What happens to the world if forests stop absorbing carbon? Ask Finland

Natural sinks of forests and peat were key to Finland's ambitious target to be carbon neutral by 2035. But now, the land has started emitting more greenhouse gases than it stores

Read more: Trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year. Is nature's carbon sink failing?

Tiina Sanila-Aikio cannot remember a summer this warm. The months of midnight sun around Inari, in Finnish Lapland, have been hot and dry. Conifer needles on the branch-tips are orange when they should be a deep green. The moss on the forest floor, usually swollen with water, has withered.

I have spoken with many old reindeer herders who have never experienced the heat that we've had this summer. The sun keeps shining and it never rains," says Sanila-Aikio, former president of the Finnish Sami parliament.