If a present day government anywhere around the world didn’t know how much money it had; if it refused to keep a record of how much income it received whether through taxes or income from nationalized industries, etc; if it refused to calculate how much money it was spending, never bothered to record what it was buying, and failed to tell people about its long term spending commitments; if it made no attempt to pay off its debts or collect debts it was owed; if it didn’t bother trying to discover either how much money was in circulation in the country’s economy or its distribution amongst the various classes within society; if it couldn’t be bothered to measure how much money was coming in and out of the country; if it ridiculed the idea of keeping a financial budget - let alone balancing its budget; if it ignored requests that it should to ensure its own, and the country’s, long term financial stability - then the vast majority of people in that country would regard that government not merely as incompetant but utterly irresponsible, and perhaps even outright loopy. And yet this is exactly what the brutish, and all other so called modern, governments around the world are doing at the moment as afar as the Earth’s Planetary currency is concerned. This currency helps to determine the stability of the climate. The ecological bills which have to be paid to maintain the Earth’s life support system and ensure the continued habitability of the Planet have to be paid in this currency. This currency is also the basis of all life on Earth; its availability determines the number of species on Earth, the population of each species, the resources available for each individual in each species and thus, ultimately, it determines not merely the quality of life, but the survival, of all creatures on Earth - including humans. This currency is Carbon; the currency of life on Earth. Quite staggeringly no government around the world has any idea how much Carbon it is exporting (through pollution) nor how much Carbon it is importing (through Photosynthesis); no government knows how much Carbon it holds in stock whether in the form of Soils, crops, Forests, Phytomass, Micro-organisms or Animals (including humans); no government has the slightest idea of whether whether it is a net Carbon importer or a net Carbon exporter; no government has a Carbon budget and none has the slightest interest in balancing its Carbon budget (even though it is transparent that if all countries around the world are net Carbon exporters then there will be an ecological disaster); no government has the vaguest inkling as to what its future Carbon status will be. Even worse, is that no government is concerned about what the Earth’s Carbon budget has been, is, or will be. The world community is virtually indifferent to the Earth’s Carbon currency even though rampant Carbon inflation (increased global warming) or deflation (increased global cooling) both pose a threat to the survival of the Earth’s life support system which, if it collapsed, could lead not so much to the extinction of all life on Earth - although no one has yet proved this is an impossibility - but to the extinction of that species which occupies the top of the Carbon food chain. There is no better indication of the irresponsible, senseless,and profligate way in which the world’s politicians have been treating the Earth than their attitude towards Carbon. If Carbon is the currency of life, then conventional politicians are the harbingers of death carrying out a scorched Earth policy leaving vast areas of the Planet as lifeless deserts, and turning the Earth into a gigantic gas chamber. They are, in effect, the new nazis, the eco-nazis. They are not like the high-stepping, smartly uniformed, rigidly disciplined, exterminators who, surreptiously and bureaucratically fed millions of people into gas chambers. They are the beefburger and coke, the coronation street and hollywood, the car and aeroplane, the shopping mall, loving eco-nazis for whom glossy advertising has elevated the banality of evil into the most desired way of life on Earth.

The conventional view of the origin of life on Earth is that life first appeared in the shallow waters surrounding the oceans when a number of basic chemical compounds were forged together by ultra-violet radiation from the sun. The most obvious limitation to the theory of the terrestrial origin of life is that all the natural elements which made up these chemical compounds were not created on Earth but in space during the aftermath of the ‘big bang’. More critical doubts about this conventional view have been expressed by John Gribbin drawing on the work of earlier cosmologists, “one of the most important developments in recent years in our understanding of the relationship between life and the universe has been the realization that there may well have been no need for life to get going from scratch on the surface of planet Earth. The young planet may well have been seeded with, at the very least, much more complex molecules than methane and ammonia, if not life itself.” (John Gribbin “In the Beginning. The Birth of the Living Universe’ Viking, London 1993 p.59).

The evolution of the Earth has been the process of extracting Carbon from the atmosphere through the Photosynthesis carried out by Micro-organisms and Plants. Photosynthesis has not merely produced many of the Planet’s abundant minerals (calcium carbonate in carbonaceous rocks such as chalk and limestone, dolomite, graphite, diamonds, fossil fuels, etc.), it has created some of the Earth’s most impressive landscapes e.g. the white cliffs of dover, etc, and is the foundation of the Earth’s chain of life.

