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Carbon Sources & Sinks

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By not distinguishing between a fact and an opinion, by dint of confusing orders of magnitude and time scales, I wanted to find the large masses of carbon production and carbon sinks and share them here.

We have included in the site under the "fact" tab the data we found in "the Project Drawdown - March 2020" and which states, by order of magnitude:

 

Carbon sources

1.     Electricity production             : 25%

2.     Cultivation & agriculture       : 24%

3.     Industry                                  : 21%

4.     Transportation                       : 14%

5.     Building                                  :  6%

6.     Rest                                        : 10%

 

Carbon sinks

1.     Land                                        : 24%

2.     The oceans                              : 17%

3.     The Atmosphere                     : 59%

 

What about taking another source: the book of Bill Gates, "How to avoid a climate disaster."

Sources

1.     Making things (cement, steel, plastic)            : 31%

2.     Plugging in (electricity )                                   : 27%

3.     Growing things (plants, animals)                    : 19%

4.     Getting around (planes, trucks, cargo, ships): 16%

5.     Keeping warm and cool (heating, cooling):  7%

 

We do see some discrepancies, but we also see some close similitudes.  In other words, it is close enough to get sources clearly in mind.

 

But what are we talking about?  

We are talking about the 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases the world adds to the atmosphere every year, which must be reduced to net zero.

 

A study published in the journal Nature Climate Change in early 2021 reveals that the world's forests capture nearly 8 billion net tons of CO2 equivalent (Gt CO2) each year, a small 16% of GHG emissions.  This figure is smaller than the one used by The Project Drawdown (24%). 

Is this a result of deforestation, which destroys our terrestrial carbon sinks?

 

Finally, what do these 8 billion tons represent compared to China's emissions?

Barely 80%.  In other words, all our forests are no longer capable of absorbing the amount of CO2 emitted annually by China, i.e., 10 billion tons. (10Gt).

 

 

 

 

 

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