Is the planet full of land holding ‘irrecoverable carbon’ and is it at risk?

“If we keep cutting down trees or destroying marshes, it won’t matter how many emissions we stop: The planet won’t be able to reabsorb the carbon we’ve released in time” (Adele Peters, Fast Company).

A new study published on March 31^st, 2020 in a Nature Research Journal Nature Climate Change, states that there are more than 260 billion tons of carbon in “living carbon reserves”. A range of ecosystems (including mangrove forests and peatlands) contains ‘irrecoverable carbon’ that is vulnerable to release upon land use conversion and, once lost, is not recoverable on timescales relevant to avoiding dangerous climate impacts. Planting trees won’t recapture released carbon reserves quickly enough for the world to reach the target of zero net emissions by 2050.

Read more in Nature Climate Change and Fast Company web page.