Climate change could trigger the Congo peatlands to release billions of tons of carbon. Thousands of years ago drought caused the world’s largest tropical peatland to turn from being a major store of carbon to a source of CO2 emissions. When the climate got wetter again it reverted back to taking carbon out of the atmosphere. If modern-day global heating produces droughts in this region, 30 billion tons of carbon could be released from the peatlands. That’s equivalent to the global emissions from fossil fuel burning over a three-year period. There’s some evidence that dry seasons are lengthening in the Congo Basin. And the region is subject to additional pressures which could cause damage from draining the peatland for industrial-scale agriculture, logging, and oil exploration.
Climate Crisis Blog
