The Oceans have had Enough

Science Magazine just published a peer-reviewed article with some scary findings. The southern ocean has slowed its natural process of carbon absorption. The reason: climate change and ozone depletion. The breakdown in efficiency of these sinks was a expected, but not for another 40 years.

Because of feed-back mechanisms, the decline of Antarctica's Southern Ocean carbon sink means that atmospheric CO2 levels may be higher in future than predicted.

Oceans are vital as they absorpt excess CO2 from the atmosphere, slowing down climate change. But they cannot keep up the pace of our greenhouse emissions. The rate of absorption has stayed the same for the past 24 years, while global emissions have increased in 40% during that time.

The oceans have had it – maybe we should stop thinking of stuffing our biosphere and oceans with carbon sinks and actually start reducing emissions.

Cross posting with Itsgettinghotinhere.org