Arctic

Photograph courtesy of Ted Schuur

As global temperatures rise, frozen soils are thawing in the Arctic. A new study led by Ted Schuur (2011) estimates that carbon and methane stored in the frozen soils will be released to the atmosphere more quickly than models suggest, which will accelerate climate change. The study stresses the urgent need to reduce man-made greenhouse gas emissions. “If you think about fossil fuel and deforestation, those are things people are doing, so presumably if you had enough will, you could change your laws and adjust your society to slow some of that down,” Schuur says.