Methane and Arctic Thawing- William Hall

Methane is the simplest of the hydrocarbons and is produced by biological and geological processes. It’s one of the most important greenhouse effect gases, since it traps 84 times more atmospheric heat per mass unit than CO2 in a 20 years period. Naturally occurring methane is found both below ground and under the seafloor. The largest reservoir of methane is under the seafloor in the form of methane clathrates, a kind of “ice“ composed of water and methane. This clathrate is also found in huge amounts in the permafrost of the Arctic. The climate warming could melt permafrost and undersea clathrates, releasing gigantic quantities of methane into the atmosphere (we already have the highest methane atmospheric concentration in the last 200,000 years due to the human activity). This process could produce a feedback effect which potentially would elevate the temperature of our planet to limits not reached since the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event 252 million years ago, in which 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species became extinct. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9vP7DiQSPbc [thanks to Juan Diego Valverde]

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I completely concur with Juan Diego Valverde's comments above, and have some of the substantial evidence supporting the dangers from stored ice-like CO₂ and methane clathrates (also known as hydrates) that will be released from melting permafrost in the Arctic zone.

The excellent video linked here describes the Russian effort to rebuild the Pleistocene fauna of Siberia to geoengineer the taiga to increase its reflectivity and break up winter snow cover to substantially delay melting of the permafrost and associated release of massive quantities of CO₂ and methane. The proposal makes a substantial amount of sense, and is under active scientific study to verify the validity of the approach. Time challenged as I am, I watched it through.