Have you ever heard from the lung of the planet, referring to the Amazon or other green areas of the planet. These areas are called lung, referring to the ability to absorb the planet's CO2 and thus contribute to a cleaner and healthier environment for all living beings.
One of the lungs of this planet is located in the Atlantic region around the Tropic of Cancer. This lung is an oceanic area that frees the planet from a large part of the CO2 emissions caused by humans. Did it stop working in the spring of 2010?
The lung of the Atlantic
The oceans can reach absorb large amounts of CO2 that we emit in our industrial activities and removing it from the cycle, sinking it into the sediments. There is a global carbon balance in which, when there is a lot of carbon in the atmosphere, it tends to dissolve in ocean water. What is the problem with this phenomenon? When too much CO2 is incorporated into the oceans, it causes acidification and, consequently, numerous negative impacts on marine flora and fauna, impacting biodiversity, which has also been addressed in differences between climate change and global warmingThe best known case is the bleaching of coral reefs, a phenomenon that is closely related to the impact of global warming.
Well, the studies carried out on the absorption of CO2 by the oceans estimate that they are capable of absorbing between 40 and 50% of all carbon dioxide that has been emitted by human activities since the industrial revolution. This engine that helps rid the planet of so much CO2 also has a fragile balance that depends, to a large extent, on global temperatures.
There are studies that are warning that for half a century these marine lungs that release us of these greenhouse gases and reduce the serious effects and consequences on the climate have been losing strength. Magazine Scientific Reports, of the Nature group, published on January 30, 2017, a study that warns of the extent to which the increase in temperatures induced by both natural and human phenomena can cause the oceans to go from purifying the atmosphere to loading it with even more greenhouse gases. This change is also related to natural atmospheric particles that affect the global climate.
What happened in the spring of 2010?
Due to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, global temperatures do not stop increasing year after year. This region of the Atlantic known as the marine lung plays a fundamental role: the north equatorial current and that of the Canary Islands pass, two of the elements of the oceanic gyre that regulates the climate in the area.
However, in the spring of 2010 this lung stopped working due to the great rise in temperatures due to the consequences left by the intense phenomenon of El Niño in 2009. By not working during the spring of 2010, it stopped absorbing about 420 million tons of CO2, that is, 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions. This also reflects the importance of understanding the context of the oceans.
In the spring of 2010, the effects of El Niño and the Multi-Decade Atlantic Oscillation caused the temperature of the ocean surface in that area to rise 3,4 degrees above normal and the wind speed changed, which disrupted two of the mechanisms that regulate the absorption of CO2, such as the one that also affects the consequences of global warming.
As a result of this phenomenon, the oceanic lung mechanism temporarily collapsed, making it unable to absorb the 29 million tons of CO2 between February and May. It should also be mentioned that in the spring of 2010 1,6 million tons of greenhouse gases were emitted into the atmosphere.
Regions where there were major changes
The most notable changes were concentrated in the region of the north equatorial current. In that area the ocean emitted into the atmosphere in those months about 1,2 million tons of CO2, when the normal thing is that it absorbs 22,4 million.
The trend of increasing global temperatures is warming the surface waters of the oceans. This causes the increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events. This can threaten the lung's ability to reduce the effects of CO2 and absorb it, a problem that is related to air conditioning consumption in the future.
