Download Carbon Sinks, Sources, Budgets, and Neutral

Carbon
Sinks, Sources,
Budgets, and
Neutral
By: Samantha Samander and Rocio Suarez
Outline
Carbon Sinks
Carbon sources
Carbon Budget
Carbon Neutral
What are Carbon Sinks?
A forest, ocean, or other natural environment viewed in terms of its ability to absorb
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Simply put Carbon sinks are natural systems that suck up and store carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere.
Carbon Sinks Oceans
Marine plants (phytoplankton, algae, etc) in the sunlit surface layer of the ocean take in
carbon dioxide from the air for photosynthesis. When the plants die they sink into to the
deep ocean as sediments where the carbon is stored and prevented from entering the
atmosphere. As these Co2 levels climb in the oceans marine life suffers.
The seas serve as the biggest supply for Co2 caused by burning oil gas and coal. They
absorb about a third of the Co2 humans put into the atmosphere each year. Despite carbon
moving in and out of the ocean daily there's an amount that is kept stored.
Carbon Sources
A sink absorbs more Co2 than it gives off, while a source emits more than it absorbs. Co2
in the atmosphere are the carbon sources.
Sources of atmospheric Co2 include volcanoes, fires, decomposition, respiration,
agriculture, and the burning of fossil fuels.
Carbon Sinks Land
Co2 is absorbed from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. It then is stored in trees
and plants as they absorb the Co2. Decaying organic matter such as dead trees,
branches, plants, and leaves transfer some carbon in the soil as the roots of trees.
Some Co2 is lost back to the atmosphere through respiration of plants and forest fires as
well Carbon is also released by manufacturers using trees due to the trees holding
carbon in which are taken out by the burning of wood or decomposition.
Example/Model
What is a Carbon Budget?
A Carbon Budget amount of carbon dioxide that a country, company, or organization has
agreed is the largest it will produce in a particular period of time
The global carbon budget is the estimated amount of total carbon we can dump into the
atmosphere and still have a reasonable chance of avoiding “dangerous” climate change
Example
The UK has set emissions targets to be able to restrict the amount of greenhouse gases
they legally produce in a five year period.
They are current in the second carbon budget period which goes from 2013 to 2017.
Purpose
The purpose of the creation of this budget is to allow the government to monitor the
decrease percentages compared to their 1990’s emission levels and set new goals for
the next years. This will also be reported every year to the parliament.
When monitoring this progress, they also analyze factors such as how low the energy use
could go to if they change its infrastructure, emissions from new cars and progress of
electricity market reform.
The Committee on Climate Change also allows the public to check some of their annual
reports
What is Carbon Neutral?
It is when organizations, businesses or individuals take action to remove as much carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere as they put on it
https://youtu.be/9pPsso2acew
Example
A business uses a lot of energy each
month -> They plant a certain amount of
trees according to the amount of energy
they used the past month.
Pros and Cons
Pros: Carbon sinks allow a place for the majority of Co2 to be stored in
Cons: Oceans become more acidic, marine life suffers, and an increase in Co2 in the
atmosphere by deforestation.
Pros and Cons
One favorable factor for the Carbon Budget is that it helps businesses or countries to keep
track on their emissions to avoid releasing more than what they should.
One unfavorable factor is that even though it has a total amount of emissions
businesses/countries are supposed to release there is not an actual guarantee that they
won't do it.
A favorable aspect about Carbon Neutrality is that it creates an environmental responsibility
in the organizations that decide to work with it.
An unfavorable aspect about it is that even though they compromise to plant a specific
amount of trees per month of work the environment would still have to wait for those trees
to grow old enough to be able to compensate the emissions of the company