Scientists
 at Edinburgh University in Scotland have observed a 31% increase in 
methane emitted by high latitude permafrost, or Arctic tundra, in just 
the past five years. They also note that global warming in the Arctic is
 occurring at twice the rate as anywhere else on Earth, with some 
regions having already warmed by 2.5 degrees Celsius. 
Dr. 
Phillippe Ciais with the Laboratory for Climate Sciences and the 
Environment in France reported in 2009 that vast stores of methane could
 be released with just a 2 degree Celsius average global rise. As Arctic
 soils store billions of tons of the gas, which has far more warming 
potential than carbon dioxide, the thawing of this region could create 
what has been called a “ticking timebomb” that would overwhelm any human
 efforts to halt it. 
Dr. Ciais and University of Edinburgh 
researchers, we appreciate your observations and their resounding call 
to action. Let us step urgently while we still have time toward 
sustainable solutions that preserve our planet. 
Supreme Master 
Ching Hai has often emphasized the critical danger of triggering such a 
methane release, as well as what we can do to halt it, as during 
September 2009 videoconference in South Korea.
Supreme Master Ching Hai:
 I would say that the most serious one is the frightening prospect of 
runaway global warming, described by scientists as the conditions that 
will trigger out-of-control climate change effects.
This runaway 
warming of the climate could easily be caused by melting permafrost, 
which is the frozen soil extending across the vast expanse of the Arctic
 tundra. 
As the permafrost melts, it releases methane stored 
underground. Since 2007, scientists have seen more and more evidence of 
methane from permafrost melt, with recent discoveries of pure methane 
gas bubbling up from 
the bottom of the Arctic lakes in both northern Canada and Russia. 
The
 more people who eliminate meat and, indeed, all animal products from 
their lives, the more we have a chance to save the planet and not only 
that, to actually restore our earthly home to her original grace and 
beauty and even more so, more than what we have known, more beautiful, 
more abundant, more peace, more gladness than what we have known up to 
now. 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/14/arctic-permafrost-methane http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8459770.stmhttp://www.news.com.au/arctic-greenhouse-gas-emissions-jump-30pc/story-e6frflrr-1225820280873