Four billion years ago, after the Earth had coalesced out of the debris of the ‘big bang’, the Planet’s atmosphere contained a large proportion of Carbon dioxide. Today it consists primarily of oxygen, nitrogen and a number of other gases which exist only in trace quantities - one of which is Carbon dioxide. The amount of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has fallen over this period from 30% to 0.04%.[1] In effect the history of the Earth is the way in which this vast quantity of Carbon has been removed from the atmosphere and transformed into a number of minerals, landscapes and life-forms from the smallest of organisms to humans and the charismatic Mega-fauna. The process was started when Micro-organisms and Plants somehow acquired the ability to carry out Photosynthesis. These early forms of life spread over the Earth and, over the aeons, diversified into a profusion of species. As Photosynthesizers extracted more and more Carbon from the atmosphere, they not merely provided a food supply for the evolution of all other life forms but, through their decay (and the decay of the Animals which made up the Earth’s increasingly fabulous chain of life), created the vast quantities of fossil fuels and limestone deposits which have become the basis of modern industrialized societies. The amount of Carbon they have extracted from the atmosphere has been prodigious, “10,000,000,000,000,000 tons of organic carbon has been stored in the Earth’s crust since photosynthesis began.” (Tim Radford 'The Crisis of Life on Earth. Our Legacy from the Second Millenium' Thorsons Publishing Group 1990 p.147).[2]

Carbon is not one of the commonest elements on Earth[3] but it is one of the most crucial. It is one of the four main elements of life, “There are excellent chemical reasons why hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon and not four other elements are the key elemental building blocks of life. These are the four lightest elements that regularly exchange or share one, two, three and four electrons.” (Preston Cloud ‘Cosmos, Earth and Man. A Short History of the Universe’ Yale University Press New Haven 1978 p.146); Amino acids, the foundation stones of life, are .. “made of the four life-building elements hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon ..” (Preston Cloud ‘Cosmos, Earth and Man. A Short History of the Universe’ Yale University Press New Haven 1978 p.147).

Carbon is not merely the chemical structure of life and the basis of evolution on Earth, it is constantly being used, recycled and relocated into new forms of life around the Earth, “The substance of our species comprises the atoms and molecules of every generation of life since the first cell on Earth and will become the compost for all future life forms.” (Anita Gordon & David Suzuki ‘It’s a Matter of Survival’ Harper Collins London 1991 p.237). Each individual atom of Carbon is constantly reused. When Animals die their bodies decompose; this provides Carbon for the growth of Plants; and, when Plants are eaten, the growth of Animals, including humans. If each atom of Carbon in our bodies carried with it a logbook indicating its previous history, it would be found that some people had Carbon which was once part of the earliest forms on Earth, perhaps later it might have become part of a dinosaur, and perhaps later still it might have lodged with Leonardo da Vinci. In the course of time, an atom of Carbon may have floated in the atmosphere for a few centuries before joining an Animal for a life-time, then spending time as a Plant, then perhaps a biped, before being dissolved in the oceans and eventually being buried beneath the Earth’s crust for a few hundred millions years. Even more dramatically, given that every Carbon atom on Earth was created in outer space during the inferno following the ‘big bang’, it may have travelled billions of light years before landing on Earth, “In the words of the song “Woodstock’, it is literally true that we are made of ‘stardust, billion year old carbon’, and all the carbon in your body was processed inside stars not merely a billion years ago but well over 4.5 billion years ago, before our Solar system was formed.” (John Gribbin “In the Beginning. The Birth of the Living Universe’ Viking, London 1993 p.61). Humans are composed of Carbon which has been around almost since the beginning of time, which has emerged from almost the centre of the universe, and has then been used and used and used throughout the Planet’s 4 billion year evolution.

Carbon is also part of another recycling process. Whilst Carbon atoms are constantly being used and reused, Carbon genetic structures are constantly undergoing transmutation into new forms of life. The genetic structure of the earliest forms of life have been passed on to all the higher forms of life. Each evolutionary change contains the genes of its predecessors. There are very few forms of life which have evolved by ditching the genetic structure of its predecessor. Whilst a chrysalis sheds its cocoon to emerge as a butterfly, the evolution of life does not involve the shedding of its Carbon cocoon to emerge with a completely different genetic structure. The emergence of new life forms doesn’t occur through the shedding nor changing of genes but by the acquisition of additional genes. Perhaps there may have been some shedding, and some changing, of genes but given that the code of the genetic structure of the most complex being on Earth is the equivalent to 130 volumes of the encyclopaedia brutannica, the most important change is the acquisition of new genes, the addition of more genes to the genetic chain of life. Once the human genetic structure has been decoded (a horrendous exhileration) it will doubtlessly be possible to discover the genetic chain of life on Earth which stretches back to the earliest forms of life .. “that every individual organism has a genetic linkage, remote though it may be, with every other individual that has ever lived or will live.” (Preston Cloud ‘Cosmos, Earth and Man. A Short History of the Universe’ Yale University Press New Haven 1978 p.154). It may be possible to discover redundant genes inherited from previous species of life which have long since become extinct - some of which humans know nothing about. In oher words, humans may know about such creatures only through their own genetic structure. The backbone of all life forms on Earth is made of Carbon and the chain of life on Earth is made of Carbon.

