The physics, chemistry, and politics of carbon, and its implications for the human future

Terrestrial life consists of intricately interconnected nets of chemical pathways, most of them (and most of the important stuff) constituted by carbon chemistry. Indeed it is carbon and its chemistry that make the universe interesting. As well as a fundamental constituent of life processes, carbon plays a crucial rôle in the inorganic chemistry which modulates the physical conditions which make the planet congenial for the diversity of life assemblages which collectively constitute the living planet which is Gaia. Humanity is part of this magnificent biological assemblage. The greatest challenge to humanity – ever! – arises from the human abuse of carbon, which is disturbing the stable atmospheric composition on which we, and our companion lineages, depend. Continuing to treat the atmosphere as an open sewer will almost certainly destroy human civilization. The question I will try to answer is: Why are we, collectively, so spectacularly uninterested in seriously addressing a challenging (but soluble) problem that will cause death and misery for billions of humans and change forever the planet as we have known it? A vibrant planet may emerge from the wreckage (in a few million years) but the path we have chosen is regrettable. I suggest that we are sleepwalking to Armageddon as a result of adaptive traits that formerly fostered human survival. However the combination of an opposable thumb and a bihemispheric brain is maladaptive in the technological world which they have enabled.