WHAT'S FEATURE SO•BAD BUILT ABOUT FROM•SCRATCH CARBON
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C Carbon 12.0107
WHAT’S S O BAD ABOUT
carbon?
Carbon is the chemical backbone of all life on Earth. But when too much is released into our atmosphere, it threatens life on our planet. So how do we solve the problem of carbon?
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s there any word more associated with our climate crisis than carbon? And rightly so. It has been made clear to us since NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen testified before Congress on June 23, 1988, that our burning of fossil fuels, producing largely carbon dioxide, was creating a “greenhouse effect,” leading the New York Times to declare on its front page, “Global warming has begun.” More than 30 years later, it’s clear that Hansen, whose testimony drew plenty of detractors, then and since, was right. Carbon dioxide levels have reached a point unseen by any living creature on Earth in the past 4 million years.
Story by Leslie Garrett Photos by Jeremy Driesen And yet, it is to carbon that we owe life on earth. Carbon has an exceptional ability to form bonds with other elements and wOith itself. Carbon is able to form an enormous number of complex molecules called organic molecules, which make up organisms and carry out life processes. The problem, as with so many environmental issues, is that, thanks to our enthusiastic burning of fossil fuels, which are carbon sequestered in the earth, the amount of carbon dioxide we’re asking our atmosphere to absorb is simply too much. The environmental organization 350.org owes its name to the number scientists determined was the safe threshold at which
MMAARRTTHHAA’ S’ S VVI INNEEYYAARRDD / / SSUPMR M I NEG R 2021
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