Orwell's Roses

by Rebecca Solnit

Usually when plants die, much of their carbon returns to the atmosphere by decay or other transformation, including burning, and it bonds with oxygen to form carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, a heat-trapping part of the atmosphere. But in the Carboniferous, vast amounts of carbon dioxide taken out of the air by plants did not return. The cycle was broken. As dead plant matter, the carbon went into the swamps and water-soaked earth and became peat. The peat over eons compressed, dried out, and became coal. In boggy places around the earth, the process of peat formation is still going on, and peat bogs, most notably in Ireland, hold huge amounts of carbon.

Usually when plants die, much of their carbon returns to the atmosphere by decay or other transformation, including burning, and it bonds with oxygen to form carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, a heat-trapping part of the atmosphere. But in the Carboniferous, vast amounts of carbon dioxide taken out of the air by plants did not return. The cycle was broken. As dead plant matter, the carbon went into the swamps and water-soaked earth and became peat. The peat over eons compressed, dried out, and became coal. In boggy places around the earth, the process of peat formation is still going on, and peat bogs, most notably in Ireland, hold huge amounts of carbon.