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The element C , in its oxidate form , is at the center of discussion aboutclimate change . Carbon is often vilified and ramble as the perpetrator for orbicular warming , destruction and exit .
But what we tend to forget is that carbon is the principal ingredient for life sentence . And we are the only species on Earth that disrupts the natural stream of C , says environmentalist and authorPaul Hawken .
Current discussions of climate change often vilify carbon, but the element is the very basis of life on Earth, says Paul Hawken.
Hawken ’s new book , " Carbon : The Book of Life " ( Viking , 2025 ) , shines a spotlight on the countless flows of carbon that power life , from individual cells to huge clandestine fungal networks and entire human societies . Through the lens of carbon , the author conduct the reader on a journeying through corporate retreats , the pharmaceutical sphere , the food industry and the realms of plants , insects and fungi .
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Live Science sit around down with Hawken before the book ’s issue on March 18 to discuss the language we use to talk about the climate and the epitome shift needed to start value , restore and protecting the natural catamenia of carbon on Earth .
Paul Hawken is an author, environmentalist and entrepreneur.
Q : " Carbon " is about showing that carbon is not just a problem we want to neutralise , but also a vital force that course through every living being and worldly concern system . How does this encourage us to guess differently about climate change ?
Hawken : The narrative [ around global warming ] is really screwed up , candidly , because it has objectified carbon , the atmosphere , climate modification , etcetera . It ’s the same mind-set that caused the problem : We depersonalize the live on reality and see ourselves as distinct and disjoined from a earthly concern that we can overwork , extract from and employ to our own close .
When hoi polloi say we ’re going to " fix " the mood , or " undertake " or " combat " climate alteration , to me it ’s just so emblematical of this profound disconnection between self and other . We do n’t have aclimatecrisis ; the climate can not have a crisis . We arethe crisis . That ’s what I want to research . [ I want ] to go to a place that ’s not just insular and about self , but actually [ reach rise to ] a sense of being in the man that can make a sensibility that forms community . Because all of life as we know it exists in a community .
Q : I found the book very uplifting and promising . How do you find the drive to spell about the clime when everything we hear from scientists is so bleak ?
Hawken : What I ’m taste to do in my own spirit , certainly , but also in communication , is to make the context in which citizenry can see the world . Because what you see and receive really determines your outlook , your consciousness , your awareness and your sentiency of focus , anxiety and equanimity in the face of events that are perturbing . Rather than going to the hassle and staying with that , I ’m look for a conversation that make sensory faculty . That ’s where alteration needs to happen .
We objectify the live humanity and see ourselves as trenchant and separate from a domain that we can work , extract from and apply to our own ends . "
Q : Could you give an object lesson of where the current conversation does not make sense to you ?
Hawken : multitude talk about " last zero . " I ’m not a physicist , but I can tell you that " last zero " does not exist in term of carbon copy . " Carbon disinterest " does not survive .
If you count at the marriage offer to really transfer away from fossil fuel , what we ’re tattle about is renewable vim to energize an economy that ’s skyrocket in consumption , which is devastation . Renewable energy does n’t really take a step back to ask : " stimulate yes , but what ? " And if we do n’t front at that , then we ’re just in a gerbil wheel . We may have the fancy that the quicker we go , the faster we ’re getting somewhere , but actually we ’re not — it ’s almost the opposite .
Q : A few chapters of the record book focus on wellness and the food diligence . How do those topics tie in to carbon paper and why was it crucial to include them ?
Hawken : The book is about life history and about carbon as an ingredient . The flow of carbon is , in a sensory faculty , the period of sprightliness . I began to calculate at the solid food system and what was being sold , what was being kick upstairs . One thing led to another in terms of calculate at health and self and food and Department of Agriculture as a system that is inseparable from the rest . That goes back to carbon , because if you expect at a sizeable farming system , it ’s full of carbon . That whole systemic understanding of food and health and farming and soil and agricultural practices and chemistry is also a mode of take care at the other systems we have and that we take for grant .
Q : This leads nicely into the " spaceship Earth " you name in the Quran . Spaceship Earthis a conception that encourages us to think of the satellite as a unopen organization with modified resources . Humanity is the crew , and every passenger should work toward the large good of this crew . Why do you like this metaphor ?
Hawken : Earth is so crowing , we do n’t even understand our own cities . It head to direction of thinking where [ we do n’t view where ] our chalk and sewage go . The spaceship is an inventive use , where you imagine that a group of you is going on a starship for 10 , 50 , 100 years and you take yourselves what is permit on board and what is not . There ’s no spacial limit — it ’s more about the system , its input and outputs . It ’s just to bring in it down to a scale where citizenry can sympathize what find on Earth without being a scientist .
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Q : The central substance in " Carbon " is that we postulate to reconnect with the existence around us to shape a better future than what we ’re presently head for . One of your old books is called " positive feedback : end the Climate Crisis in One Generation " ( Penguin , 2021 ) — and I was wondering what positive feedback means to you . How do we cease the mood crisis ?
Hawken : Regeneration for me is pretty dewy-eyed . It means that your life story , your being , your presence here is about create more spirit — not in the sense of making children , but in every horse sense of life . That means you start thinking about consumption , about what to buy and what you take , and the implications of that .
The function of " Carbon " is to propose there is this beautiful flow of wonder and majesty that is inseparable from us . The design is to ask : What if we truly believe that Earth is our home ? And what if we acted that way ? Because we do n’t .
This interview has been distil and thinly edited for length .
" Carbon : The Book of Life " encourages readers to examine the earth around us more intimately , and to see and apprise its beauty . For an example of what this appreciation looks like , readthis extract from Chapter 11 of the book .
Carbon : The Book of Life — $ 28 on Amazon
A journey into the world of carbon , the most versatile constituent on the planet , by theNew York Timesbestselling author Paul Hawken
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