{
  "id": 11959677,
  "title": "Heat-trapping gas once frozen in Arctic ground is slowly leaking and warming the planet",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/04/heat-trapping-gas-once-frozen-in-arctic-ground-is-slowly-leaking-and",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-04T16:20:01.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Phys.org",
    "slug": "phys-org",
    "url": "https://phys.org/news/2026-10-gas-frozen-arctic-ground-slowly.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Ted Schuur, an ecologist at Northern Arizona University, explained that as the Arctic warms four times faster than the rest of the globe, its previously frozen ground, or permafrost, is thawing. This thawing allows trapped methane and carbon dioxide, produced from decaying plants and animals, to escape into the atmosphere, warming the planet. \"There's three times as much carbon still frozen in permafrost than what's now in the air,\" Schuur said, emphasizing that this carbon release is one of climate change's \"scary tipping points.\"\n\nPermafrost, ground that stays frozen for at least two years and often for centuries, traps decaying matter, preventing it from turning into greenhouse gases. However, as the Arctic warms, this system is becoming unstable. Scientists project that by the end of the century, the release of previously trapped gases from permafrost will add nearly half a degree of warming, roughly equal to the warming from a major industrialized country or the whole of Europe.\n\nWhile the Arctic helps Earth's carbon cycle by acting as a sink, capturing carbon from the air, this balance has shifted due to warming. Now, it is venting more heat-trapping gases than it absorbs, contributing to climate change rather than helping mitigate it. Permafrost thaw, along with other warming-induced emissions from fires and changes to wetlands and lakes, is likely to increase warming by 20% by the end of the century.",
  "summary": "As Ted Schuur stepped along the edges of Smith Lake, a bubble surfaced from the muck underfoot. And then another. They're bubbles of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas made from decomposing plants and animals that had once been stuck in Alaska's frigid permafrost. But that frozen ground is thawing because the Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the globe. For thousands of years…",
  "key_points": [
    "Arctic permafrost is thawing four times faster than the global average.",
    "Trapped methane and CO2 from thawing permafrost are released into the atmosphere.",
    "By century's end, permafrost emissions could add nearly half a degree of warming."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}