Our bodies, animals, and fish are all made from carbon. There is carbon in the trees, in the forests, and in the oceans. Carbon circulates around the earth in various forms, including as a gas called carbon dioxide, as an organic substance, and as liquids such as crude oil. This is called the carbon cycle.

The carbon cycle can be broadly defined as carbon circulating between the oceans, forests, and the atmosphere. Before the Industrial Revolution, this carbon cycle worked very well for many thousands or tens of thousands of years. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere remained constant as it was emitted by living things, dissolved in the oceans, and absorbed by the trees in the forests. But since the Industrial Revolution, people have dug up coal and burned it, dramatically increasing the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. After coal came oil. This, too, was gushed out of the ground and started to be used in all areas as energy. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was increasing rapidly, but the oceans were absorbing more carbon dioxide than ever before, keeping the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration from rising. The rise in atmospheric temperature due to global warming was also suppressed to some extent by the ocean absorbing heat. However, this way of reducing carbon in the atmosphere has reached its limits.

The oceans have absorbed more carbon dioxide than ever before, causing the seawater to oxidize. Seawater temperatures are also rising rapidly, causing major storms. Forests, which used to absorb as much carbon dioxide as the oceans, have been shrinking in area due to excessive logging. On top of this, forests are caught up in a negative spiral of droughts and wildfires caused by global warming. The oceans and forests used to absorb the carbon dioxide that was released into the atmosphere as part of the Earth's ecosystem, keeping the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at a constant level. It is human behavior that has made it impossible to maintain this cycle.

According to the IPCC, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere per year is equivalent to 5.4 billion tons of carbon. The oceans have the capacity to absorb 1.9 billion tons, and forests 200 million tons. The net 3.3 billion tons that the oceans and forests are unable to absorb accumulates every year.

episode 14
The Earth is Unable to Absorb the CO2