Environmental time bomb

I must say, this is very upsetting. Here are excerpts from an article entitled "Time bomb ticks under ice":

While governments and oil giants are hoping the melting ice over the North Pole will allow them access to the world's last treasure trove of oil and gas, climatologists are deeply worried about something else buried under the ice that, if unearthed, could wreak havoc on the biosphere, with dire consequences for human life...

Much of the Siberian sub-Arctic region -- an area the size of France and Germany combined -- is a vast, frozen peat bog. Before the most recent Ice Age, the area was mostly grassland, teeming with wildlife. The coming of the glaciers entombed the organic matter below the permafrost, where it has remained ever since. Although the surface of Siberia is largely barren, there is as much organic matter buried underneath the permafrost as there is in all of the world's tropical rain forests. Now the permafrost is thawing on land and along the seabeds. If this happens in the presence of oxygen, the decomposing of organic matter leads to the production of CO2. If, in the absence of oxygen, the permafrost thaws along lake shelves, the decomposing matter releases methane -- the most potent of the greenhouse gases, with an effect 23 times that of CO2...

Scientists are particularly concerned that the thawing permafrost is also creating shadow lakes across the Siberian sub-Arctic landscape. The lake waters have a higher ambient temperature than the surrounding permafrost. As a result, the permafrost near the lakes thaws more quickly, forcing the ground surfaces to collapse into the lakes. The stored organic carbon then decomposes into the lake bottoms. Methane from that decomposition bubbles to the surface and escapes into the atmosphere...

[Researchers warn of a] tipping point sometime within this century, when the release of methane could create an uncontrollable feedback effect, dramatically warming the atmosphere... A global tragedy of monumental proportions is unfolding at the top of the world, and the human race is all but oblivious to what's happening.

I have read that it is possible that the earth will end up like Venus - way too hot to support life of any kind.