One of the world’s largest carbon sinks has stopped soaking up the carbon dioxide that humans are pumping into the atmosphere, according to a new study.
Global warming has caused the Southern Ocean to become windier, churning up the waters so that they are unable to absorb CO2 at the rate we produce it, the researchers say.
The implications are far-reaching, and once more imply that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s projections are conservative: temperatures are likely to rise higher than predicted.
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Cold storage
“This is serious,” says Le Quéré. “All climate models predict that this kind of feedback will continue and intensify during this century.”
The Earth’s carbon sinks absorb about half of all human-produced carbon emissions. The Southern Ocean is one of the biggest sinks, absorbing 15% of CO2 emissions. The gas dissolves into the ocean’s surface waters and is stored at cool depths where it is retained far longer than it would be at the warmer surface.
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