Global warming is a question not of ideology, but of physics: the more excess heat there is in the climate system, the more extreme the weather becomes. Glaciers and polar ice melt, permafrost thaws. Heatwaves, droughts and flooding become more frequent and intense.

These processes pose numerous risks to the health, safety and homes of all people.

Seas and mires play an important role in controlling global warming. They remove carbon dioxide CO₂ from the atmosphere and sequester it permanently – for this reason, they are known as natural CO₂ sinks.

The most significant CO₂ sinks are the oceans. Particularly in cold regions, they absorb large amounts of CO₂, which is transported to deeper water layers. At the same time, CO₂ is stored in layers of sediment – the remains of tiny marine organisms deposited on the seabed.

On land, mires are powerful natural allies: as long as they do not dry out, dead plants are preserved in their moist, acidic soil, thus permanently binding CO₂ in the form of carbon C.

The Earth’s atmosphere contains a lot more carbon dioxide CO₂ than it did just a few decades ago – and far, far more than hundreds of thousands of years ago. But how do we know this?

Scientists measure atmospheric concentrations of CO2 worldwide. The oldest and best known monitoring station – operating since 1958 – is the Mauna Loa Observatory on the island of Hawaii. Located in the Pacific Ocean, at an altitude of over 3000 metres above sea level, it offers a stable window onto the global atmosphere, with long-term records.

But it’s also possible to measure historical CO2 concentrations: the atmosphere of earlier times is stored in tiny air bubbles trapped in Arctic ice sheets several kilometres thick.

In the seas, algae and other plants remove vast amounts of carbon dioxide CO2 from the atmosphere. The greenhouse gas is also bound by other marine organisms – from tiny animals to molluscs and corals.

When they die, these organisms form thick layers of sediment, where the carbon C remains stored.

Seawater absorbs large quantities of carbon dioxide CO₂, leading to the formation of carbonic acid. With excessive amounts of this acid, the water becomes a decalcifier: marine organisms can then no longer form chalky shells and will die off – as happened in the Permian period, when vast amounts of CO₂ were released by volcanoes.

We cannot stop natural disasters – but we can control our CO₂ emissions.

Worldwide, most mires and swamps have been destroyed by human changes in land use. Many remaining wetlands are drying out as a result of global warming and releasing stored carbon dioxide CO₂ into the atmosphere again.

However, if we protect wetlands which are intact and rewet those which have been drained, they can act as potent CO₂ sinks.

From plants to coal: dead plant matter is pressed deeper into the soil by new layers of vegetation, and peat is formed.

Deeper down, under increasing temperature and pressure, peat is transformed into brown coal (lignite). The more dense, energy-rich hard coal (anthracite) mainly comes from the swamps of the Carboniferous period.

Like all plants, peat mosses absorb carbon dioxide CO₂ from the air. Under favourable conditions, they can bind more CO₂ per square metre than forests – but this happens underground.

Dead plants, together with the stored CO₂, sink into the mire and do not decompose. They thus permanently remove large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere.

Greenhouse gases are causing temperatures to rise. What is suffering as a result is not “the climate”, but – among other things – human health.

Extreme heat causes cardiovascular problems, with an increase in heat-related deaths. Growing air pollution is responsible for numerous diseases. Fear of – or actual – disasters are affecting our mental health.

Each year, at the Earth’s poles, a new layer of ice is formed, in which air bubbles are captured. There thus arose ice sheets several kilometres thick, containing annual records of the composition of the atmosphere.

Climate researchers extract ice cores by drilling and can then measure carbon dioxide CO₂ concentrations in the air trapped thousands of years ago.

Over the last 800,000 years, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide CO2 fluctuated but never exceeded 300 ppm.

At the beginning of the 20th century, CO₂ levels started to rise – humanity started burning coal to produce energy, and later also oil and natural gas.