# The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything by Peter Brannen

3 Hacker News commenters recommended The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything by Peter Brannen and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Readers recommend it as an engaging tour of Earth's geochemistry, showing the power and scope of CO2 over millions and billions of years.

## Why people recommend it

- Deep look at Earth's geochemistry (2 comments): "It's an excellent journey through our planet's (bio)geochemistry, and really gives you a sense for the power and scope of CO2 over millions and billions of years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47973788)) "it's excellent and goes deep into the (bio)geochemistry of Earth" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47415802))
- Covers CO2 over billions of years (2 comments): "It's an excellent journey through our planet's (bio)geochemistry, and really gives you a sense for the power and scope of CO2 over millions and billions of years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47973788)) "I enjoyed this romp through geologic history using CO2 as the lens" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075680))
- Geologic history told through CO2 (1 comments): "I enjoyed this romp through geologic history using CO2 as the lens" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075680))
- Learned a lot from it (1 comments): "I learned a ton from it, as well as his previous book The Ends of the World on mass extinctions." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47976347))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter](https://hackerapproved.com/p/g-del-escher-bach.md): 47 recommend
- [Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/thinking-fast-and-slow.md): 17 recommend
- [Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows](https://hackerapproved.com/p/thinking-in-systems.md): 17 recommend
- [The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins](https://hackerapproved.com/p/selfish-gene.md): 14 recommend
- [Cosmos by Carl Sagan](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cosmos.md): 13 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0063036983?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780063036987) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything by Peter Brannen", https://hackerapproved.com/p/story-of-co2-is-the-story-of-everything/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).