At home, I am surrounded by fossils. They are in my clothes, carpets and soft furnishings, the packaging wrapped around the food I buy and the myriad cleaning products I use every day. Even the contact lenses in my eyes are full of fossils.

I’m not talking about ancient life forms preserved in rock (though I do have quite a lot of those too), but fossilised carbon atoms, laid down millions of years ago and brought back to the surface by the petroleum industry.…