Here are several related links a friend sent me. I am sending him this post.
Letter in nature
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/wildfires.pdf
http://www.wildfirepire.org/sites/default/files/hu_2010_tundra_burning_in_alaska_linkages_to_climatic_change_and_sea_ice_retreat.pdf
http://www.lter.uaf.edu/dev2009/pdf/1350_Tarnocai_Canadell_2009.pdf
NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/17/science/earth/warming-arctic-permafrost-fuels-climate-change-worries.html?pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me
I have not read these yet, but was told the Alaska fires were very severe. Also, last year I saw something about a Russian scientist who was very concerned that large quantities of methane were being released from the Lena River delta emptying into the Arctic Ocean. There are those who believe that a giant methane burp caused a major extinction event about 55 million years ago.
In central Michigan in the 1960s there was usually some methane fire somewhere burning someone’s lawn or field.
Thanks for all the links. Methane, mine it or it burps out to enter the atmosphere. My thinking is as was stated above, mine it, burn it, produce energy from the methane’s energy.