American Scientists Warn: Oxygen to Disappear from Earth by 2050

A scientific study authored by American Scientists and published by the scientific journal "Science Alert", citing the French agency, and based on data collected over 25 years, warned that forests and other ecosystems will be affected by global warming.

The authors of the paper stressed that within years those ecosystems will turn into sources of more carbon at an exaggerated rate.

By 2050, after plants are exposed to a certain temperature, their ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), from the air, decreases.

And in light of the increase in greenhouse gas emissions around the world, plants may begin to emit carbon at a greater rate into the atmosphere.

This disaster will reach its peak by the year 2100, and a US team led by Catherine Duffy of the University of Northern Arizona found that ecosystems that store most of the carbon dioxide, especially tropical and boreal forests, could lose more than 45% of their carbon absorption capacity by mid-century.

The researchers warned that failure to take this into account leads to a gross exaggeration of the role that plants on Earth may play in limiting global warming, especially since the turning point in the temperature of the Earth's biosphere does not lie at the end of the century or after, but within the twenty to twenty years or the next thirty years.

Respiration rates, however, increase across all types of ecosystems without appearing to reach a maximum threshold.

"At higher temperatures, respiration rates continue to rise in contrast too sharply declining rates of photosynthesis," the study found.

If carbon pollution continues unabated, this pergence will see the Carbondioxide absorption drop by half as early as 2040.

"We are rapidly entering temperature regimes where biosphere productivity will precipitously decline, calling into question the future viability of the land sink," the researchers concluded.

The findings also call into question the integrity of many national commitments under the Paris Agreement - known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs - to reduce greenhouse gases.