Trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year. Is nature’s carbon sink failing?

The sudden collapse of carbon sinks was not factored into climate models - and could rapidly accelerate global heating

It begins each day at nightfall. As the light disappears, billions of zooplankton, crustaceans and other marine organisms rise to the ocean surface to feed on microscopic algae, returning to the depths at sunrise. The waste from this frenzy - Earth's largest migration of creatures - sinks to the ocean floor, removing millions of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere each year.

This activity is one of thousands of natural processes that regulate the Earth's climate. Together, the planet's oceans, forests, soils and other natural carbon sinks absorb about half of all human emissions.