INTERLUDE:

Poly-carbon

Poly-carbon was another one of those inventions which changed Icomo, although the extent of its influence is less easy to appreciate.

As with most developing countries, the people of Icomo at the start of industrialization needed to decide how much pollution they could tolerate in exchange for progress. This is not often a simple balance to strike.

One such issue was the increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When they were linked to global warming, it became a sensitive political topic and a heated public concern for several decades.

All of this changed with the invention of the carbon dioxide compression process. The inventor, Tobias Hälderberg of Ii, discovered a way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by compressing it until condensing into solid form.

The material produced through this compression process is rather like plastic, and ushered in a ‘poly-carbon revolution.’ Industrialists everywhere were mad to declare to consumers that they ran 100% poly-carbon businesses.

There is some question as to whether poly-carbon, when it degrades, releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, but more research is needed before anything conclusive can be said.

For now, carbon dioxide compression and poly-carbon recycling continue to be important to consumers, and the atmosphere has returned to pre-industrial carbon dioxide levels.

It is therefore in this way that straws and cups, having almost ruined the world, also had something to do with saving it when the time came…