Carbon is the most important element to living things because it can form many different kinds of bonds and form essential compounds.

Carbon plays a unique role among the chemical elements. Due to its four valence electrons, carbon is the smallest element that is able to make covalent bonds to four different atoms in its neutral form.

Carbon has four valence electrons, so it can achieve a full outer energy level by forming four covalent bonds. When it bonds only with hydrogen, it forms compounds called hydrocarbons.

It would be impossible for life on earth to exist without carbon. Carbon is the main component of sugars, proteins, fats, DNA, muscle tissue, pretty much everything in your body. The reason carbon is so special is down to the electron configuration of the individual atoms.

The element silicon has been much discussed as a hypothetical alternative to carbon. Silicon is in the same group as carbon on the periodic table and, like carbon, it is tetravalent.

We live on a carbon planet and we are carbon life. Every chemical element is special, but some elements are more special than others. Of all the periodic table’s richly varied denizens, carbon, the sixth element, is unique in its impact on our lives.

Life on Earth is based on carbon, likely because each carbon atom can form bonds with up to four other atoms simultaneously. This quality makes carbon well-suited to form the long chains of molecules that serve as the basis for life as we know it, such as proteins and DNA.

The energy that is held at the Earth by the increased carbon dioxide does more than heat the air. It melts ice; it heats the ocean. So even if carbon emissions stopped completely right now, as the oceans catch up with the atmosphere, the Earth’s temperature would rise about another 1.1F (0.6C).