Africa’s Carbon Sink Capacity Is Shrinking

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https://eos.org/research-spotlights/africas-carbon-sink-capacity-is-shrinking

By Rachel Fritts, Eos/AGU. 

Excerpt: The population of Africa, the second-largest continent in the world, currently sits at about 1.4 billion, but is set to exceed 2 billion by 2040. This means greater swaths of land than ever before are being used for agriculture, and livestock numbers are increasing. A new estimate of Africa’s greenhouse gas budget between 2010 and 2019 quantifies just how much these changes in land use have affected Africa’s role in the global carbon cycle. ...To make their estimates, Ernst et al. ...took a comprehensive look at all major potential carbon sources, including human sources such as agriculture and fossil fuel emissions and natural sources such as termites and wildfires. They also considered natural sinks: the grasslands, savannas, and forests that still cover much of the continent. The team found that between 2010 and 2019, Africa transitioned from being a slight net carbon sink to a slight net carbon source. ...likely to increase if current trends continue.... 

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