A big eruption cools the air because sulfur haze blocks sunlight. The volcano’s CO2 is tiny and does not do this.
A sink is a place that takes carbon out of the air. is plants and soil. (Earth’s other sink) is seawater and marine life. Together they take about half of what people emit.
CO2 stays in the air because the molecule is stable. It does not rain out like water, and it does not fall out like volcanic haze. Land and ocean take about half of each year’s emissions. The other half is still mixed through the whole atmosphere, trapping heat, until the slow ocean and even slower rocks take more — decades to centuries. That leftover stacks.
Scroll, pinch, or use + / −. Drag to slide. Double-tap to zoom in.
Annual global mean from HadCRUT5 (Met Office / UEA). Official series is vs 1961–1990; here it is shifted so 1850–1900 averages zero, matching the numbers at the top. Click a chip or a dot. Volcanoes and El Niño are the wiggles. The climb after about 1970 is leftover CO2.
Teaching toy from the three reports. Bars update as you drag. Click a dotted term for the meaning.