Thread by @ClimateBen

We're set for huge, rapid releases of permafrost carbon by the 2040s with catastrophic consequences for all life on Earth.

climate.nasa.gov/news/2785/unex…

'we’re underestimating the impact of permafrost thaw by 50%'

wired.com/story/abrupt-p…

Permafrost thaw is about to trigger a vicious cycle of warming that will be impossible to stop.

insideclimatenews.org/news/19022019/…

Arctic permafrost is melting 70 years earlier than expected by the IPCC.

independent.co.uk/news/world/ame…

Abrupt permafrost thawing is disrupting deeper carbon stockpiles more rapidly and releasing more methane than gradual thawing.
m.phys.org/news/2019-04-r…

Will 40% of the world’s permafrost melt at 2°C by the 2030s?

e360.yale.edu/features/how-m…

Nitrous oxide emissions from thawing Alaskan permafrost are far higher than previously assumed.

(N2O traps heat nearly 300 times more efficiently than carbon dioxide does...)

news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/…

Permafrost is set to be as big a source of greenhouse gases as the world’s largest emitting countries within decades.

nationalgeographic.com/environment/20…

We can't prevent abrupt thawing of permafrost, it is collapsing suddenly as pockets of ice within it melt.

nature.com/articles/d4158…

Coastal permafrost erosion in the Arctic is accelerating away from us.

thinkprogress.org/arctic-death-s…

The continuous feedback loop of melting permafrost is speeding up, triggering amplifying feedbacks.

Are we rapidly approaching a climate death spiral, or are we already in it?

thinkprogress.org/dangerous-perm…

Possibly one of the most severe threats is the potential thawing of Arctic seabed permafrost which has been frozen since the last Ice Age.

A release of methane could give 0.6°C warming of the planet in the space of just 5 years.

That's unthinkable horror.counterpunch.org/2016/06/17/epi…

("The impacts from abrupt thaw are not represented in any existing global model and our findings indicate that this could amplify the permafrost climate-carbon feedback by up to a factor of two, thereby exacerbating the problem of permissible emissions...")phys.org/news/2020-02-a…

We'll see dramatic permafrost degradation in the coming decades even if greenhouse gas emissions are radically decreased.

CCSM3, A2 scenario:

'Permafrost degradation of this magnitude is likely to have significant adverse ecological & societal impacts' ⚠️agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…

Permafrost Emergency:

The future looks dire. Within decades, 'the area covered by permafrost might shrink from nearly 4 million square miles to less than 0.4 million; most of Alaska and the southern tip of Greenland would be permafrost-free.'

Calamity.

e360.yale.edu/features/redra…