plants trapped almost no CO2 last year

2024-07-30 10:05:40

Due to heat, fire and drought, forests and buildings have not played their role as carbon sinks, contributing to the increase in the concentration of CO2 in the air.

The Earth’s carbon footprint is showing alarming signs of weakness. Earth and rainforests account for a quarter of carbon dioxide emissions. The seas raised another quarter, and the rest accumulated in the explosion. But by 2023, between 440 and 730 million tons of carbon will be sequestered by vegetation, according to study conducted by researchers from Tsinghua University and Paris-Saclay, compared to 2 billion tons in total a decade ago. This is the lowest amount since 2003.

« This sharp decrease in terrestrial carbon sequestration can be explained both by extreme weather conditions in the past year and by a downward trend in storage in the northern hemisphere. », indicates Philippe Ciais, researcher at the Institute of Climate and Environment Sciences, and author of the study. Marked by a moderate El Niño event, 2023 is a major…

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