Carbon sinks might not sound like the most exciting topic to get into. And with turbulent politics happening all around us, certainly not the most dramatic. Yet they are key to what kind of future lies ahead.
So back to basic Earth Science; the carbon cycle describes how carbon molecules move around the closed system of Earth and its atmosphere. As the name implies, carbon sinks absorb more carbon than they release; these are plants, soil and the oceans. Carbon sources are anything that emits carbon, such as the burning of fossil fuels or volcanic eruptions.
When sinks and sources are balanced, atmospheric carbon is stable, as it was for 12,000 years – which allowed human civilizations to thrive. Although, since the burning of fossil fuels began in the mid 1800s, more carbon is being released than can be absorbed by the natural sinks. Earth’s atmosphere now has carbon dioxide levels not previously seen in the last fourteen million years, in turn leading to the ‘Greenhouse effect’ and resultant impacts on the climate.
You’re probably thinking enough of the science lecture, I already know all that. Maybe you’re already reducing, reusing and recycling, biking to work, having short showers, composting and growing some of your own food so that you ultimately personally contribute less to the atmospheric carbon.
Unfortunately, the latest research shows that in 2023, the warmest year on record, some of the natural sinks stopped sinking. Forest, plants and soils absorbed almost no carbon world wide, because of wildfires and droughts (killing trees and drying out bogs and peatlands). Oceans have absorbed 90% of the excess carbon released in the last few decades, but are suffering, becoming warmer and more acidic. Melting glaciers are disrupting normal zooplankton and crustacean surface feeding behaviours, vastly reducing how much carbon they transfer down to the ocean floor. If droughts magically end and wildfire activity slows, then the sinks will start to work again, but that is not a realistic long-term scenario given the current planetary trajectory.
Scientists have always known that climate change would have feedback loops on the carbon sinks. This new research shows that it’s happening much faster than all the models have accounted for, which means the rate of global heating may be vastly underestimated. This in turn means that many countries relying on their natural carbon sinks to reach global emission targets will be unsuccessful. Finland, for example, has impressively cut its industrial emissions by 43%, but its overall emissions have still not changed, given the failure of the natural land sinks.
So once again, we are back to if we want a liveable planet, we have no choice other than to cut human carbon emissions. Individual action, while admirable and to be encouraged, is not enough. Unfortunately, even though it affects us all, climate change has become politicized, rather than a problem we work to solve together. The solutions are available, and roadmaps have been laid out for a credible way forward. The real challenge now is human nature.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2407.12447
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1385110124000200
For more information on Water Wise or Waste Wise and any of our school and community programs, contact the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society at coordinator@conservationsociety.ca or visit the website at www.conservationsociety.ca
Jenny Howell is the water wise instructor and the executive director of the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society.
