Science

Particles of existence

Carbon as the bearer of life

by Dave Witty •

July 2025, no. 477

Carbon: The book of life by Paul Hawken

Text Publishing, $34.99 pb, 243 pp

Buy this book

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

Science

Particles of existence

Carbon as the bearer of life

by Dave Witty •

July 2025, no. 477

Carbon is, to quote Paul Hawken’s opening, ‘the narrator of lives born and lost’. It ‘organises, assembles, and builds … the most socially adept entrepreneur in the pantheon of life’. One could, with only a little exaggeration, apply this description to the author of Carbon: The book of life.

Dave Witty

Dave Witty is an Australian writer raised in the United Kingdom. He is the recipient of the 2021 Rosina Joy Buckman Award in The Nature Conservancy Nature Writing Prize, and his work appears in publications including Australian Book Review, Island, Griffith Review, and Meanjin. His first book is What the Trees See: A wander through millennia of natural history in Australia (Monash, 2023).