Journal of Global Ecology and Environment

Rising atmospheric CO₂ has become politically and scientifically controversial. However, CO₂ is essential for the origin and development of all life on earth and required for life to function. It has a central role in the global carbon cycle. Plants, algae, and bacteria use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen as the basis for the ‘food chain’ and essential atmospheric oxygen is provided. To my knowledge, research from my laboratory was the first to show (using E. coli) that carbon dioxide deprivation was lethal. I address the complex roles of CO₂ including: a brief historical perspective; the global carbon cycle; specific metabolic pathways of CO₂, including Rubisco the most abundant enzyme on Earth; its essentiality for the origin and development of life; its vital role in human physiology; its toxicity; results from my laboratory, using a bacterium, that was the initial report that absence of CO₂ was lethal; and (briefly) its role in climate change.