Meanwhile permafrost emissions, which are seen as naturally occurring, are not counted against government pledges aimed at curbing emissions or in the spotlight at U.N. Scientists say that greenhouse gas emissions from its thaw could eventually match or even exceed the European Union’s industrial emissions due to the sheer volume of decaying organic matter.

Permafrost covers 65% of Russia’s landmass and about a quarter of the northern landmass. (Open in an external browser to see a picture package) “Methane has never increased in the atmosphere at the speed it is today … I think this is linked to our permafrost.” “This is one of the coldest places on earth and there is no permafrost,” he says. Zimov, who has studied permafrost from his scientific base in the diamond-producing Yakutia region for decades, is seeing the effects of climate change in real time.ĭriving a thin metal pole metres into the Siberian turf, where temperatures are rising at more than three times the world average, with barely any force, the 66-year-old is matter-of-fact. By Maxim Shemetov, Tom Balmforth and Clare BaldwinĬHERSKY, Russia – In one of the planet’s coldest places, 130 km south of Russia’s Arctic coast, scientist Sergey Zimov can find no sign of permafrost as global warming permeates Siberia’s soil.Īs everything from mammoth bones to ancient vegetation frozen inside it for millennia thaws and decomposes, it now threatens to release vast amounts of greenhouse gases.

Ice age 1