Carbon in, carbon out: Australia’s ‘carbon budget’ assessment reveals astonishing boom and bust cycles
(2023) In The Conversation- Abstract
- 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... (More) - 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. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/71e3d208-62be-4dd4-9c62-a1860cb48f73
- author
- Villalobos, Yohanna LU ; Smith, Benjamin LU ; Canadell, Pep and Briggs, Peter R.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023-12-20
- type
- Contribution to specialist publication or newspaper
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- The Conversation
- ISSN
- 2201-5639
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 71e3d208-62be-4dd4-9c62-a1860cb48f73
- alternative location
- https://theconversation.com/carbon-in-carbon-out-australias-carbon-budget-assessment-reveals-astonishing-boom-and-bust-cycles-219592
- date added to LUP
- 2024-02-08 14:02:14
- date last changed
- 2024-02-08 14:06:26
@misc{71e3d208-62be-4dd4-9c62-a1860cb48f73,
abstract = {{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”.<br/><br/>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?<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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.}},
author = {{Villalobos, Yohanna and Smith, Benjamin and Canadell, Pep and Briggs, Peter R.}},
issn = {{2201-5639}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{12}},
series = {{The Conversation}},
title = {{Carbon in, carbon out: Australia’s ‘carbon budget’ assessment reveals astonishing boom and bust cycles}},
url = {{https://theconversation.com/carbon-in-carbon-out-australias-carbon-budget-assessment-reveals-astonishing-boom-and-bust-cycles-219592}},
year = {{2023}},
}