The Safest Path to Stable Climate Is Designing New Plants
Plant biotechnology and engineered plant systems as tools for biospheric stewardship.
Read in Palladium MagazineSource essay: The Ecology of Arcadia (PDF)
Earlier work
Work that helped shape Carbocene.
Patrick’s earlier articles, talks, research publications, and other writing trace the intellectual and scientific history from which Carbocene emerged. These works were published outside the present Carbocene organization and are presented as part of Patrick’s record rather than as Carbocene publications.
Palladium articles
Palladium articles and source essays.
These articles present the planetary and biotechnology arguments that inform Carbocene’s work. Their longer source essays are linked with each article.
Ancient Upheavals Show How to Geoengineer a Stable Climate
What the paleoclimatic record reveals about carbon drawdown, climate stability, and active biological intervention.
Read in Palladium MagazineSource essay: Deep Time Perspectives on Climate Change (PDF)
Talks and academic work
Talks and academic work.
Talks
Decomposition-resistant “superwood” as a biological carbon sink
A 2019 Foresight Fellowship presentation exploring decomposition-resistant wood as a biological carbon sink.
Watch the presentationAcademic work
Enhanced Photosynthetic Efficiency for Increased Carbon Assimilation and Woody Biomass Production in Engineered Hybrid Poplar
Peer-reviewed controlled-environment research reporting increased photosynthetic efficiency and above-ground biomass in engineered hybrid poplar. Patrick is one of sixteen co-authors.
View the journal recordEpisodic Memory, Phenomenal Empathy, and the Representation of Time
Earlier academic work on episodic memory, temporal representation, empathy, and self-related cognition, included as part of Patrick’s broader intellectual history.
View the academic recordEarlier essays
Living Carbon-era essays.
Patrick’s earlier writing addresses paleobiology, planetary transitions, photosynthesis, carbon removal, decomposition, forestry, and ecological connectivity. Originally published during his tenure at Living Carbon, the essays document part of Patrick’s prior record and the intellectual history that informs Carbocene.
Deep Time — intellectual and publication history
The earlier essay sequence developed parts of the planetary and biological argument now represented in Carbocene’s current Deep Time reconstruction. The essays remain historical publications; the current scientific artifact and source dataset stand separately.
View all seven Deep Time essays
Carbon removal and ecological systems
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Living Carbon
For Carbon Removal, Scaling Is More Critical than Permanence
Why carbon removal should be understood as a continuous planetary flux rather than only as isolated units of permanent storage.
Read the original essay -
Living Carbon
A New Idea to Optimize Forestry to Maximize Carbon Removal
A proposed forestry system combining coppice management, poplar physiology, biochar, enhanced weathering, durable materials, and restoration of degraded land.
Read the original essay -
Living Carbon
What Biodiversity Can Measure
A functional account of biodiversity centered on energetic exchange, ecological connectivity, resilience, and keystone mutualists.
Read the original essay
Poetry and adjacent work
Alkali Shores
A book of poems connecting biological and cultural history, desert ecology, perception, mythology, embodiment, and planetary time.
View the publisher’s listingCarry the argument into practice
Move plant biotechnology into consequential use.
These essays describe biological and planetary processes across Earth history. Carbocene applies that long view to development, field evidence, physical outcomes, and the institutional pathways through which useful biology can reach the world.