In the past, our planet was home to natural “carbon dioxide absorbers”, i.e. places like avid and oceansthat naturally remove potentially harmful effects on the climate carbon dioxide With atmosphere. However, as The Guardian reports, preliminary data from an international team of scientists shows that in 2023 – the hottest year on record – there has been an alarming decline in capacity Earth to absorb and neutralize carbon dioxide. Trees, soil and plants absorbed almost no carbon dioxide.
CO2 absorbers stopped working
In 2023, some of Earth’s natural carbon sinks appear to have stopped working. As The Guardian notes, these results echo other scientific findings, such as a 2023 zooplankton study that found that rapidly melting glaciers could hamper the ocean’s ability to capture and reuse carbon.
The critical point of the Earth’s climate
Scientists are sounding the alarm that we are reaching the critical point of Earth’s adaptation to excess amounts CO2 in the atmosphere. “This stressed planet has been silently helping us and allowing us to hide our debt by sweeping it under the rug with biodiversity,” Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told The Guardian. “We are stuck in the comfort zone – we don’t really see the crisis.”
Scientists’ models do not take many factors into account
It is worth noting that carbon sinks are complex and difficult to measure, and models show variability in terms of timeline. Andrew Watson, who heads the marine and atmospheric sciences group at the University of Exeter in England, confirmed that the sinks CO2 are becoming less efficient as a result of climate change. Watson, speaking about the sink collapse, added that most models “show it will happen rather slowly over the next 100 years,” but also pointed out that most models do not take into account important factors such as increasingly intense fires and deforestation.
Whether it takes a decade or a century, carbon sink models showing a collapse over time are a sign that global warming may soon be accelerating.
