Climate change fears spiral as warmer seas 'absorbing less carbon dioxide'

Scientists have found evidence of a sudden and dramatic drop in the amount of carbon dioxide being absorbed by the sea, sparking fears that climate change is accelerating.

By John Bingham Last Updated: 3:14PM GMT 12 Jan 2009
Warmer waters - themselves said to be the result of the changing climate - are believed to have caused the decline.
Samples taken from the Sea of Japan last year were compared with analysis of water collected in the past.
The findings suggest that it is absorbing only half as much carbon dioxide as during the 1990s.
It could mean that governments would have to increase targets for cutting carbon emissions more sharply than previously thought.
Scientists believe that a slight change in the temperature of the water appears to have reduced a process known as "ventilation" which helps reabsorb about a quarter of the carbon dioxide produced around the world.
Carbon absorbed from the air is mixed by tides and dragged to the bottom of the sea allowing water nearer the surface to absorb more.
But a study, led by Kitack Lee, of Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea, found low levels of carbon in deeper water - suggesting that it is not being mixed as it was in the past - while overall levels were lower.
He warned that the phenomenon is unlikely to be confined to the Sea of Japan.
"Our result ... unequivocally demonstrated that oceanic uptake of CO2 has been directly affected by warming-induced weakening of vertical ventilation," he told The Guardian.
"In other words, the increase in atmospheric temperature due to global warming can profoundly influence the ocean ventilation, thereby decreasing the uptake rate of CO2."