A carbon revolution is underway. In a major new series, Dezeen explores how this incredible material could be removed from the atmosphere and put to use on earth, writes Dezeen founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs.

Carbon is a miracle material. The only problem is that too much of it is in the wrong place.
But entrepreneurs, scientists, writers, designers and architects are beginning to talk about a carbon revolution that views the element as the saviour of our civilisation, rather than its nemesis.
Carbon deservedly gets a bad press for its role in global warming. Carbon dioxide, a gas formed of carbon and oxygen, is one of several greenhouse gases that are causing climate change, but it is by far the biggest single contributor.
Carbon is also present in methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas which, fortunately, is far less abundant. Carbon is the building block of all living things.
Yet carbon is also an incredibly useful and important element. Life cannot exist without it: it is the building block of all living things and makes up half the dry mass of every plant and around a fifth of the mass of all animals, including humans.
It is the fourth most abundant element in the universe and easily the most versatile. Carbon atoms can be arranged to form diamonds, graphite, carbon fibre and graphene as well as weird and wonderful nano-materials such as buckminsterfullerene.

It can combine with other elements to create an almost infinite number of compounds such as car...