Thawing

Old bones, old roots, add up to a potential new disaster. While Bu$hCo fiddles.

Ancient roots and bones locked in long-frozen soil in Siberia are starting to thaw, and have the potential to unleash billions of tons of carbon and accelerate global warming, scientists said.

This vast carbon reservoir, contained in permafrost soil in north-eastern Siberia, contains about 75 times more carbon than the amount released into the atmosphere each year by the burning of fossil fuels, the researchers said.