Are Earth's oceanic 'carbon sinks' filling up?

Russian and South Korean scientists made a disturbing discovery recently in the Sea of Japan. They found that the amount of carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas, being absorbed in the water dropped by half between 1992 and 2007.

French scientists last month concluded that there had been an even sharper drop in the capacity of the Southern Ocean, surrounding Antarctica, to soak up excess carbon dioxide (CO₂) being released into the atmosphere, largely as a result of burning fossil fuels and deforestation.

In its latest report in 2007, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that human activity produced 32 billion tons of CO₂ worldwide each year but that only about 15 billion tons actually stayed in the atmosphere and affected climate change. The oceans, forests, vegetation and soils store the rest.