The element carbon, in its oxidized form, is at the center of discussions about climate change. Carbon is often vilified and cast as the culprit for global warming, destruction and loss.
But what we tend to forget is that carbon is the main ingredient for life. And we are the only species on Earth that disrupts the natural flow of carbon, says environmentalist and author Paul Hawken.
Hawken’s new book, “Carbon: The Book of Life” (Viking, 2025), shines a spotlight on the countless flows of carbon that power life, from individual cells to vast underground fungal networks and entire human societies. Through the lens of carbon, the author takes the reader on a journey through corporate retreats, the pharmaceutical sector, the food industry and the realms of plants, insects and fungi.
Live Science sat down with Hawken before the book’s publication on March 18 to discuss the language we use to talk about the climate and the paradigm shift needed to start valuing, restoring and protecting the natural flow of carbon on Earth.
Q: “Carbon” is about showing that carbon is not just a problem we need to neutralize, but also a vital force that flows through every living being and Earth system. How does this encourage us to think differently about climate change?
Hawken: The narrative [around global warming] is really screwed up, frankly, because it has objectified carbon, the atmosphere, climate change, etcetera. It’s the same mindset that caused the problem: We objectify the living world and see ourselves as distinct and separate from a world that we can exploit, extract from and use to our own ends.
When people say we’re going to “fix” the climate, or “tackle” or “combat” climate change, to me it’s just so emblematic of this profound disconnection between self and other. We don’t have a climate crisis; the climate cannot have a crisis. We’re the crisis. That’s what I want to explore. [I want] to go to a place that’s not just insular and about self, but actually [gives rise to] a sense of being in the world that can create a sensibility that forms community. Because all of life as we know it exists in a community.
Q: I found the book very uplifting and hopeful. How do you find the drive to write about the climate when everything we hear from scientists is so bleak?
Hawken: What I’m trying to do in my own life, certainly, but also in communication, is to create the context in which people can see the world. Because what you see and receive really determines your mindset, your consciousness, your awareness and your sense of stress, anxiety and equanimity in the face of events that are troubling. Rather than going to the trouble and staying with that, I’m looking for a conversation that makes sense. That’s where change needs to happen.
We objectify the living world and see ourselves as distinct and separate from a world that we can exploit, extract from and use to our own ends.”
Paul Hawken, environmentalist and author of “Carbon: The Book of Life” (Viking, 2025)
Q: Could you give an example of where the current conversation does not make sense to you?
Hawken: People talk about “net zero.” I’m not a physicist, but I can tell you that “net zero” does not exist in terms of carbon. “Carbon neutrality” does not exist.
If you look at the proposals to really shift away from fossil fuels, what we’re talking about is renewable energies to energize an economy that’s skyrocketing in consumption, which is destruction. Renewable energy doesn’t really take a step back to ask: “Energizing yes, but what?” And if we don’t look at that, then we’re just in a gerbil wheel. We may have the illusion that the faster we go, the faster we’re getting somewhere, but actually we’re not — it’s almost the opposite.
Q: A few chapters of the book focus on health and the food industry. How do those topics relate to carbon and why was it important to include them?
Hawken: The book is about life and about carbon as an element. The flow of carbon is, in a sense, the flow of life. I began to look at the food system and what was being sold, what was being promoted. One thing led to another in terms of looking at health and self and food and agriculture as a system that is inseparable from the rest. That goes back to carbon, because if you look at a healthy agricultural system, it’s full of carbon. That whole systemic understanding of food and health and farming and soil and agricultural practices and chemistry is also a way of looking at the other systems we have and that we take for granted.
Q: This leads nicely into the “spaceship Earth” you mention in the book. Spaceship Earth is a concept that encourages us to think of the planet as a closed system with limited resources. Humanity is the crew, and every passenger should work toward the greater good of this crew. Why do you like this metaphor?
Hawken: Earth is so big, we don’t even understand our own cities. It leads to ways of thinking where [we don’t consider where] our trash and sewage go. The spaceship is an imaginative exercise, where you imagine that a group of you is going on a spaceship for 10, 50, 100 years and you ask yourselves what is allowed on board and what is not. There’s no spatial limit — it’s more about the system, its inputs and outputs. It’s just to bring it down to a scale where people can understand what happens on Earth without being a scientist.
Q: The central message in “Carbon” is that we need to reconnect with the world around us to shape a better future than what we’re currently headed for. One of your previous books is called “Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation” (Penguin, 2021) — and I was wondering what regeneration means to you. How do we end the climate crisis?
Hawken: Regeneration for me is pretty simple. It means that your life, your being, your presence here is about creating more life — not in the sense of making children, but in every sense of life. That means you start thinking about consumption, about what to buy and what you take, and the implications of that.
The purpose of “Carbon” is to suggest there is this beautiful flow of wonder and majesty that is inseparable from us. The purpose is to ask: What if we truly believed that Earth is our home? And what if we acted that way? Because we don’t.
This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for length.
