Carbon Sinks Weaken as Emissions Grow

Urban Ecology News. 2007.10.23

Human activities are releasing carbon dioxide faster than ever, while the natural processes that normally slow its build up in the atmosphere appear to be weakening, says report.

Carbon dioxide emissions were 35 percent higher in 2006 than in 1990, a much faster growth rate than anticipated, says a report in this weeks edition of the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This was due to:

Global economic growth.
The global economy becoming more carbon intense - since 2000 more carbon is being emitted to produce each dollar of global wealth.

The report also noted a decline in the land and oceans' ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

Human-induced warming has caused changes in wind patterns over the Southern Ocean that brought carbon-rich water toward the surface, reducing the ocean's ability to absorb excess CO2 from the atmosphere.
On land, where plant growth is the major means for soaking up CO2, droughts have curbed that ability.

Links

Source: Rise in Atmospheric CO2 Accelerates as Economy Grows, Natural Carbon Sinks Weakening. TerraDaily. 2007.10.23

Source: Study: Warming is Stronger, Happening Sooner. MSNBC. 2007.10.22