Over the last decade Charles Lindsay has been exploring the micro- and macrocosms of the universe through the most elemental components of photography: surface, emulsion, and light. The cameraless works in Carbon form a world unto themselves, referencing the essence of life--animal, vegetal, and mineral--on this planet, and imagining possible connections with intelligence systems known and unknown.

An economist’s take on “why the world’s efforts to curb the carbon dioxide emissions behind global warming have gone so wrong, and how it can do better” (Financial Times). Despite commitments to renewable energy and two decades of international negotiations, global emissions continue to rise. Coal, the most damaging of all fossil fuels, has actually risen from 25% to almost 30% of world energy use. And while European countries congratulate themselves on reducing emissions, they’ve increased their carbon imports from China and other developing nations, who continue to expand their coal use. As standards of living improve in developing countries, coal use can only increase as well—and global temperatures along with it. Written by an Oxford economist who specializes in environmental issues, this book goes beyond pieties and pipe dreams to address the practical realities that are preventing us from making progress on this crucial issue—and what we can do differently before it’s too late. “Should be compulsory reading for the entire political class as well as the bureaucratic elite and the commentariat.”—New Statesman “An optimistically levelheaded book about actually dealing with global warming.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A powerful and heartfelt plea for hard-nosed realism.”—New Scientist

A comprehensive guide to carbon inside Earth - its quantities, movements, forms, origins, changes over time and impact on planetary processes. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

As the electric power industry faces the challenges of climate change, technological disruption, new market imperatives, and changing policies, a renowned energy expert offers a roadmap to the future of this essential sector. As the damaging and costly impacts of climate change increase, the rapid development of sustainable energy has taken on great urgency. The electricity industry has responded with necessary but wrenching shifts toward renewables, even as it faces unprecedented challenges and disruption brought on by new technologies, new competitors, and policy changes. The result is a collision course between a grid that must provide abundant, secure, flexible, and affordable power, and an industry facing enormous demands for power and rapid, systemic change. The fashionable solution is to think small: smart buildings, small-scale renewables, and locally distributed green energy. But Peter Fox-Penner makes clear that these will not be enough to meet our increasing needs for electricity. He points instead to the indispensability of large power systems, battery storage, and scalable carbon-free power technologies, along with the grids and markets that will integrate them. The electric power industry and its regulators will have to provide all of these, even as they grapple with changing business models for local electric utilities, political instability, and technological change. Power after Carbon makes sense of all the moving parts, providing actionable recommendations for anyone involved with or relying on the electric power system.

Designed specifically for students of solid-state physics or engineering, this book introduces recent discoveries in carbon materials and demonstrates how these breakthroughs are useful to students' studies. The abundance of carbon coupled with its remarkable chemistry make the element unique and essential to life and the universe. This book offers a succinct introduction to the synthesis of carbon materials, their allotropes and the impact these have had on developmental science. By providing a uniquely encompassing and interlinked overview of carbon science, this text aids the reader in understanding the importance of carbon and how little we know about this mysterious but prevalent atom.

A forceful reckoning with the relationship between energy and power through the history of what was once East Asia’s largest coal mine. The coal-mining town of Fushun in China’s Northeast is home to a monstrous open pit. First excavated in the early twentieth century, this pit grew like a widening maw over the ensuing decades, as various Chinese and Japanese states endeavored to unearth Fushun’s purportedly “inexhaustible” carbon resources. Today, the depleted mine that remains is a wondrous and terrifying monument to fantasies of a fossil-fueled future and the technologies mobilized in attempts to turn those developmentalist dreams into reality. In Carbon Technocracy, Victor Seow uses the remarkable story of the Fushun colliery to chart how the fossil fuel economy emerged in tandem with the rise of the modern technocratic state. Taking coal as an essential feedstock of national wealth and power, Chinese and Japanese bureaucrats, engineers, and industrialists deployed new technologies like open-pit mining and hydraulic stowage in pursuit of intensive energy extraction. But as much as these mine operators idealized the might of fossil fuel–driven machines, their extractive efforts nevertheless relied heavily on the human labor that those devices were expected to displace. Under the carbon energy regime, countless workers here and elsewhere would be subjected to invasive techniques of labor control, ever-escalating output targets, and the dangers of an increasingly exploited earth. Although Fushun is no longer the coal capital it once was, the pattern of aggressive fossil-fueled development that led to its ascent endures. As we confront a planetary crisis precipitated by our extravagant consumption of carbon, it holds urgent lessons. This is a groundbreaking exploration of how the mutual production of energy and power came to define industrial modernity and the wider world that carbon made.

