Steve Dustcircle 🌹#CarbonLevels Soar As #NaturalSinks Reach Their Breaking Point
https://scitechdaily.com/carbon-levels-soar-as-natural-sinks-reach-their-breaking-point/
DoomsdaysCWWhat happens to the world if #forests stop absorbing #carbon? Ask #Finland
#NaturalSinks of forests and #peat were key to Finland’s ambitious target to be #CarbonNeutral by 2035. But now, the land has started emitting more #GreenhouseGases than it stores
"The number of dying trees also increased in recent years as forests are stressed by #drought and high temperatures. In south-east Finland, the number of dying trees has risen rapidly, increasing 788% in just six years between 2017 and 2023, and the amount of standing deadwood – decaying trees – is up by about 900%."
by Patrick Greenfield, Inari, Finland
"Tiina Sanila-Aikio cannot remember a summer this warm. The months of midnight sun around #Inari, in Finnish Lapland, have been hot and dry. Conifer needles on the branch-tips are orange when they should be a deep green. The moss on the forest floor, usually swollen with water, has withered.
"'I have spoken with many old #ReindeerHerders who have never experienced the heat that we’ve had this summer. The sun keeps shining and it never rains,' says Sanila-Aikio, former president of the #FinnishSami parliament.
"The #BorealForests here in the #Sami homeland take so long to grow that even small, stunted trees are often hundreds of years old. It is part of the #Taiga – meaning “land of the little sticks” in Russian – that stretches around the far northern hemisphere through #Siberia, #Scandinavia, #Alaska and #Canada.
"It is these forests that helped underpin the credibility of the most ambitious carbon-neutrality target in the developed world: Finland’s commitment to be #CarbonNeutral by 2035.
"The law, which came into force two years ago, means the country is aiming to reach the target 15 years earlier than many of its EU counterparts.
"In a country of 5.6 million people with nearly 70% covered by forests and peatlands, many assumed the plan would not be a problem.
"For decades, the country’s forests and peatlands had reliably removed more carbon from the atmosphere than they released. But from about 2010, the amount the land absorbed started to decline, slowly at first, then rapidly. By 2018, Finland’s land sink – the phrase scientists use to describe something that absorbs more carbon than it releases – had vanished."
#IndigenousPeople #GlobalWarming #CarbonSinks #DyingTrees #Extinction
NapelsGeel“The issue of #naturalsinks has never really been thought about properly in political and government fields. It’s been assumed that natural sinks are always going to be with us. The truth is, we don’t really understand them and we don’t think they’re always going to be with us. What happens if the natural sinks, which they’ve previously relied on, stop working because the #climate is changing?” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/14/nature-carbon-sink-collapse-global-heating-models-emissions-targets-evidence-aoe
BellingenNSWTrees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year. Is nature’s carbon sink failing? The sudden collapse of carbon sinks was not factored into climate models – and could rapidly accelerate global heating
"Even a modest weakening of nature’s ability to absorb carbon would mean the world would have to make much deeper cuts to greenhouse gas emissions to achieve net zero."
"The issue of natural sinks has never really been thought about properly in political and government fields. It’s been assumed that natural sinks are always going to be with us. The truth is, we don’t really understand them and we don’t think they’re always going to be with us. What happens if the natural sinks, which they’ve previously relied on, stop working because the climate is changing?”
"In recent years, several estimates have been published on how the world could increase the amount of carbon that its forests and natural ecosystems absorb. But many researchers say the real challenge is protecting the carbon sinks and stores we already have by halting deforestation, cutting emissions and ensuring they are as healthy as possible.We can’t just assume that we have forests and the forest will remove some CO2, because it’s not going to work in the long term.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/14/nature-carbon-sink-collapse-global-heating-models-emissions-targets-evidence-aoe
#fossilfuels #ClimateBreakdown #NativeForests #forests #ocean #ecosystems #destruction #deforestation #LoggingImpacts #NaturalSinks #ExtremeHeat