Big Picture Science: Earth's Misunderstood Molecule
Carbon dioxide is more than an industrial pollutant driving climate
change. The gas also played a pivotal part in the dramatic story of the
beginning of all life. Starting in the ocean depths, dissolved CO2
commingled
in a turbulent mix of chemicals heated by hydrothermal vents may have
kickstarted carbon-based life. As the planet’s thermostat, carbon
dioxide has
taken the Earth on wild temperature swings, from sweltering toxic
hothouses
that drove mass extinctions to the frigid Snowball Earth from which
early life
barely escaped. With life’s growing complexity, CO2’s role evolved.
Exhaled by
animals and enlisted by plants in photosynthesis, the gas eventually
earned its
discordant reputation when belched by industrial chimneys. Now, burning
fossil fuels have us playing with fire as we test the limit of our
stable climate upon
which human civilization has flourished.
Guest:
- Peter Brannen – science journalist and author of “The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything; How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World.”
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