One can think of plant photosynthesis as being a source of income, with carbon being the currency. The carbon stored in plant biomass can be regarded as the current account. Carbon stored as fossil fuels can be regarded as a long-term savings account. Carbon in the atmosphere needs to be captured and placed into the current account, and a small proportion of the carbon in the current account is moved to the savings account every year. Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have been recklessly spending carbon from the savings account, and currently, the Earth's carbon savings account is almost completely depleted, and most of the carbon has been returned to the atmosphere. The capacity of the current account is limited, and is becoming more limited every year as the surface areas of forests and grasslands are depleted. Under the current conditions, very little carbon is being moved back into the savings account because of the limitations of the current account to process and move carbon to the savings account. This limitation cannot be easily solved. Humans will have to stop burning fossil fuels and will have to allow the recovery and expansion of forests and grasslands, and full recovery may take thousands of years.