelph ecologist who participated in the recent permafrost studies. “Once it begins, permafrost thaw occurs slowly but you can’t stop it. That lack of control makes anybody feel nervous.”
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