by Randy Dutton
Sven smiled. Well, action is always better than inaction.
He made another call. “Peggy, something’s come up. I’ve going to have to pass on dinner tonight. How about tomorrow night?.... You’re going on location for July 4th? Well, call me when you’re back in town. We’ll get together... No seriously, cancelling our date has nothing to do with last night.”
His eyes rolled. “Yes Peggy, I do like you… No, I’m not going out with another woman tonight… Yes, I know you’re an investigative reporter.... No, I wouldn’t dare mess with you... All right then, give me a call when you’re back.”
He hung up with a sigh of relief. Clingy doesn’t even come close!
He went back to his research and looked at the charts. A grin appeared when he found what he was seeking, the pathways of the world’s gyres. The term reminded him how appropriate a Yeats poem was to his plans.
‘Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.’
He was amused. He, the falcon, would break from his master. And it would be the gyre that would make him the new master – an eco-hero.
Jeffrey put his napkin down that evening and stood up. “Dinner was excellent, Sven. You eat well.” He helped clear the dining room table of the carryout food containers. “You got this from the restaurant downstairs?”
“It’s a four-star, and since I rarely cook, they know me well.... So, on the project, what do you think? Will you do it? I’ll pay the overtime.”
“Sven, I can meet the timeline, and the design’s workable. I’ve got 100 cylinders in the warehouse to meet the storage requirement, and we can build the top deck shipping frames for them in a week. We really need the work, considering the oil and gas industries are mostly shutting down.”
“What about the labor?”
“Won’t be a problem. I can get welders from some struggling companies.” The visitor looked up in thought. “The electronically-controlled release valves are easy.” He put some dishes on the counter and looked Sven in the eyes. “What I don’t understand is why you want them? I’ve never seen anyone put such sophisticated electronics on remote release valves before. I can understand the self-contained heating units and CO2 pumping, but GPS tracking and activation?”
“Jeffrey, it’s not whether you understand why, it’s whether you want the contract…and a bonus if delivered on schedule. And I say bonus, as between you and me. How’s $200,000?”
Jeffrey’s eyes lit up.
Sven continued, “Let’s just say it’s part of the global plan to save the world. But the details are confidential.”
“You’re the man. You want it, we’ll make it.”
Chapter 34
July 2, 1000 hours
Global Food Alliance HQ, Dallas, TX
The door closed behind the last man.
“Welcome to GFA.” Ed greeted his industrialist friends and a guest as they entered the conference room. “Tom, would you tell us about that boat explosion? Both Sam and I have been interviewed by Interpol and the FBI and then, suddenly, they dropped everything and said it was all a mistake.”
“Sure. I can’t say much about what the official investigation uncovered, other than to say that it is over. Art and I are cleared of suspicion. I can tell you about our own investigation, however. It revealed something insidious that the police won’t reveal to the press.”
“What’s that?”
“We uncovered the likely culprit as an agent of billionaire financier Alexis Swanson.”
Ed emitted a low whistle.
“Indeed,” Tom said. “This proves there are groups in this world that will do anything to destroy our industries. But as a group, we must not take this crisis lightly.”
Art inserted, “As we mentioned a few weeks ago, carbon’s the new currency. It’s the means to wealth and power.”
“I hear the US government’s starting to pay contracts in carbon credits,” Ed said.
“That’s right,” Art said. “And while progressives’ demonize carbon dioxide emissions, they’re also corroding the very industries that keep society functioning.”
“And that’s why I would like to introduce my son, Pete,” Tom said. “I mentioned his credentials earlier. I’ve asked him to attend to give us his insights regarding our future. He also was involved in the investigation that cleared me of charges, so he’s fully aware of the extent to which our opposition will go.”
Pete put down his coffee. “Thank you for the opportunity to participate.”
“Pete, will the officials be going after the assassin?” Sam asked.
“It’s not likely, because the official was corrupt and the assassin’s boss is one of the world’s most politically-connected people. But we are continuing our own investigation. Beyond that, I won’t elaborate. Now, if you watched the GHN broadcast from Snath Genetics yesterday, you know Snath is implementing a number of carbon-trapping technologies designed to extract carbon dioxide from the air and water, permanently removing the carbon from recirculation into the atmosphere. I’ve done some checking and found that nearly all the required government testing has been classified.”
“What happened to open and transparent government?”
“That was just a campaign slogan,” Pete answered. “The government determined that global urgency and trade secret protection, trumped releasing testing data for independent evaluation. I’m not even sure any real testing was done.”
“This isn’t how government is supposed to function,” Sam said.
“No it isn’t,” Pete said. “Scientists are supposed to be dispassionate when reviewing science. That said, with the release of their first species, labs around the world are getting samples to start testing. We soon should find out whether a cataclysmic mistake has been made.”
“Isn’t it rather stupid to release it, then test?” Sam asked.
“Absolutely,” Pete agreed. “Here are possible outcomes. First, the carbon-trapping technology fizzles, and doesn’t really remove much CO2. In that case, green companies just keep trying until it works, they get dispirited and quit, or the concern over CO2 causing climate change dissipates.
