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Earth absorbs more of our CO2 emissions: science
AFP: Earth absorbs more of our CO2 emissions: science
(AFP) 10 hours ago
AFP: Earth absorbs more of our CO2 emissions: science
(AFP) 10 hours ago
PARIS Even as Man's output of Earth-warming CO2 has risen, so has the capacity of plants and the oceans to absorb it, scientists said Wednesday, but warned this may not last forever.
Carbon storage by land and sea, known as carbon sinks, has more than doubled in the past 50 years from about 2.4 billion tonnes in 1960 to some five billion tonnes in 2010, said a study in Nature.
At the same time, fossil-fuel CO2 emissions rose almost four-fold.
"The growth rate of atmospheric CO2 continues to rise because fossil fuel emissions are accelerating not because sinks are diminishing," researcher Ashley Ballantyne of the University of Colorado's geology department told AFP.
The finding was contrary to widespread expectations that carbon sinks were slowing their CO2 uptake.
"We were somewhat surprised by this result because several recent studies have been published showing that the land and oceans have been taking up less CO2," said Ballantyne.
"We discovered that the Earth continues to take up more CO2 every year and there is no indication that this uptake has weakened."