- Small Blue Planet - http://smallblueplanet.org -

The Domino Effect

Posted By mike On December 3, 2009 @ 10:39 am In Small Foot Print | 1 Comment

As our global greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase the natural sinks that can and do absorb these gases are becoming saturated. In the case of the oceans, the increased carbon dioxide storage has increased ocean acidity and threatens the basic health of much of the sealife.

We really have much less time to address these problems than the press on global warming would suggest.
[1] clipped from [2] www.washingtonpost.com
As emissions increase, carbon ’sinks’ get clogged


In the race to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, scientists have been looking to forests and oceans to absorb the pollution people generate.

World’s oceans, forests becoming less able to absorb CO2


Relying on nature to compensate for human excesses sounds like a win-win situation — except that these resources are under stress from the very emissions we are asking them to absorb, making them less able partners in the pact.


“What our ocean study and other recent land studies suggest is that we cannot count on these sinks operating in the future as they have in the past and keep on subsidizing our ever-growing appetite for fossil fuels,” Khatiwala said.

  [3] blog it

Article printed from Small Blue Planet: http://smallblueplanet.org

URL to article: http://smallblueplanet.org/2009/12/03/the-domino-effect/

URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/
[2] www.washingtonpost.com: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/02/AR2009120203732.
html

[3] Image: http://clipmarks.com/share/55C2A7B3-FF48-40A2-9002-1651170B7A56/blog/

Click here to print.