Carbon is not the enemy, its our biggest ally. In fact, it is one of the main building blocks of life. There are the same number of CO2 atoms on this earth that there were at the beginning of time. They’re just stored in the wrong places. In this post I’ll share the story of carbon, why Co2 is good for the planet, and how we can reverse global warming and climate breakdown through regenerative land practices.
Once upon a time, 500+ million years ago, the earth was drier than the driest desert. And the air hung heavy with carbon atoms who lived their lives trapped between the earth and the stars.
At the time, most life on this parched planet lived in the sea. And carbon would travel there to play its part in the creation and support of the beings who dwelled there.
In its visits, carbon would bring stories of land’s loneliness to the sea’s sentients. Back then land only had fungi and bacteria to keep it company. The soil we know today didn’t exist, so there were no plants, trees, wildlife, birds, bees.
The beings in the sea were saddened by the tale of a lifeless land. And because back then, all life was intrinsically altruistic and all types of beings lived in constant communion with one another, the carbon molecules and sea sentients collaborated to formed a plan.
To change the system, if you will, to make sure it honoured inclusivity and diversity like all good communities should.
They decided to send the sea’s bravest organisms as envoy of sorts, a tribe of magnificent microbes, who left their home in the sea to aid carbon in its aim to bring the same abundance of life that dwelled in the waters – to land.
Together they helped form a sort of treaty; between the sun, the earth, the air, and the sea. To support one another symbiotically, through the practice of regenerative reciprocity (which means giving back more than you take).

Now, from the moment of its origin, life began to influence – and be influenced by – soil.
Plants were the first beings to evolve in tandem with the soil. The sun powered them with light energy and they entered into a breathing relationship with the air – what we call photosynthesis – where plants inhale or ‘eat’ carbon atoms and water molecules, which they transform into carbohydrates and sugars that nourish their bodies and feed the soil – and then they breath out oxygen – the stuff we all rely on for survival.
This exchange, this treaty, morphed the once brittle desert into luscious land, which evolved to support teeming layers of life.
Soil’s spectacular structure formed from land’s loving exchange with carbon, allowed the earth and its biosphere to evolve and grow. In return for the carbohydrates and sugars which the plants fed to the soil; the soil offered water and nutrients to the plants, aiding them in their diversity and expansion. As each plant ‘exhaled’ the land’s bounty, its breath transformed into a gracious gift of oxygen for the air, creating opportunity for more life, plants, insects, animals, and eventually humans.
For a long, long time, the sun, sea, carbon, humans, plants, soil, animals and land lived in harmony, treating each other with reverence and reciprocity. But as time turned, humans began to unlearn the alliance of the elements. And in 1859, grasped by ignorance and indulgence, they began to dig down through the millions of years of groundwork soil had set, to suck sleeping carbon from the earth.
Soon that carbon became relied on, pumped from its rightful rest in quantities so large the treaty of balance was forcefully broken; laying abuse to the very elements which had let life live. Pushed to such preposterous populations, carbon became heavy in the atmosphere again, and the earth began to return to its desert state as life was stripped from its surfaces and seas in acts of Ecocide and greed.

As the planet began to die, only 5% of the human population could hear its cry. The other 95% had forgotten the language of the land, long lost in mountains of corrupt comforts collected through endless eras of pillaging and taking. For them, greed was considered good, and green was considered gold, and they had no care for the pain that thinking sowed.
Slowly and painfully the elements worked with the stoical 5%, sending whispers through the wind which woke some of the sleeping from their gluttonous dreams. Once risen, words of warning from the wise warriors of the world began to be heard after centuries of oppressive silencing by those who worshipped greed and gold.
Like a breeze on a lake of calm, a ripple began to form, and though the battle is still not won, the wise and waking beat a long-forgotten drum, offering hope for the future dressed in lessons from the past:
Don’t till the land, sequester carbon in the groundCull chemical use, and halt your abuseTake only what you need, give back, and don’t give in to greedLeave only footprints, be guided by your goodness
** This piece is inspired by Finian Makepeace’s Sages & Scientists Talk + Kiss The Ground’s Soil Story
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