Climate change continues to be a major story in the news. Radio 4 carried item about the decline of the Southern Ocean's sink or reservoir of carbon. This means that there may be more carbon in the atmopshere than previously thought. It was assumed that, as human activities released more CO2 into the atmosphere, ocean sinks would keep pace, absorbing a comparable percentage of this greenhouse gas. Howver tests show that levels of carbon in the atmosphere are rising rather than being absorbed by the oceans. This seems to be because the surface of the oceans is already saturated by CO2,m and therefore cannot absorb any more. The reduced ability to absorb carbon is thought to be a result of high winds acting on ocean currents bringing deeper waters that already contain high levels of carbon to the surface.