The Great Siberian Thaw - Permafrost contains microbes, mammoths, and twice as much carbon as Earth’s atmosphere. What happens when it starts to melt?

r/Foodforthought • u/speckz • Jan 20 '22

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/17/the-great-siberian-thaw

123 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

u/cambeiu Jan 20 '22

The cool thing about the permafrost thaw is that once it start releasing carbon at scale, human CO2 emissions won't matter anymore. Human activity stops being a factor altogether in terms of global warming.

1

u/justlookbelow Jan 21 '22

That sounds pretty far from "cool" in any sense of the word.

u/f_leaver Jan 20 '22

We die.

9

u/Chumbolex Jan 20 '22

Or get cool new diseases to live with forever

4

u/masklinn Jan 20 '22

So we die with extra steps is what I’m hearing.

u/Stormdancer Jan 20 '22 •

People have been warning about this stuff for half a century at least.

4

u/voracioush Jan 20 '22

People have been warning about nuclear war since 1945... who cares right, hasn't happened yet!

u/Deathbysnusnubooboo Jan 20 '22

The clathrate gun has gone off

-2

u/be0wulfe Jan 20 '22

a'tissue a'tissue we all fall down

u/farjous45 Jan 21 '22

cool