Researchers Tally the Global Cost of Melting Permafrost

As climate change melts permafrost in the Arctic, huge amounts of carbon dioxide and methane are released into the atmosphere, speeding global warming in the process. A new University of Cambridge study shows that by the end of the 22nd century, the global economic toll of those greenhouse gases will total $43 trillion.

The study, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows that permafrost soils contain roughly 1,700 gigatonnes of carbon locked in frozen organic matter, which has begun to thaw as the globe warms. Until now, there have been no estimates of the economic costs of releasing that carbon into the atmosphere.

The study assumes that by 2100, humans will have stopped emitting greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations will have reached 700 parts per million (it reached 400 ppm globally for the first time in May).

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