Joanne Collings of the DC Examiner conducted an interview with me recently about how The Carbon Age came together:

Eric Roston was a journalist for TIME until he left to devote all his time to The Carbon Age: How Life’s Core Element Has Become (Walker &  Co., July 2008).  He is now senior associate in the Washington office of the Nicholas Institute.   

Q: You’ve said that science had not been a “strong point” of yours until you started work on this book. 

A: I’m an accidental science writer. I covered mostly business and technology at Time, focusing on energy and climate. After a while, I started asking myself how I would make sense of everything I’m covering. Second, I (found) I use(d) the word carbon more and  more and a lot of other people do too, but I (didn’t) have a strong sense of what it is other than . . . the central structural element of all life and civilization.  

There were two important trends that I found: One is the national conversation about science education and science literacy (and the) climate change. It became clear that the fastest way to learn the most about (what) world we live in and who we are is really just by focusing on the carbon atom and what it is, how it does that crazy thing it does, and how it gets around.

Q: How did you get up to speed on the science?

A: Over three or four years, I read thousands and thousands of articles, scientific books and college textbooks; I wanted to focus on primary documents. I didn’t want anyone else’s filter. It was more work than I ever dreamed it was even possible to do, and I'm someone who's always enjoyed working.  When I didn’t understand a journal article, I would call the author.  Everyone I ever contacted about the idea of this book was immediately supportive.   

Q: How you did you make the book accessible to non-scientists?

A: I was the audience I was writing for. I wanted to make this accessible to myself. By satisfying my own questions, (I hope to satisfy) a lot of other people’s. This is a personal book in the way “I” is a personal pronoun.

“I” is the word I use to talk about myself, but it’s also the one everyone else uses. It’s this universal personal word. I hoped I would be hitting some universal personal questions. 

Q: Kirkus Reviews said the book is “lucid and occasionally disturbing.”  Was “disturbing” deliberate?

A: I wouldn’t say I worked to make it disturbing because it is disturbing. I try not to be an alarmist. There’s a galaxy between alarming and alarmist.   

Q: “Delightful” turned up in more than one review.

A: I was delighted. I wanted to write a book that would be enjoyable. I tell friends I don’t know what’s crazier: How much work this book took or the fact that I loved just about every second of it. So when a reviewer says it was delightful, it was, and I hope people find delight in it.