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Earth Releasing More CO2 Than Originally Thought

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the heavy-breathing dept.

grqb writes "A new study out of the UK suggests that terrestrial sinks across the planet are mopping up much less carbon than predicted, on balance, and so the planet may warm at an even faster rate than expected. The study focused on the carbon content in soil at 6000 sites in the UK between 1978 and 2003 and found that the soil released the equivalent of 8% of the UK's total 1990 carbon dioxide emissions. These emissions are more than the entire reduction in emissions the UK has achieved between 1990 and 2002 as part of its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol. This would effectively cancel out the UK's recent successes in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and would have wider global implications as well."

4 of 318 comments (clear)

  1. not the only problem by chasingporsches · · Score: 4, Interesting

    indonesia peat burning emits 1/7th of global CO2

    i'm surprised this wasn't mentioned as well.

  2. Re:"Earth" by kfg · · Score: 3, Interesting

    While cutting down (with fossil fuel burning machines) an equal mass of immature trees whose constituant matter is not returned to the soil from which they grew to grow new trees to absorb CO2.

    First learn barance, Daniel san. This redistribution of biomass is trickier than it looks.

    KFG

  3. In other news... by dada21 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The UK business market continues to decline as burdens from Kyoto compliance make UK's unionized labor even less efficient on a global scale.

    More lives will be lost and more suffering will be created than any CO2 emissions can create.

    Exactly what Kyoto supporters want. Bring the middle class into the lower class through regulations and taxes rather than uplifting the lower class through opportunity and expansion of the industry base.

  4. The whole Earth? or just the UK? by SidV · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well according to the article, it's only happening in the UK correct.

    Good thing North America is a Net Carbon Sink
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd= Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9774264&dopt=Abstract

    http://www.climatechangedebate.org/pdf/FanPaper.pd f

    And before someone says it's warmer since 1998, no it's not. Thanks the El Nino of 1998 we saw a tremendous spike, and tempreatures are cooler today than then.