[Digestion] where does CO2 end uppppppp

[Srinivas Kasulla]

Dear All,
Was jus wondering about this article/..............

We imagine most of you, upon reading the post's title, will have
already (and accurately) guessed the short answer: the atmosphere and
the oceans (for the most part). But, to delve further into the matter,
where exactly in the atmosphere or the oceans does it all go? How much
of an impact do carbon sinks such as forests and the soil have? In
what proportions? These are but a few of the questions that have long
befuddled leading climate scientists trying to make heads or tails of
carbon emissions' final resting place. They themselves will readily
admit that they aren't even sure where a significant percentage of
global emissions - roughly a quarter - ends up every year.

"A quarter of all the CO2 that is emitted is going somewhere, and we
don't know where. That raises a lot of red flags," said David Crisp of
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. According to a new study of 28,000
measurements collected between 2000 and 2006 and analyzed by NOAA's
CarbonTracker system, only about a third of the carbon dioxide is
absorbed by carbon sinks such as the soil and forests; a large portion
of it ends up in the atmosphere - but that still leaves a significant
amount unaccounted for.

Interestingly, the CarbonTracker found carbon emissions to be highest
in the Midwest; that single region released more carbon dioxide than
any other country - except Russia, China, India and, of course, the
U.S. Carbon dioxide was found to be most readily absorbed east of the
Rocky Mountains and in northern Canada.

As helpful as these measurements are, however, scientists are worried
that they may be overestimating or - more likely - underestimating the
climate situation. The wave of droughts and wildfires that roiled many
regions of the country have likely left several hundred million more
tons of carbon in the atmosphere and devastated many of our natural
carbon sinks - as much as half, according to John Miller, a NOAA
geochemist.

Katie Fehrenbacher from Earth2Tech linked to another helpful portrayal
of the U.S. carbon sources, the National Energy Technology
Laboratory's (NETL) NatCarb, in a recent post. As scientists move
forward in the new year, it will be interesting to see whether they'll
be able to pinpoint that elusive chunk of carbon emissions (we sure
hope so); not being able to quantify such a significant portion raises
clear "red flags," as Crisp explained, because it casts into doubt
most of the temperature predictions being made based on our current
data.



-- with regards
SRINIVAS KASULLA
M E D C/ M E S N
09869179601