World’s oceans soak up MORE carbon than previously thought: ‘Researchers believe the world’s oceans actually soak up far more carbon, equivalent to 10% of global fossil fuel emissions’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8698067/Worlds-oceans-soak-carbon-previously-thought.html

  • Previous models did not account for temperature differences at different depths
  • This alters how much carbon is soaked up by the water in total
  • Researchers believe the world’s oceans actually soak up far more carbon, equivalent to ten per cent of global fossil fuel emissions

The world’s oceans are better at soaking up carbon dioxide than most scientific models have previously found, according to a new study.

Although emissions of carbon dioxide are easily quantifiable, how much goes into the atmosphere and how much is absorbed by bodies of water is hard to calculate.

Due to a previous oversight, the oceans may actually soak up an extra 0.9 petagrams of CO2, the same as 900 million metric tonnes.

One petrol car averaging 9,000 miles a year, 40 miles to the gallon and 0.4kg of CO2 a mile will produce 408 kg of CO2 a year.

Therefore, 900 million metric tonnes of CO2 equates to the same amount of CO2 emissions as approximately 2.2 billion cars.

The researchers say this is equivalent to ten per cent of global fossil fuel emissions.

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