Growing pollution due to carbon emissions in the world is now the latest worry for global leaders—I mean, for over a decade. Emissions are due to heightened industrialization, millions of vehicles on the roads, coal burning, and a simultaneous decrease in trees, oceans, and wetlands across the world.
So what? It’s all been in newspapers for years together now!
Well, flip through this book, and you will easily understand the dangers before you.
But what is carbon? Why does it matter? Why should people care about it? What is Net Zero? How can we achieve that? Who are the main carbon emitters? All this and much more is contained in this unique, first-of-its-kind book that deals only with carbon and simplifies the technical issues for the common man. There are countless facts that were either unknown to people or are explained here for the first time, offering an entirely new perspective in a very simple language, despite the inclusion of scientific knowledge.
Many books on a wide range of environmental topics, including carbon, have been read, but there has not been an opportunity to pick up such a knowledge-packed book yet. I am tempted to call it “Carbon—Made Simple for You.” This British publication is in great demand across the world.
The introduction, though, says that the book is all about energy. Seth Godin, a celebrated American author, has put together a well-researched book with a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration with hundreds of voluntarily contributing writers who add value to the compendium. The advantage is that you get different viewpoints that bring before the reader a comprehensive picture of everything you always wanted to know about the environment, climate change, agriculture, food security, water streets, wetlands, oceans, dust storms, energy options, the greenhouse effect, the limits of the natural world, urban islands, the plastic life cycle, and a host of things that impact our daily lives. Among the many authors, about ten Indian authors have been included from an array of contributors from 40 countries.
So, who are the main culprits of the carbon apocalypse? According to the author, who calls them ‘horsemen,’ they are as follows: Coal, combustion, cows, and concrete are the culprits! Readers may be familiar with coal, the villain in the global environmental narrative. But cows? Compared to a coal plant, a cow seems benign, as the book suggests. However, since cows produce methane gas, they contribute to global climate problems.
“While there is far more carbon dioxide than methane released globally each year (70 times as much), methane has 84 times the potential for trapping and heating the air over a 20-year period.” Cows create methane through their digestive and waste elimination processes. Each cow will belch 100 kilos of methane every year. In the US alone, there are 95 million cows, and they graze on half of the country’s land. The Indian cow population is not provided, but it would be as astounding as that of the US.
In the chapter ‘Using Soil to Store Carbon,’ the book briefly tells us that SOM (soil organic matter) stores a significant amount of the world’s carbon, highlighting the importance of preserving soil. Incidentally, what may cause you sleepless nights is the fact that one-third of the world’s soils have degraded to the point where they can offer little support to plant or animal life due to tilling, overgrazing by cattle, and insufficient mulching. Restoring soil health is thus a massive task.
Elsewhere, this beautifully illustrated book talks about urban heat islands and comments on how the layout of cities affects whether the heat is trapped or able to disperse. Many people have referred to Delhi’s heat island and the reasons behind it at different times. When heat degrades airborne pollution, ground-level ozone is created, and this ozone traps even more pollution, making cities, especially larger ones, unlivable.
To make it easier for those who do not understand much about science, it further explains the phenomenon of urban heating and pollution like this: “Pollution in urban areas traps heat and makes pollution and global warming worse by increasing the demand for cooling, resulting in additional emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.”
In other words, it says: “The more pollution we create, the hotter cities get, and the more ecosystems are irreparably damaged.”
The editor has provided a list of ten myths about climate change and twenty truths of climate change in this book. Here are a few of the myths: 1) Climate change is nothing new; the climate is always changing; 2) The Earth is not warming; it is always cold outside! 3) Renewable energy is expensive. For the rest, do read the book.
And here are twenty truths: 1) 99.5% of climate scientists agree that humans are causing climate change. 2) Extreme weather events like flooding, heatwaves, snow, downpours, and droughts are amplified by warming. 3) Earth’s climate, which used to change over hundreds or thousands of years, is now changing in decades.
What I liked is that, at the end, the book gives you hope that it is not too late. Start your actions today to save the Earth by following daily actions such as skipping eating animal products once a week, being aware of the impacts of coal, combustion, and concrete, talking about climate change in the workplace, and supporting NGOs working in the field, among other things.
The book concludes with an appeal: “We can begin right now, even if we are not perfect. Because none of us are!”
But what is carbon? Why does it matter? Why should people care about it? What is Net Zero? How can we achieve that? Who are the main carbon emitters? All this and much more is contained in this unique, first-of-its-kind book that deals only with carbon and simplifies the technical issues for the common man