The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything
The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything by Peter Brannenby Peter Brannen
Shares rank 33 of 50 popular science books by recommenders
Readers recommend it as an engaging tour of Earth's geochemistry, showing the power and scope of CO2 over millions and billions of years.
Readers recommend it as an engaging tour of Earth's geochemistry, showing the power and scope of CO2 over millions and billions of years.
3 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 3 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Deep look at Earth's geochemistry
“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.”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “Snowball Earth may hide a far stranger climate cycle than anyone expected” “it's excellent and goes deep into the (bio)geochemistry of Earth”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks” Covers CO2 over billions of years
“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.”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “Snowball Earth may hide a far stranger climate cycle than anyone expected” “I enjoyed this romp through geologic history using CO2 as the lens”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Worlds more habitable than Earth?” Geologic history told through CO2
“I enjoyed this romp through geologic history using CO2 as the lens”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Worlds more habitable than Earth?” Learned a lot from it
“I learned a ton from it, as well as his previous book The Ends of the World on mass extinctions.”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “Snowball Earth may hide a far stranger climate cycle than anyone expected”
Other popular science books people recommend
The four most recommended other popular science books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gödel, Escher, Bachby Douglas Hofstadter | 47 | 10 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Thinking, Fast and Slowby Daniel Kahneman | 17 | 13 | 57% | 9 | — | — |
| Thinking in Systemsby Donella Meadows | 17 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | Approved |
| The Selfish Geneby Richard Dawkins | 14 | 5 | 74% | 8 | — | Approved |
| The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everythingby Peter BrannenThis page | 3 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 4 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I enjoyed this romp through geologic history using CO2 as the lens”
“I learned a ton from it, as well as his previous book The Ends of the World on mass extinctions.”
“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.”
“it's excellent and goes deep into the (bio)geochemistry of Earth”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.