Where does all the carbon we release go?

我们释放的碳都去哪儿了？

Carbon works in a natural cycle, present in all living things: in the soil, in the oceans, in the atmosphere and in rocks deep underground.

碳在自然循环中发挥着重要作用，它存在于万物之中：土壤、海洋、大气，也存在于地下深处的岩石中。

When plants and other living things die,

当植物和其他生物死亡时，

much of their stored carbon makes its way back to the atmosphere until new plants grow and reabsorb the carbon.

它们所储存的大部分碳会回到大气中，直到新的植物生长出来， 并重新吸收这些碳。

But over millions of years, some of the carbon stored in ancient trees and sea life becomes rock and some becomes fossil fuels: coal,

但是经过数百万年，一些储存在古树和海洋生物中的碳变成了岩石，另一些则变成了化石燃料：比如煤、

oil and natural gas.

石油和天然气。

Natural events like volcanic eruptions release some of the carbon trapped in rock.

像火山爆发这样的自然事件会释放一些固定在岩石中的碳。

And human activities, like burning fossil fuels, also release some of that prehistoric carbon.

人类活动，如燃烧化石燃料，也会释放一些史前积累的碳。

Today, humans release around 60 times more carbon than all the volcanoes on the planet each year.

如今，人类每年释放的碳是地球上所有因火山喷发导致的碳排放量的 60 多倍。

That overloads Earth's carbon cycle and builds up in the atmosphere and oceans.

这使得地球的碳循环严重超载，并开始在大气和海洋中积累。

Planting more trees will help, but trees alone can't get us to net zero.

种植更多的树会有所帮助，但并不能实现净零排放。

There's only one sure way to stop global warming.

阻止全球变暖只有一个明确的方法：

We must stop releasing this excess carbon into our air.

我们必须停止向空气中释放额外的碳。