Explain the significance of carbon sequestration (6 marks)

Carbon sequestration is the process of carbon being stored for a prolonged period of time in a carbon store, examples of these include oceans, plants and rocks. If these were to stop acting as carbon stores it would result in carbon dioxide still being present in the atmosphere which would lead to the ozone layer thickening and preventing even less sun rays to escape back into space. This causes the earth to act as a greenhouse causing the core temperature to increase resulting in weather patterns such as El nino and la nina.  La nina is when a warm mass of water is pushed even further west than normal causing droughts in California and el nino causes a reduction in precipitation rates in the Pacific causing droughts again. This results in an increase in the number of wildfires which releases more carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere worsening climate change even further. In addition, the increased temperature results in an increase in evaporation rates which reduces the amount of water available to use in hydroelectric power which causes countries to refer back to the more reliable source of fossil fuels which again release more carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.  This shows the significance of carbon sequestration as otherwise there would be an increase in the amount of carbon in the atmosphere which worsens climate change further.