This autumn, several media articles reported on a study showing the global carbon sink on land – which so far has drawn down around a quarter of human carbon dioxide emissions – took up very little carbon in 2023. This inspired headlines that the Earth’s natural carbon sinks are failing or have “collapsed“, with potentially dire consequences, and follows on from concerns that the Earth’s “buffering capacity” to emissions have already been showing strain in both land and ocean carbon sinks.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://climatetippingpoints.info/2024/12/03/carbon-sinks/