The Decarbonization Delusion: What 3.5 Billion Years of Biological Sustainability Can Teach Us

Could the race to de-carbonize our energy systems be leading us closer to environmental disaster?

Why did biology choose carbon, in a variety of compounds, as its energy carrier and storage substance? From the smallest life forms, through multicellular organisms, and up to whole ecosystems, this economy of carbon compounds is fundamentally sustainable. Yet today, many are working to expunge carbon-based energy carriers from human economies, replacing them with solutions based on other elemen...