Circular Economy and Me – Issue 17
Hijacking vs Integrating with the Carbon Cycle by James Finn.
The carbon cycle is one of nature’s most fundamental processes, where carbon atoms constantly move between the atmosphere, land, oceans, and life, taking on different forms as it does. This cycle has been at work long before human existence, being the critical cycle for life on Earth. But with the dawn of industrialization, humanity found ways to hijack this ancient system for our own benefit, especially through the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels.
Herein, we’ll explore how we’ve hijacked the carbon cycle and why a shift toward integrating with it is essential for the future. We will also look at how emerging technologies, like electrochemical carbon capture, could play a role in creating this new relationship with carbon.
From Harmony to Hijack: A Brief History
For millennia, the carbon cycle operated in a state of relative balance, with carbon dioxide (CO2) being absorbed by forests, oceans, and other natural processes. But with the industrial revolution, everything changed. Humans discovered vast reserves of fossil fuels – ancient, compressed carbon – and began burning them for energy at an unprecedented rate. This not only fuelled technological progress but also radically altered the carbon cycle.
Our exploitation of fossil fuels allowed us to make immense strides in human development – longer lives, improved healthcare, and global economic growth. However, these benefits have come with severe consequences. Increased CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels have created an approximate 10% annual excess in atmospheric carbon that nature struggles to absorb. This imbalance is now manifesting as climate change, ocean acidification, and biodiversity loss. Not to mention the global impacts of air pollution from the fossil industry linked to over 10 million deaths a year.
Why We Must Shift from Hijacking to Integration
At its core, the issue with fossil fuel use isn’t just that it pollutes, but that it disrupts a system that has operated smoothly for millions of years. Fossil fuels are part of the deep carbon cycle, meaning they take millions of years to form. By burning them at a rapid pace, we’re releasing carbon that nature can’t immediately reabsorb and reconstitute into fossil resources.
To address this, we need a paradigm shift: instead of hijacking the carbon cycle, we must integrate with it. But what does this look like in practice? Integration means that human activities – especially our energy generation – need to align with the natural carbon flows, generating energy and products without disrupting this system. But we need carbon, carbon products, as mentioned above, have been critical to the world we live in. Thus, we need technologies and systems that allow us to generate carbon products without fossil fuels.
The Role of Electrochemical Carbon Capture in Integration
One of the most promising technologies for helping to “integrate” with the carbon cycle is carbon capture, specifically electrochemical carbon capture, the area of my research. Unlike traditional amine base carbon capture methods, which can be inefficient, energy-intensive and environmentally harmful, electrochemical carbon capture uses electricity to extract CO2 directly from the air or industrial emissions. With pioneering methods using cheap and environmentally friendly, electrodes and electrolytes. Meaning, when powered by renewable energy sources, this process becomes highly sustainable.
The key benefit of carbon capture is that it closes the carbon loop. CO2 can be captured, stored, or even repurposed into valuable materials via carbon capture utilisation technologies. Instead of seeing CO2 as waste, these technology treats it as a resource. It is a shift from the destructive extraction of carbon from deep underground to a system where we repurpose carbon already present in the atmosphere, in many cases solving the dual problem of reducing atmospheric carbon while providing a chemical feedstock for critical products.
Lessons from Nature: Circular Economy and Systems Thinking
A mindset of integration draws heavily on principles from the circular economy. This approach emphasizes designing out waste, keeping products and materials in use for as long as possible, and regenerating natural systems. Just as in nature, where carbon constantly cycles through ecosystems, we need to create human systems that do the same.
In this integrated future, waste is minimized, and resources are reused. For example, CO2 captured through electrochemical means can be used to produce synthetic fuels, plastics, and other essential materials, replacing the need for new fossil carbon extraction. Building a new system of carbon that is essential for us to truly move away from fossils resources.
A Mindset Shift: From Control to Collaboration
Ultimately, moving from “hijacking” to “integrating” with the carbon cycle requires a deep shift in how we think about our place in the world. Rather than viewing nature as something to be controlled and exploited, we need to see it as a partner we collaborate with. This systems-thinking approach emphasizes feedback loops, resilience, and balance rather than domination and extraction.
Examples of this mindset shift are already visible across industries. Renewable energy, regenerative agriculture, and bio-based materials are just a few areas where we’re starting to align human activities with nature’s cycles. We can look to thought leaders such as Paul Hawken, who’s book ‘The Ecology of Commerce’ inspired Interface founder and former CEO Ray Anderson to completely change his business to account for natural capital and long-term sustainability. Making Interface, not only, one of the first environmentally additive companies but also became the market leader in flooring.
Creative industrial leaders like Oxman, a bio-engineering company, generating products that integrate with nature, viewing the materials, creatures and systems of the world as collaborators, guiding us to new innovations. This mindset, growing out of the ‘Material Ecology’ framework has led to a company that aims to create a world where humanity and nature create as one. From pavilions made by silk worms to buildings designed to degrade, Oxman lead the way in new thinking and design for a truly integrated future.
A Future of Integration
The world we want to build is one where our energy and materials come from sustainable sources, not from the extraction of finite resources. A future where homes and communities generate their own clean energy and where products are designed to be reused or to naturally decompose at the end of their life.
This shift won’t happen overnight, but the technologies and systems we need are already emerging. Electrochemical carbon capture is one piece of the puzzle, providing a way to draw down excess atmospheric carbon and repurpose it as a valuable resource. This aligns perfectly with the circular economy model – where waste is reduced, and materials are constantly cycled through the system.
Our future depends on a fundamental shift in mindset. From hijacking natural systems, like the carbon cycle, to integrating with them. This approach not only promises a more sustainable world but also a more prosperous and equitable one, where nature and humanity can thrive together.