Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide accelerates the decomposition of organic matter stored in soil, particularly in high-latitude regions where vast quantities of carbon have been locked in frozen or waterlogged ground for millennia. As this stored carbon decomposes and releases back into the atmosphere as more carbon dioxide and methane, it can further accelerate the very warming that triggered the decomposition in the first place.

Which one of the following is the most logical corollary of the passage given above?