The element carbon, in its oxidized form, is at the center of discussion Climate changeCarbon is often cast as criminals for global warming, destruction and loss.
But what we forget is that carbon is the main component for life. And we are the only species on Earth that disrupts the natural flow of carbon, says environmentalists and author Paul Hocken,
Hacken’s new book, “Carbon: The Book of Life” (Viking, 2025), glows a spotlight on countless flows of carbon, which ranges from power life, individual cells to huge underground fungi networks and from the entire human societies. Through carbon lens, the author takes the reader on a trip through corporate retreat, pharmaceutical field, food industry and places of plants, insects and fungi.
Connected: Bear hair and fish wear: Meet indigenous people by combining modern science with ancestral principles to protect the land
Live Science sat with Hocken on March 18 before the publication of the book, the language we used to talk about the climate and required the required paradigm change to restore, restore and protect the natural flow of carbon on Earth.
Question: “Carbon” is about showing that carbon is not just a problem that we need to neutralize, but also an important force that flows through every living being and earth system. How does this encourage us to think differently about climate change?
Hacken: The story (around global warming) is actually deteriorated, clearly, because it has objects on carbon, atmosphere, climate change, etc. This is the same mentality that caused the problem: we object to the living world and see ourselves different and different from a world we can exploit, using and use from our own ends.
When people say that we are going to “fix” the climate, or climate change “or” combat “or” combat “, it is just a symbol of this intensive disconnection between ourselves and others. climate crisis; Climate cannot cause crisis. we are crisis. This is what I want to find. (I want) to go to a place that is not only about the island and itself, but really (gives birth) the feeling of being in the world that can create a sensitivity that creates a community. Because all of life as we know it exists in a community.
Question: I had a lot of uplift and hope. How do you get a drive to write about climate when everything we hear from scientists is so tarnished?
Hacken: What I am trying to do in my life, of course, but also in communication, it is to make a reference in which people can see the world. Because what you see and achieve, it really determines your mindset, your consciousness, your awareness and your feeling, anxiety and feeling of worry that are disturbing. Instead of going into trouble and being with him, I am looking for a conversation that makes sense. This is where changes are needed.
We object to the living world and see ourselves different and different from a world that we can exploit, use and use from our own ends. ,
Paul Hocken, Environmentalist and Author of “Carbon: The Book of Life” (Viking, 2025)
Question: Can you give an example of where the current conversation is not you?
Hacken: People talk about “Net Zero”. I am not a physicist, but I can tell you that “net zero” does not exist in the context of carbon. “Carbon neutrality” does not exist.
If you really look at the proposals to move away from fossil fuels, what we are talking about is renewable energy to activate an economy that touchs the sky in consumption, which is destruction. Renewable energy really doesn’t take back a step to ask: “Yes, but what?” And if we do not look at it, we are just in a Gerbil wheel. We can be confused that the faster we move, the faster we are getting somewhere, but in reality we are not – this is almost opposite.
Question: Some chapters of the book focus on health and food industry. How are they related to the subject carbon and why was it important to include them?
Hocken: The book is about life and about carbon as an element. The flow of carbon, in a sense, is the flow of life. I started looking at the food system and what was being sold, what was being publicized. One thing gave health and self and food and agriculture as a system to another in terms of inseparable from the rest. It goes back into carbon, because if you look at a healthy agricultural system, it is full of carbon. Food and health and cultivation and soil and agricultural practices and complete systemic understanding of chemistry are also a way to see other systems we have and which we provide.
Question: It goes well to the “Spaceship Earth” that you mention in the book. One goods for everyone There is a concept that encourages us to think of the planet as a closed system with limited resources. Humanity is a crew, and every passenger should work towards the better of this crew. Why do you like this metaphor?
Hocken: Earth is so big, we do not even understand our cities. It leads to ways to think (where we do not believe) our dustbins and sewage. The spacecraft is a imaginative practice, where you imagine that a group of you have been visiting a spacecraft for 10, 50, 100 years and you ask yourself what is allowed and what is not on the board. There is no spatial limit – this system is more about its input and output. This is just to bring it on a scale where people can understand what happens on earth without being a scientist.
Question: The central message in “carbon” is that we need to re -connect with the world around us to shape a better future than what we are currently running. One of your previous books is “called”Reflection: Elimination of climate crisis in a generation“(Penguin, 2021) – And I was wondering what uplift do you mean to you. How do we eliminate climate crisis?
Hocken: The uplift is very simple for me. This means that your life, your existence, your presence here is about making more life – not in the sense of making children, but in every sense of life. This means that you start thinking about consumption, what to buy and what to take, and its implications.
The purpose of “carbon” is to suggest that this is a beautiful flow of surprise and glory which is inseparable from us. The purpose is to ask: What if we really believe that Earth is our home? And what if we acted in this way? Because we are not.
This interview is condensed and lightly edited for length.
