MOLPIX/Shutterstock, CC BY-NC-ND Walk into any supermarket and you are surrounded by carbon. Not the kind measured in parts per million in climate reports, but carbon in its most tangible form: the polymer shell of a shampoo bottle, the insulation behind the ceiling tiles, the synthetic fibres in the bag hanging from your wrist. These are not accidental byproducts of the fossil fuel era. They are its second act, less visible than combustion but no less consequential. The global conversation abo