Study - 2023 Data Show That Planet's Forests And Soils May Be Losing Their Ability To Store Carbon Dioxide

Earth’s land lost much of their ability to absorb the carbon dioxide humans pumped into the air last year, according to a new study that is causing concern among climate scientists that a crucial damper on climate change underwent an unprecedented deterioration. Temperatures in 2023 were so high — and the droughts and wildfires that came with them were so severe — that forests in various parts of the world wilted and burned enough to have degraded the ability of the land to lock away carbon dioxide and act as a check on global warming, the study said.

The scientists behind the research, which focuses on 2023, caution that their findings are preliminary. But the work represents a disturbing data point — one that, if it turns into a trend, spells trouble for the planet and the people on it. “We have to be, of course, careful because it’s just one year,” said Philippe Ciais, a scientist at France’s Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences who co-authored the new research. But the results, he added, are still “worrying.” If extreme warming continues, society risks losing “the best friend of humanity” in Earth’s land.

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“If it’s the new normal, then climate mitigation will be even harder than it is now,” said Rob Jackson, a climate scientist at Stanford and author of the book “Into the Clear Blue Sky,” who also was not involved in the research. “We expect the land sink to slow eventually, but I hoped it wouldn’t happen so soon. If it slows this early, we’re in trouble.” Another key question, Jackson said, is whether the drop is due to the start last year of El Niño, a naturally occurring climate pattern that has been associated with carbon losses on land.

Ciais, the researcher behind the study, said the tropical rainforests of South America and Asia have a better chance to bounce back than the snowy woodlands in North America, given how slowly those northern forests grow. “We have a strong buildup of evidence to predict that this northern sink is not going to become very strong again anytime in the future as this extreme warming continues,” Ciais said.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/07/25/forest-fire-heat-carbon-absorb/