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

Neat!

[Verteiron]

From the article: Kirk and colleagues surveyed soil at 6000 sites, spaced 5 kilometres apart, across England and Wales between 1978 and 2003.

See what happens when you get out and do real research? You find out that the computer simulations accepted previously are all inaccurate as hell! Shocking!

Let's march on toward the stone age

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose we'd better just adjust our targets so that we're back to hand-plows and starvation, then.

I'm sure that once the Kyoto supporting countries do even better, they'll find out that some other scourge is addding CO2 to the atmosphere and we'll all have to hold our breath for two hours a day to meet targets.

Fuck the bullshit environmental movement.