“And if it works?”
“It may work as advertized, stay in control, and reduce CO2 to levels low enough to placate the environmentalists.”
“How about if it works too well?” Art asked.
“In that case, mankind is unleashing one or more invasive species that will proliferate out of control, either at the onset, or after adapting to the environment. Getting out of control might cause problems that range from minor to potentially catastrophic. Some of us call that worst-case scenario, ‘The Carbon Crash.’”
“Pete, what’s the likelihood of any of those scenarios?”
Pete shrugged. “Hard to say, Sam. I haven’t seen any independent testing data on any of the new species. Most skeptical scientists have been cut out of the debate. Several of us had signed a petition begging the President and the UN Secretary General not to allow the release of species without substantial trials.”
“And?”
“The petition might as well have fallen on deaf ears.”
“Did you tell the press?”
“Yes, but they wouldn’t run the story. One New York Times editorial board member told me the newspapers were offered negotiable carbon credits if the carbon-trapping technology was approved.”
“So they were bought off?” Sam surmised.
“It would appear so. Financially, print journalism is imploding from higher costs and reduced subscribers and advertising. This financial incentive proved to be more than they could resist.”
“How could the global bodies justify the payments?”
“Simple. Newspapers and magazines were given carbon credits in return for continually educating the public. Imagine being a newspaper publisher and someone tells you that they’l
l pay full rate for 20 full-page ads…every day…provided you print the ads exactly as the government tells you.”
“Except, of course, they’re not ads,” Art inserted.
“Correct. The information is touted as hard news. The real gotcha is that the more carbon credits are worth, the more the media makes. So they have a vested interest in the success of carbon-trapping technology.”
“So if these technologies fail, what do we do? They’re already trying to put us out of business.” Sam observed bitterly.
“I can tell you that the biofuel technologies will work as fuels, but maybe not produce the environmental advantage advocates tout,” Pete responded.
“What could go wrong?” Tom asked sarcastically.
“Well, the engineered microbes have a long history of degrading cellulose into fuel. Snath made the process so easy that soon everyone will be able to do it. Therein lies the problem. Quality control will be horrendous, and evaporation of the fuels significant.”
“Why does evaporation matter?”
“Well let’s say you continually strip biomass from the land to use for fuel. A significant percentage of those emissions from burning the fuel eventually washes back down into soil and the water. With 70% of Earth’s surface being water, we’ll lose a lot of carbon. If one converts a significant amount of biocarbon to dissolved gas, and then sequesters it in the oceans, we’ll impoverish the soil and enrich the water. Much of the carbon precipitating into the water will drift downward, and probably will be completely inaccessible. Essentially, the biosphere is a bucket filled with carbon and we’re punching holes in the bucket. Before, we were putting more carbon in the bucket than the holes let out, but that spigot is being turned down dramatically, and the holes are increasing. So I ask, will the bucket leak faster than it is being filled and, if so, by how much?”
“Is there more?”
“Yes,” Pete said. “When locals strip the land of biomass for fuel, the reduced ground cover increases erosion from wind and rain. And more dust storms will blow minerals out over the ocean. We’ve seen that happen repeatedly from Sahara dust storms over the Atlantic, which stimulates phytoplankton propagation.”
“So what?”
“Well, most phytoplankton are limited in growth from lack of nutrients – mainly iron, phosphorus, nitrogen, and silicic acid….” Pete saw questioning looks. “…Silicic acid provides silicon in a biologically available form.” Heads nodded understanding. “The dust provides the meganutrients needed for phytoplankton blooms, which will become more frequent. And phytoplanktons consume dissolved CO2. Now, this will be balanced for a while by the ‘Carbon Debt.’”
“We talked about that in the Maldives,” Tom interjected, catching Sam’s eye.” It’s the carbon dioxide and methane released by rotting vegetation.”
“Exactly.” Pete nodded. “As more natural vegetation is stripped off the surface for biomass fuel generation, or from turning it into farm land, there will be a surge in global-warming gases released by roots rotting.”
“So CO2 actually goes up?”
Pete looked grim. “Global warming gas emissions would rise, but with these new carbon capture technologies, carbon capturing might remove more than is being released. CO2 levels could start dropping globally.”
“How far would they go?”
“I don’t know. Nature has a way of adapting, and engineered life forms have a tendency to surprise us. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t...and sometimes they work too well.”
“And if they work too well?” Art prompted.
“Well, it’ll likely be a slow curve downward. It may take decades, or hundreds of years. But we could see CO2 fluctuations.” Noticing their puzzled expressions, Pete elaborated, “We know that increasing CO2 levels increases plant growth and their nutritional and density levels. Lower CO2 means the reverse. As luxuriant plants that have adapted to higher CO2 grow more slowly, more die-off occurs. This would leave a lot of biomass vulnerable to forest fires and rot.”
“Like Southern California with a spring of plentiful rain?”
