<
https://theconversation.com/carbon-in-carbon-out-australias-carbon-budget-assessment-reveals-astonishing-boom-and-bust-cycles-219592>
"If you really want to know how much Australia contributes to the amount of
carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere, you have to study all the “sources” and
“sinks”.
Sources release CO₂ into the atmosphere, while sinks take it out. There are
sources from human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, and there are
natural sinks such as plants absorbing CO₂. You can tally it all up on a
balance sheet to find the net result. Are we adding to CO₂ levels in the
atmosphere, overall? And if so, by how much?
It’s an enormous undertaking, but not impossible. We have just published the
most comprehensive assessment of Australian CO₂ sources and sinks. It covers
the decade from 2010 to 2019, and it reveals some surprising features.
Astonishingly, we found the net annual carbon balance of the entire continent
switches from year to year. Australia can be a large net source of CO₂ one year
and a large net CO₂ sink the next, in response to our increasingly variable
climate. That makes it harder to detect long-term trends and understand whether
our natural carbon sinks are growing or decreasing."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
