Sources and Sinks
The Art
The Science
What’s Alarming
Sources of carbon emissions include the burning of fossil fuels and changes in land use (e.g., deforestation or melting of permafrost). Emissions that are not absorbed by “sinks”, such as land or the oceans, remain in the atmosphere.
As can be seen by the graph, the growing imbalance between sources and sinks, i.e., emissions and places to absorb them, has resulted in a significant increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases.
