Not so permafrost anymore

CH4 bubbles in lake ice - early autumn (Credit: Katey Walter, Nature)

More weight is added to the idea that the process of global warming will itself accelerate further warming. A study published in the Sept. 7 issue of Nature, reports that large quantities of methane (CH4), a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent, though shorter lived, than carbon dioxide (CO2), trapped in thawing permafrost (yedoma - frozen tundric dust, deposited during the last glacial age that ended 15000 years ago) from Siberian lakes are being released into the atmosphere at a frightening rate, warming the climate even more, thus getting stuck in this positive feedback loop.