Carbon: the Book of Life by Paul Hawken argues that the element carbon has a lot to teach us about how to live on planet Earth. Its “flows” though nature and within our bodies provide “better stories, other ways to see… different from the disjointed and chaotic narratives that engulf us” all too often in our daily lives (2-3). Carbon is the great connector, “the keystone element of sentience, the caretaker of DNA, and the bard of the mitochondrial battery that releases the suns energy into our bloodstreams” (12). “Though carbon comprises a tiny fraction of the Earth, a planet without it is a dead rock,” Hawken maintains (2).
With rising temperatures because of the burning of fossil fuels, carbon is often perceived as a problem. But “carbon’s increase in the atmosphere moves in tandem with the loss of the living world,” Hawken says. “For industry, the changing climate is seen as an engineering problem, not a crisis of behavior, consumption, or disconnection” (3). But referencing Robin Wall Kimmerer, Hawken maintains that we need more than better engineering, “more than policy change; we need a change in worldview, from the fiction of human exceptionalism to the reality of kinship and reciprocity with the natural world” (4). “The task of modernity,” he continues, is to recognize that our “existence rests upon the entirety of planetary life” (4-5). “The current system of production,” he says, “is eating its host” (6).
At the beginning of chapter two, “Elements,” we learn some important things about the element carbon. “It forms molecular chains that capture energy and retain memory…. It provides the structural framework for trees, cells, shells, hormones, organelles, eyelashes, bones, and bat wings….” At the same time, “It enables and informs every aspect of consciousness” (11).
Chapter three looks at the question of where carbon came from in the first place which leads to a critical look at the Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe and an extended discussion of whether six helium molecules can collide at just the right time and in just the right sequence to become carbon. It seems that, even for many scientists, it all depends on “extraordinary symmetries” and “unlikely alignments.” For the lay reader, taking a deep breath at the end of the chapter, it’s a little hard to know what we know and what we don’t know about the origins of carbon. But chapter four, “Cell Mates,” goes on to ask another, maybe even bigger question. “How do trillions of inanimate molecules in a single cell become sentient? None of the molecules are alive, yet the cell is a living organism…” (31). Alas, we ran out of time last Friday before we could answer that one!
Next week we focus on food, with chapter five, “Eating Starlight,” and chapter six, “Sugar Salad,” pages 46-70. Next gathering: Friday, September 12, at 9:00 AM on Zoom.
