18th October 2024
Scientific concern about the adverse affects of climate change in the Earth capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, extends to the land as well as the oceans.
“In 2023, the hottest year ever recorded, preliminary findings by an international team of researchers show the amount of carbon absorbed by land has temporarily collapsed. The final result was that forest, plants and soil – as a net category – absorbed almost no carbon…
“A paper published in July found that while the total amount of carbon absorbed by forests between 1990 and 2019 was steady, it varied substantially by region. The boreal forests – home to about a third of all carbon found on land, which stretch across Russia, Scandinavia, Canada and Alaska – have seen a sharp fall in the amount of carbon they absorb, down more than a third due to climate crisis-related beetle outbreaks, fire and clearing for timber.
“Combined with the declining resilience of the Amazon and drought conditions in parts of the tropics, the hot conditions in the northern forests helped drive the collapse of the land sink in 2023 – causing a spike in the rate of atmospheric carbon.”
This shortfall or decline in the carbon absorbing capacity of the natural world is a serious concern when we are relying on that capacity to achieve a net zero target. Indeed if this persists, we will have to reduce our human enduced carbon emissions faster and at a greater rate.
The Green Tau 