A carbon sink is a natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period. The process by which carbon sinks remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere is known as carbon sequestration. Public awareness of the significance of CO2 sinks has grown since passage of the Kyoto Protocol, which promotes their use as a form of carbon offset.
The main natural sinks are:
- Absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans via physicochemical and biological processes
- Photosynthesis by terrestrial plants
Natural sinks are typically much larger than artificial sinks. The main artificial sinks are:
- Landfills
- Carbon capture and storage proposals
Carbon sources include:
- Fires (by combustion)
- Farmland (by animal respiration); there are proposals for improvements in farming practices to reverse this.
Read more about Carbon Sink: Kyoto Protocol, Artificial Sequestration, Trends in Sink Performance
Famous quotes containing the word sink:
“But you must pay for conformity. All goes well as long as you run with conformists. But you, who are honest men in other particulars, know, that there is alive somewhere a man whose honesty reaches to this point also, that he shall not kneel to false gods, and, on the day when you meet him, you sink into the class of counterfeits.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)