The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything. But according to science journalist Peter Brannen, that dismal view is far too narrow. In his first book, The Ends of the World, Brannen chronicled Earth’s five major mass extinctions, charting the deep history of our planet’s greatest catastrophes. For his second, The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything (Ecco, 2025), he has higher ambitions, taking readers on dizzying jaunts through deep time to reframe our understanding of what may be the most vilified and misunderstood molecule on Earth.Scientific American. Inspired and informed by conversations with leading planetary scientists, Brannen’s central argument is that CO2 is not merely an industrial pollutant but a key player in the four-billion-year-old drama of life on Earth. It is the molecule that built our planet, forming the global carbon cycle that has regulated climate, shaped geology and powered evolution for eons. He shows how the ebb and flow of atmospheric CO2 across Earth’s vast history has played a role in, yes, practically everything under the sun—from the primordial origins of life to the development of human civilization and our global economic system. From the ancient past to the present day, Brannen makes the case that to understand CO2 is to understand the very fabric of our world.When we talk about carbon dioxide, the narrative is almost always that of a modern-day morality play. We hear about gigatons of CO2 emitted, about rising global temperatures and about the dire, unheeded warnings of climate scientists. In these tales, CO2 often seems less like a mute, inert molecule and more like an evil supervillain—a malevolent force that has been plotting for centuries to wreak havoc on our planet and ruin our lives. But according to science journalist Peter Brannen, that dismal view is far too narrow.

In his first book, The Ends of the World, Brannen chronicled Earth’s five major mass extinctions, charting the deep history of our planet’s greatest catastrophes. For his second, The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything (Ecco, 2025), he has higher ambitions, taking readers on dizzying jaunts through deep time to reframe our understanding of what may be the most vilified and misunderstood molecule on Earth. Inspired and informed by conversations with leading planetary scientists, Brannen’s central argument is that CO2 is not merely an industrial pollutant but a key player in the four-billion-year-old drama of life on Earth. It is the molecule that built our planet, forming the global carbon cycle that has regulated climate, shaped geology and powered evolution for eons. He shows how the ebb and flow of atmospheric CO2 across Earth’s vast history has played a role in, yes, practically everything under the sun—from the primordial origins of life to the development of human civilization and our global economic system. From the ancient past to the present day, Brannen makes the case that to understand CO2 is to understand the very fabric of our world. Scientific American spoke with Brannen about what’s in his new book, how he came to see a simple gas as a character in a planetary epic and what the long history of CO2 can tell us about our precarious present moment—and our uncertain future. [An edited transcript of the interview follows.]       

How did this book come to be? That’s always a great way to start.......My previous book, The Ends of the World, was about the five biggest mass extinctions known in Earth’s history. And when paleontologists look at those events what they’ve found is, yes, a space rock seems to have triggered the most recent one, the Cretaceous mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. But the evidence is sparse for asteroid or comet impacts causing the others. Instead the other four—the Ordovician, the Devonian, the Permian and the Triassic mass extinctions—as well as the dozens of other minor mass extinctions in the fossil record, are most associated with major biogeochemical events, usually involving big spikes in atmospheric CO2.And these gigantic CO2 spikes are followed by extreme global warming and ocean acidification and all the other nasty climate change effects we’re understandably worried about today......read on   https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carbon-dioxide-isnt-what-you-think-it-is/