Altered Carbon

forest
Recent scientific research has opened the door for more innovative and, frankly, humble solutions to our CO2 crisis. Photo: Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images
Baratunde Thurston
April 7, 2024

In the closing days of March, I found myself at the 35th annual Bioneers conference in Berkeley, California. The weather was nearly perfect, such that you could almost forget, for a moment, the drastic transformation of our planet’s climate. Last year was the hottest on record in human history, extreme weather events are on the rise, and our CO2 emissions continue to climb. Just two years earlier, uncontrolled wildfires ripped across this part of California, burning thousands of acres and choking the sky with smoke.