American Thinker | Geoffrey P. Hunt | Jun 23, 2008
According to the popular press, carbon has now joined toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, lead and cadmium on Peck’s Bad Boy list. The phrase “carbon footprint” in the lexicon of lazy pseudo science writers and amateur climatologists provokes images of radioactive dirty shoes betraying our every move leaving deadly indelible impressions on the path to oblivion.
Why has the image of carbon been so distorted and demonized? Most of us even having a glancing familiarity with organic chemistry at one time knew that carbon is the building block of life on earth. From simple sugars to amino acids and DNA from industrial polymers to Q-tips, carbon is everywhere on earth, as it necessarily must be as carbon’s structure invites nearly every other element to bond with it. [Read more…]