Scientists Issue Warning After Trees And Land Absorb Almost No CO2 Last Year

An international team of researchers has sounded the alarm about the future of our planet after discovering that trees and land absorbed very little carbon last year.

Most people learn early on in science class that plants absorb carbon dioxide, but what happens when that fundamental process starts to falter?

How do plants and land usually absorb carbon?

Human activities like burning coal, oil, and natural gas produce carbon, which ends up in the atmosphere and contributes to climate change.

Because of this, we are constantly encouraged to lower our carbon footprint. However, nature does offer some help in this battle.

Oceans, forests, grasslands, and soils on Earth absorb large amounts of atmospheric carbon, which helps keep the planet's climate in check.

As population and production have grown and technology has advanced, humans have released more and more emissions.

At the same time, plants have managed to absorb more carbon as well, benefiting from the increased levels of carbon dioxide that help them grow faster.

Carbon is released into the atmosphere by burning gas Andrew Aitchison / In pictures via Getty Images

How much carbon did plants absorb in 2023?

For thousands of years, plants were able to manage the carbon levels released into the atmosphere while living in a stable climate.

However, as global temperatures rise and agriculture continues to expand, the balance is being disrupted.

In a joint research paper by scientists from China, the UK, France, and Germany, the team noted that 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded, and that forests, plants, and soils absorbed very little carbon that year.

During New York Climate Week in September, Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, shared a warning about the troubling path we are on.

"Nature has so far balanced our abuse. This is coming to an end," he stated.

Scientists have warned we cannot rely on natural carbon sinks Andy Soloman/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Why did plants stop absorbing carbon?

Earlier in the year, a study on carbon absorption showed that while the total amount of carbon absorbed by forests from 1990 to 2019 remained steady, there were regional differences.

In the vast boreal forests that stretch across Russia, Scandinavia, Canada, and Alaska, absorption had fallen by over a third. This decline was due to climate change effects, such as wildfires and land clearing for timber.

Additionally, droughts in the Amazon and parts of the tropics combined with the heat in boreal regions likely contributed to the collapse of the carbon sink in 2023.

Philippe Ciais, an author of the study and researcher at the French Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences, remarked: "In 2023, the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere is very high and this translates into a very, very low absorption by the terrestrial biosphere."

"In the northern hemisphere, where you have more than half of CO2 uptake, we have seen a decline trend in absorption for eight years," he added, as reported by The Guardian. "There is no good reason to believe it will bounce back."

The boreal forests suffered a huge decline in carbon absorption OLIVIER MORIN/AFP via Getty Images

Can the planet recover?

Even though the early data from 2023 is concerning, there is hope that the breakdown in carbon absorption could be temporary if droughts and wildfires become less severe.

We can still count on the ocean to absorb some carbon emissions, but this comes with the trade-off of rising sea temperatures.

Professor Andrew Watson, head of the marine and atmospheric science group at Exeter University, commented: "Overall, models agreed that both the land sink and the ocean sink are going to decrease in the future as a result of climate change. But there's a question of how quickly that will happen."

"The models tend to show this happening rather slowly over the next 100 years or so. This might happen a lot quicker."

"Climate scientists [are] worried about climate change not because of the things that are in the models but the knowledge that the models are missing certain things."

With natural carbon sinks in a fragile state, Professor Pierre Friedlingstein from Exeter University emphasized that we 'shouldn't rely on natural forests to do the job'.

"We really, really have to tackle the big issue: fossil fuel emissions across all sectors," he stated.