The Thawing of the Perma Frost

There's so much carbon in prime frost soils, which are typically found in high latitude eco systems where it's significantly colder than anywhere else for most of the year. The microbes responsible for effectively breaking down residue in soil can't be effective under these extreme cold conditions. And when that happens, then you have continuous accumulation of carbon over hundreds and thousands of years - but now the environment's getting warmer. An unchecked warming in many of these arctic echo systems could lead to hundreds billions metrictons of carbon being released into the atmosphere within a century or so.