Micro-organisms, Plants and Animals created the Earth’s habitability. Although in a number of senses the diversity of life on Earth is just one of Carbon’s afterthoughts this should not be taken to mean that diversification is a deterministic process entailing the mere unfolding of Carbon’s atomic structure. Life also plays a part in shaping itself.

Animals created humans. The phrase used earlier, the ‘chain of life’, is intended to emphasize the linkages which exist between humans and Animals. Humans cannot break these links even if they exterminate all Animals on Earth since they contain the chains of the past in their own genetic structure. But if they do destroy all other species they will undermine climatic stability and their own survival.

Wildlife have stabilized the Planet’s climate and have helped to protect the Earth’s life support system, “Life changed the Precambrian environment as much as any physical process did, and we are living off the benefits provided by our cyano bacterial ancestors 2 billion years ago.” (John Gribbin “In the Beginning. The Birth of the Living Universe’ Viking, London 1993 p.97). Even today, Wildlife continue to play an essential part in protecting and maintaining the Planet’s life support system. Although no Animal species is indispensable, including humans, it is impossible for humans to take over all the ecological roles played by Wildlife.

The Earth’s geophysiology is indivisible. The Earth’s climate is a unitary entity, “the atmosphere is a single coherent system, and to understand the weather in any one place you have to take the whole world into account.” (Nigel Calder ‘Spaceship Earth’ Viking, London 1991 p.18).

There are three types of Earthly beings; the producers (i.e. the Photosynthesizers); the consumers (Animals which consume the products of Photosynthesis); and the decomposers (Micro-organisms and Animals which break down nutrients so that they can be used in Photosynthesis).

Every Creature on Earth affects the Planet’s geophysiology and anything that happens to the Planet’s life support system affects every Creature.

The Earth’s life support system consists of a number of interlocking, over-lapping, planet-wide, cyclical and spiral processes[5].

The most important of all Planetary geophysiological processes is the global Carbon spiral, “This most ubiquitous and massive of biogeochemical cycles (carbon) has countless subcycles turning at vastly different rates through the ages.” (Stephen H Schneider 'Introduction in Stephen H Schneider & Penelope J Boston 'Scientists on Gaia' The MIT Press Cambridge Massachusetts 1991. p.xix).

The Carbon spiral consists of a number of different spirals.

One of the most important of the global Carbon spirals is the Photosynthetic/exhalation spiral. Photosynthesis is carried out by Plants; Plants are eaten by Animals which expel Carbon back into the atmosphere where it is extracted again by Plants through Photosynthesis.

The most important global Carbon spiral is the volcanoes/rock weathering spiral. Volcanoes spew out huge quantities of Carbon. Some of this Carbon is dissolved in rainwater which falls onto the land as Carbonic acid which slowly ‘weathers’ (dissolves) rocks. This material is washed into the oceans where it is taken up by marine Micro-organisms and deposited on the ocean floors when these creatures die. Some ocean floors are pushed beneath the Earth’s crust by the movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates. The Carbon pushed into the Earth’s magma eventually emerges again when it is ejected through volcanoes, “The abundance of CO2 in the air depends on the balance between the amount being injected from beneath the crust through volcanoes and the amount lost from the air by chemical reaction at the Earth’s surface.” (James Lovelock ‘Gaia. The Practical Science of Planetary Medicine’ Gaia Books Ltd, London 1991 p.134). As will be noted later, life itself is involved in hastening this cycling process.

The water cycle is perhaps the best known of the Earth’s cyclical processes. The sun evaporates water from the oceans, clouds deposit the rain over the land, and the land channels the water back out into the oceans. The water cycle is broken up by Photosynthesis when water molecules are broken up into oxygen and Carbohydrates but this is one of the few times the water cycle deviates from its cyclical course.