As The Guardian reports, preliminary data from an international team of researchers shows that 2023 - the hottest year on record - saw an alarming lapse in the Earth's innate ability to swallow and neutralize carbon, with trees, soil, and plants together absorbing next to no carbon.
Humankind's still-overwhelming reliance on fossil fuels has put a huge amount of stress on natural carbon sinks to clean up after us. And while the environment has shown incredible resilience and adaptability over time, this growing body of research could signal a consequential breaking point - and scientists are sounding the alarm.
This stressed planet has been silently helping us and allowing us to shove our debt under the carpet thanks to biodiversity. We are lulled into a comfort zone - we cannot really see the crisis.
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.
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