Vicious Cycle: Extreme Climate Events Release 11 Billion Tons of CO2 into the Air Every Year

A major new study in Nature, Climate extremes and the carbon cycle, points to yet another significant carbon cycle feedback ignored by climate models.  Researchers “have discovered that terrestrial ecosystems absorb approximately 11 billion tons less carbon dioxide every year as the result of the extreme climate events than they could if the events did not occur.  That is equivalent to approximately a third of global CO2 emissions per year.”

Measurements indicate, for instance, that the brutal 2003 European heat wave “had a much greater impact on the carbon balance than had previously been assumed.”  We’re already seeing a rise in extreme weather in North America.  Last year, Munich Re, a top reinsurer, found a “climate-change footprint” in the rapid rise of North American extreme weather catastrophes: “Climate­-driven changes are already evident over the last few decades for severe thunderstorms, for heavy precipitation and flash flood­ing, for hurricane activity, and for heatwave, drought and wild­-fire dynamics in parts of North America.”

Vicious Cycle: Extreme Climate Events Release 11 Billion Tons of CO2 into the Air Every Year - by Joe Romm