Chapter 11, Problem 130AP

Carbon and silicon belong to Group 4A of the periodic table and have the same valence electron configuration $\text{(}{\text{ns}}^{\text{2}}{\text{np}}^{\text{2}}\text{)}$. Why does silicon dioxide $\text{(Si}{\text{O}}_{\text{2}}\text{)}$ have a much higher melting point than carbon dioxide $\text{(C}{\text{O}}_{\text{2}}\text{)}$ ?