“Yes. The plants grow taller and denser. Then comes their dry summer, and the risk of forest fires skyrockets. When plants start pulling back from plentiful CO2, we’ll see some phenomenal forest fires that make the 1988 Yellowstone Fire and the Indonesian fires pale in comparison. And fires convert a lot of biomass to char, which often remains in the soil for hundreds of years and doesn’t significantly revert back to CO2. Once those fires occur, the air temporarily will fill with more CO2, thus resuscitating some of the starving plants. But that additional CO2 will also feed the carbon-trapping technology that is just now being released. The cycle will begin again – growth, starvation, fire. But every fire shifts a lot of terrestrial carbon into oceanic carbon, which means much is lost to the ocean depths.”
“It sounds like this triggers another enormous problem,” Ed observed. “Namely, that it will take more food to provide the same nutritional benefit. That means not only growing more food over more land, but transporting more food and, for families, buying and preparing more food.”
“So what do we do?” Art asked.
“Plan on a world with lower CO2,” answered Pete. “Because, frankly, humanity’s ability to throw a solution at a problem, before we understand it, knows no bounds.”
“How far could CO2 decline?” Ed asked.
“I really don’t know. If I were Michael Crichton, I’d say 150 ppm. That’s when nearly everything dies. But then, he also brought back dinosaurs.” Pete’s eyes twinkled.
Sam leaned forward. “So you’re thinking disastrous levels? You called it, the Carbon Crash?”
“It’s just a possibility, and very unlikely, unless...” Pete hesitated.
“Unless what?” Ed asked.
Pete shook his head. “Unless someone with the means was so bitter against humanity that one or more species were engineered to eliminate our means of survival.”
“Thank you, Pete, for that dark assessment,” Ed said. “So, gentlemen, let’s consider options under different conditions.”
“Well, the government’s trying to shut down fossil fuels. That effectively eliminates my industry’s cash flow,” Tom commented. “We’re given declining fossil fuel production quotas as they ramp up their biofuel. And we have to buy carbon credits to compensate for any fuel we sell. When the president invoked his Executive Orders to raise the spot price, that drove the price skyward. Some of my competitors have been making biofuel to save themselves. But I’m more likely to shut down production and wait out the idiots in D.C.”
“You’re going to mothball your equipment?” Art was surprised.
“Yes, and I’m stocking up on drilling supplies I’ll need to bring production back on line.”
“What about your suppliers, Tom?” Art asked. “If they go out of business, won’t you find it impossible to get key components?”
“That’s why I’m stocking up. I’m thinking of working with some industry associations to create a reserve program. It’ll also help keep the supplier base’s infrastructure and knowledge intact.”
“If it helps, there’s a reactive-polymer anti-corrosion packaging technology, called Intercept Technology, that’ll help you store the equipment. We use it in the mining industry. It’s a nonchemical solution, so won’t raise the ire of regulators,” Art offered.
“Thanks, I’ll make a note of that.”
“Pete, what if CO2 plummets? Couldn’t we just pump more back into the atmosphere?” Ed asked.
“Not really. If something were feeding on CO2 and it was out of control, that species would continue to feed on whatever you dumped into the air,” he pointed out, glumly. “And, in a vicious cycle, the species would get worse.”
“So, then, how would we grow enough food for the world? Any ideas?” Ed asked.
“Well, if things got out of control, you’ll need to contain whatever CO2 you can generate and keep it from being consumed by the carbon trapping
species…. There are a number of sources of carbon you could tap,” Pete replied.
“What, beyond the obvious fossil fuels?”
“Landfills and sewage plants emit considerable methane, limestone used in cement, and any remaining biomass.”
“So, then, we’re talking greenhouses on a scale never before imagined,” Ed summarized.
Several of the men nodded.
“And if carbon becomes a precious commodity, you would need to reduce CO2 loss to the outside to lengthen the resource availability,” Pete added.
“Ed, how would you grow grains?” Art asked.
“That’s something to figure out, but I have some ideas on that.”
“Here’s something else to consider,” Art continued. “Expect the global population to be dramatically lower than today. Billions will perish if agriculture collapses.”
“Always the philosopher.” Sam shook his head. “What makes you think anyone is that heartless?”
“Have you listened to the news for the past 20 years? Because, there are enough people in power who believe the conscientious thing to do is to protect earth from man,” Art answered.
The conversation continued, as the group elaborated on the assumptions and possible solutions.
Chapter 35
July 3, 1000 hours
Dark Energy Computer, France
By mid morning Clair was exhausted. Dark Energy Computer Company had buzzed with activity the entire 65 hours she had been there. She leaned against the main doorway.
Eight hours of sleep in three days just doesn’t do it, fortunately, everything’s now in place and running smoothly.
She motioned Jillian over. “I’m leaving. I’ll be back next week. Keep me posted through the courier.”
Claire’s hand grabbed the straps of her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Bright sunlight forced her to shelter behind oversized sunglasses as she walked to her efficiency apartment.