Recent years have seen an expansion in speciality uses of activated carbons including medicine, filtration, and the purification of liquids and gaseous media. Much of current research and information surrounding the nature and use of activated carbon is scattered throughout various literature, which has created the need for an up-to-date comprehensive and integrated review reference. In this book, special attention is paid to porosities in all forms of carbon, and to the modern-day materials which use activated carbons - including fibres, clothes, felts and monoliths. In addition, the use of activated carbon in its granular and powder forms to facilitate usage in liquid and gaseous media is explored. Activated Carbon will make essential reading for Material Scientists, Chemists and Engineers in academia and industry. - Characterization of porosity - The surface chemistry of the carbons - Methods of activation and mechanisms of adsorptio - Computer modelling of structure and porosity within carbons - Modern instrumental analytical methods

There's a simple, straightforward way to cut carbon emissions and prevent the most disastrous effects of climate change-and we're rejecting it because of irrational political fears. That's the central argument of The Case for a Carbon Tax, a clear-eyed, sophisticated analysis of climate change policy. Shi-Ling Hsu examines the four major approaches to curbing CO2: cap-and-trade; command and control regulation; government subsidies of alternative energy; and carbon taxes. Weighing the economic, social, administrative, and political merits of each, he demonstrates why a tax is currently the most effective policy. Hsu does not claim that a tax is the perfect or only solution-but that unlike the alternatives, it can be implemented immediately and paired effectively with other approaches. In fact, the only real barrier is psychological. While politicians can present subsidies and cap-and-trade as "win-win" solutions, the costs of a tax are immediately apparent. Hsu deftly explores the social and political factors that prevent us from embracing this commonsense approach. And he shows why we must get past our hang-ups if we are to avert a global crisis.

A richly illustrated history of a single atom of carbon, tracing its many manifestations from the Big Bang to the present. Carbon: One Atom's Odyssey is an illustrated adaptation of 'Carbon,' a short story from Italian chemist, writer, and Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi. It traces the life story and many molecular manifestations of a single atom of this life-essential element. You'll follow one atom from its spectacular birth 14 billion years ago through its harrowing journey on planet earth where it has become a basic building block of nearly 10 million known compounds in living things. You’ll learn that carbon: Is breathed in by the Peregrine Falcon Helps trees grow strong and tall Lets a moth's eye make sense of light Is found in your pencil as well as in your liver And even helps convert grapes into wine In this wondrous graphic journey, clever narrative and detailed art help bring to life the natural world and teach you a thing or two about how it was created. For anyone with a general interest in chemistry, physics, and the science of the universe, this beautiful book will both educate and inspire. If you’re ready for a STEAM adventure, then let the journey begin!

A comparative examination of domestic climate politics that offers a theory for cross-national differences in domestic climate policymaking. Climate change threatens the planet, and yet policy responses have varied widely across nations. Some countries have undertaken ambitious programs to stave off climate disaster, others have done little, and still others have passed policies that were later rolled back. In this book, Matto Mildenberger opens the “black box” of domestic climate politics, examining policy making trajectories in several countries and offering a theoretical explanation for national differences in the climate policy process. Mildenberger introduces the concept of double representation—when carbon polluters enjoy political representation on both the left (through industrial unions fearful of job loss) and the right (through industrial business associations fighting policy costs)—and argues that different climate policy approaches can be explained by the interaction of climate policy preferences and domestic institutions. He illustrates his theory with detailed histories of climate politics in Norway, the United States, and Australia, along with briefer discussions of policies in in Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. He shows that Norway systematically shielded politically connected industrial polluters from costs beginning with its pioneering carbon tax; the United States, after the failure of carbon reduction legislation, finally acted on climate reform through a series of Obama administration executive actions; and Australia's Labor and Green parties enacted an emissions trading scheme, which was subsequently repealed by a conservative Liberal party government. Ultimately, Mildenberger argues for the importance of political considerations in understanding the climate policymaking process and discusses possible future policy directions.