Correction to: Nature Climate Change https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3403, published online 29 September 2017.

In the version of this Commentary originally published, it incorrectly stated that in ref. 14 the search for evidence of the rapid release of old stored carbon as CH4 in the Younger Dryas–Preboreal warming was ‘inconclusive’; it should have read ‘negative’. The timing of the Younger Dryas–Preboreal warming was incorrectly given as ‘14,000 years ago’; it should have read ‘11,600 years ago’. Additionally, in the figure legend, ‘Geological sinks incl. oceans’ should have read ‘Geological sources incl. oceans’. These errors have now been corrected in the online versions of the Commentary.