By understanding the carbon cycle, designers can work hand in hand with nature to develop sustainable new materials, writes Sebastian Cox.

For trees, anthropogenic climate change is a mixed blessing. If they were capable of rational thought, they would surely be enjoying the extra CO2 in the atmosphere, which increases their mass.
Wood is carbohydrate synthesised from CO2; plants thrive in carbon-rich atmospheres unlike mammals, which perform better with greater concentrations of oxygen in every lungful.
Some trees may be finding temperate climates heating up beyond their preferred conditions, which would of course be very bad news for them. But running with the idea of tree sentience, our ent-like friends would be wise enough to have appreciated that man's discovery of coal saved millions of acres of temperate forest since our prime energy source switched from land-hungry wood to buried fossil energy. What if we could take a tree's perspective and see the extra CO2 as a resource we can work with"
Of course, tropical forests and wildlands suffer today from the developed world?s insatiable appetite. It?s a mixed and messy picture, as all human endeavours seem to be, but viewing it from the point of view of trees might help us understand it better.
Global heating is a threat to life on earth, but pinning all blame on atmospheric carbon dioxide is a narrow view of our problems. We do need to cease burning fuel that should be left in the ground and we should redress the ...