Earth Releasing More CO2 Than Originally Thought

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."

Comments

CO2 is not a substance

[BrentRJones]

I am a Chemistry teacher and it is frustrating to see subscripts not supported in headlines.

CO(sub)2(/sub) is the correct formula.

where I let ( be a substitute for std. notation

But slashdot does not support it.

I'm reminded of a joke

[Timex]

The root cause of cancer of laboratory animals has been discovered. It's humans in lab coats.

I think the same might be said of anything else...