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Carbon - The Unauthorised Biography

· 6 min read

Notes and thoughts on the Documentary film Carbon: The Unauthorised Biography at the Tipping Point Film Festival.

Fusion Cover

Carbon Synthesis​

In the core of a star where nuclear fusion(nucleus of atoms fusing or combining together) occurs, when three Helium atoms combine together, it creates Carbon.

Nuclear fusion needs high temperatures and high pressure to overcome repulsion of same charges, +ve charge to specific as nucleus is made of +ve charged particles aka Protons and no charge particles aka neutrons. Just imagine a big room full of people, if one keeps decreasing the size of the room, people are left with no other choice rather than coming close to one another.

At the core of every star, fusion reaction takes place because of gravity and the nuclear fusion generates a radiation force outward. These forces need to be balanced otherwise either implosion or expulsion occurs. The sudden implosion cause an explosion aka Supernova.

Every star has limited amount of nuclear fuel causing outward pressure. Once the fuel is empty, the outward radiation pressure does'nt exist making the star collapse inward. Depending the mass of the star, they might end up either beings as white dwarfs or creating a Supernova explosion. The pressure aka gravity determines synthesis of heavier elements as it takes lot of energy to overcome greater repulsive forces from heavier elements, as they have more number of protons.

Explosion releases all the elements into the space aka space dust and this space gets back together or combines with other dust due to some reason and forms a new star after millions of years, completing the cycle. The new cycle begins and keeps on repeating itself.

Corals

Our Star: The Sun​

The sun might also be formed in the same way as mentioned above. When the sun was forming it keeps on pulling more dust(may or maynot contain higher elements, but H is needed) around its vicinity due to gravity(Einsteins theory). In the process other dust might be combining with each other to form planets(due to gravity), once they gain sufficient mass to resist the pull of the sun, they had their own orbits. Earth got its intial velocity due to some reasons(collisions with other objects) and wants to move forward but the gravitational pull of the sun keeps it in its orbit.

A detailed explanation from a friend of mine on element synthesis and stars

Carbon on Earth​

Like the dust that randomly comes close together to form celestial objects like Stars, Planets, other objects etc, earth came with the abundance of carbon which was formed in an unknown star during nuclear fusion.

Carbon is everywhere in different forms and in pure forms aka Diamond and Graphite. In

  • Atmosphere as CO2 (400 ppm) and it is rising due to human activity
  • Earth crust as minerals like CaCO3, quartz etc
  • Fossil Fuels: Coal(solid), crude oil(liquid), CH4(gas)
  • Living organisms
  • Soil
  • Oceans
  • Volcanic Emissions

Current Problem with Carbon​

The natural physics lets different molecules settle at the different layers in the atmosphere based on the properties. As the gases are light, they settle at altitudes where they find equilibrium. Some of gases aka Greenhouse gases trap heat (from sun and from earths radiation) and radiate back. if the amount of Greehouse gases in the atmosphere increase it proportionally increases the amount of trapped heat.

Greenhouse effect

The carbon that is present in different forms on the earth is being used to generate energy, especially coal, and crude oil. These sources took a lot of time to get settled in the deeper layers of earth. In their natural form, there are no emissions, but the fact that the its conversion to energy by burning carbon and releasing to the atmosphere as CO2, is increasing the trapping effect aka greenhouse effect of the planet.

Seals

Various greenhouse gases have different potentials to absorb and radiate heat [5]. For example CO2 stays for thousands of year in atmosphere and radiates less heat relative to CH4, NO2 etc.

As the tempearatures on the planet rise, it is causing:

  • Acidifaction of oceans: significant portion of anthropogenic CO2 settles in the oceans forming carbonic acid, which makes the oceans more acidic. The acidic nature of water eats aways the coral reefs disrupting the major link of the food chain for many organisms. Oceans are one of the major carbon sinks but acidity is limit to it.

    CO2 + H2O ---> H2CO3

Corals

  • Different organisms need different temperatures to survive and thrive. Many of the animals that need cooler temperatures like Polar bears, Whales, Seals, Penguins etc might extinct.

Seals

  • Due to thawing of Permafrost aka the frozen soil becoming normal in the cold regions releases methane. Imagine the melting of all glaciers and also in the regions(with no human activity) where the snow is present all year round like polar regions etc. All the dead organic matter in those regions enter the frozen soil over time. Anaerobic conditions and methanogens converts the organic matter into CH4 and CO2.

Solutions​

  • Project Drawdown offers 93 solutions to tackle Climate Change that cover all aspects of human life.
  • Speed and Scale offers an action plan for climate crisis.

Interesting tangents​

  • Although this article focuses on the Carbon, there are many beautiful elements that makes up the planet [4].

Seals

  • The biomass of all organisms on earth is visualised here [7].
  • Elemental composition of Human body [8]
  • Climate Time machine: Visualisations of key climate indicators [9].
  • How bacteria oxidise methane or C1 compounds? Check [10].
  • Heat rate or conversion Efficiency of different power plants [11].

Seals

References​

  1. Visualisation of Gravity(Curvature of Space Time, 3D): https://youtu.be/wrwgIjBUYVc?si=Vbj1yvV1Lfb9xgfp
  2. Time Dilation: https://youtu.be/1BCkSYQ0NRQ?si=UcVQKo9HSWZU0St7
  3. Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough in LLL: https://youtu.be/4s2ynUAJ5ZU?si=IZRtWkB4A2he2445
  4. Periodic Table: https://periodictable.com/index.html
  5. Global Warming Potential of different gases: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/understanding-global-warming-potentials
  6. Atmospheric Concentration of Greenhouse Gases: https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-atmospheric-concentrations-greenhouse-gases
  7. Biomass on Earth: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/all-the-biomass-of-earth-in-one-graphic/
  8. Composition of Human body: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_of_the_human_body
  9. Visuals of key climate indicators: https://climatekids.nasa.gov/time-machine/
  10. Biochemistry of Methylotrophs: http://www.chris-anthony.co.uk/pdf_files/Biochemistryofmeths.pdf
  11. Heat rate: https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2022/10/energy-loss-is-single-biggest-component-of-todays-electricity-system/
  12. Some images are taken from the film: https://www.thecarbonmovie.com
  13. Cover generated using Dream Studio: https://dreamstudio.ai/generate
  14. Chris Anthonys blog on stars: http://chris-anthony.co.uk/stars.html#star