August 10th 2026

Carbon is not the enemy

Carbon is not the enemy

​Bucky Fuller pointed out that pollution was simply stuff out of place. Paul Hawken, author of Blessed Unrest, talks about how we have focused on making carbon the new evil. Our carbon footprint, carbon trading and the general war on carbon. But carbon is essential to human existence. We eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Carbon is not the enemy. Pollution is not the enemy.

When we reframe all aspects of life and choose to see them through a different lens, suddenly a world of opportunity becomes available. Imagine seeing pollution through the lens of a valuable resource? Or knowledge? Even a technology? Or to be radical, well-being?

This reframe is an essential part of Synergistic Accounting. At the heart of Synergistic Accounting is the inventory of everything already in existence in our ecosystem…in existence in both abundance and abundant scarcity. We then look at our inventory and consider each aspect through at least 6 domains: matter, money, knowledge, tools and artifacts, warm data and well-being.

We have an abundance of carbon in the atmosphere, but a scarcity of carbon in the places where it should be.

We don’t need a war on carbon, a fear of too much carbon…a price on carbon in isolation from other measures.

We need to reforest our cities, re-green the earth and oceans. Every time we use a gallon of petrol, we are burning 100 tons of green matter from the past. As Bucky Fuller says, we are eating into our energy savings account, and we are seriously in the red.

When we reframe, we can begin to see solutions that previously were hidden from view. Creativity explodes. Design shifts.

We all want to live in cities that are beautiful, filled with nature bursting at the seams. No one wants to live in concrete jungles. We want to be able to grow food locally. To be surrounded by life. To feel and be alive.

Our buildings can become living structures, not only part of the internet of things, but a hub of life. Energy producers.

These are some of the many millions of opportunities we have when we do business as unusual, when we use a Synergistic Accounting lens.

Written August 2nd 2013

Published August 10th 2026. Photo taken August 10th 2026