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Author Roston, Eric.

Title The carbon age : how life's core element has become civilization's greatest threat / Eric Roston.

Publication Info. New York : Walker & Co. : Distributed to the trade by Macmillan, [2008]
©2008

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Glastonbury, Welles-Turner Memorial Library - Adult Department  577 ROSTON    Check Shelf
 New Britain, Main Library - Non Fiction  577.144 R739    Check Shelf
 Newington, Lucy Robbins Welles Library - Adult Department  577.144 ROSTON    Check Shelf
 West Hartford, Bishop's Corner Branch - Non Fiction  577.144 ROSTON    Check Shelf
 Windsor, Main Library - Adult Department  577.144 RO    Check Shelf
Edition First U.S. edition.
Description 309 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages [233]-293) and index.
Summary Carbon is the chemical scaffolding of life and civilization; indeed, the great cycle by which carbon moves through organisms, ground, water, and atmosphere has long been a kind of global respiration system that helps keep Earth in balance. And yet, when we hear the word today, it is more often than not in a crisis context. Journalist Roston evokes this essential element, from the Big Bang to modern civilization. Charting the science of carbon--how it was formed, how it came to Earth--he chronicles the often surprising ways mankind has used it over centuries, and the growing catastrophe of the industrial era, leading our current attempt to wrestle the Earth's geochemical cycle back from the brink. Blending the latest science with original reporting, Roston makes us aware of the seminal impact carbon has, and has had, on our lives.
Contents Prologue : the strange case of carbon -- Pt. I : The natural. Out of the frying pan : carbon after the Big Bang ; Dancers and the dance : the origins of life ; The flood : molecular fossils and the great greenhouse collapse ; Inherent brutality : predators, defenses, and the ocean carbon cycle ; The witness : CO2 and a tree of life ; Body heat : running on carbohydrates and hydrocarbons -- Pt. II : The unnatural. Greased lightning : carbon and the car ; The physical restraint on fantasy : the art in carbon science ; Faster than a speeding bullet : antiballistic carbon ; The bell jar : humans and the hundredfold acceleration of the carbon cycle ; Instructions not included : the potential of biological fuels ; The adventures ahead : life with carbon, civilization without?
Subject Carbon cycle (Biogeochemistry)
ISBN 9780802715579 alkaline paper
0802715575 alkaline paper
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