One of the consequences of a rapidly warming Arctic region is large scale melting of the permafrost. This map shows the continuous melting of permafrost on Alaska's North Slope. [yellow] Profit obsessed climate deniers ask, so what? Permafrost is a huge carbon sink; it currently covers about 5.8 million square miles. When it melts, carbon in the form of methane gas and carbon dioxide from decomposing organic material is released to the atmosphere, augmenting the greenhouse gas effect and warming the planet even more. Methane gas is a more potent climate pollutant that causes a difficult to stop feedback loop. Scientists specializing in this phenomenon have been warning for years that this feedback has not been taken into account when setting climate goals.
The most dramatic change has occurred in Siberia where deep permafrost temperatures have risen by 1.6 ℉. In fact recent research has revealed that the Arctic is warming 2.4 times faster than the rest of the Northern Hemisphere [chart below], which brings a host of cascading ecological effects that is transforming the region to an "unprecedented state". Warmer temperatures have shifted forest and tundra growing seasons, boosted rain and snowfall, increased melting, accelerated glaciers and possibly even increased the number of lightning strikes that could increase the risk of Arctic wildfires in the tundra and boreal forest, according to Jason Box, a scientist with Denmark's Geological Survey and lead author of a study of the last 50 years of temperature data published in Environmental Research Letters.
