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...years - and is now, thanks to human activity, making us too warm. When we think of carbon, the first word we associate with it is emissions, a concept that evokes a tinge of illegality, as if emitting a mere molecule of CO2 were a crime. But as Eric Roston points out in his engaging new book, The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat, C is about more than just CO2. "If you think about carbon only in terms of climate change, you're missing out," he says. "If you want to learn about...
...senior associate at the Nicholas Institute in Washington, Roston says carbon began to pique his interest several years ago when he was a reporter at TIME magazine, focusing on energy-related business and technology. He found the word popping up everywhere - in stories about climate-change issues, of course, but also in those about low-carb diets or even the ultra-light carbon bike that Lance Armstrong rode when he won the Tour de France. "Everywhere you looked, you had these stories that dealt with carbon," Roston says. "I wanted to get context on it, to get some understanding...
...result is The Carbon Age, a kind of biography of the atomic element that is, as Roston points out, central to our world. "In anything bigger than an atom and smaller than a star, you're going to find carbon," he says. That includes all forms of life on the Earth, which is, as Mr. Spock used to say, carbon-based. That's because on a molecular level, carbon is a wonderful chemical joiner. Seemingly without prejudice, carbon atoms will combine with almost any other element to form the more complicated building blocks of life. "It's atomic Velcro," says...
...sheer ubiquity of carbon is what makes eliminating greenhouse-gas emissions so difficult. But the surprising truth, Roston writes, is that we have actually been decarbonizing over time. Humanity's main fuel for eons was wood, which has a carbon-to-hydrogen ratio of 10 to 1 when burned; by comparison, that ratio is 2 to 1 for coal and 1 to 2 for oil. The problem is that we're burning ever larger amounts of fossil fuels, putting a greater concentration of carbon into the atmosphere than has been seen for millions of years. Though carbon has its positive...
...Congress--a sign that their energy policies have put them on a collision course with a core constituency. Pay attention to our message, Ball argues, because climate change is not a left-wing, tree-hugging issue. "It's a people problem. It's about loving your neighbor." --By Eric Roston...