"Jeff Hecht - The Greenhouse Papers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hecht Jeff)

clothing, and even paper contain carbon.тАЭ He brought the fork the rest of the way to his mouth.

тАЬDo you know how much excess carbon is involved, Andrew? Five billion metric tons a year. That's
more than the amount of hot air generated by all the world's economists and politicians.тАЭ

I had work to do and no patience for endless arguments. Alice's politics dated from grad school at
Berkeley in the sixties; she secretly hoped the greenhouse effect would melt the ice caps, flood Wall
Street, and drown the bloated capitalist swine. Andrew Harrison Harding was one of the new
conservatives, getting rich with lucrative consulting contracts. I caught Alice's eye and excused myself.

****

When I arrived at Alice's office later in the afternoon, I made the mistake of asking if Harding might have
said something worthwhile.

тАЬThat fool makes me respect the academic credentials of the physical education department!тАЭ

тАЬBut shouldn't we consider human possessions in our carbon balance sheet? A wooden house must
contain a few tons of carbon, and it stays there forever, or at least until it's replaced by a new house. Say
four people per house, add the furniture, and...тАЭ

She shook her head. тАЬIt won't balance the books, Petra, even with Andrew's crooked numerology.
People don't build houses every year, and they aren't all made of wood, anyway. There's probably some
effect, if you multiply the rate of population increase by carbon per household. But most of it is in
developing countries. They certainly aren't accumulating much wealth. You can add it to the model, but
it's not going to solve anything.тАЭ

She was right, of course. I slumped discouraged in the chair, dwarfed by the stacks of journals on her
work table. тАЬWhat can we do to balance the equations?тАЭ I asked. тАЬWe must be missing SOME carbon
sinks.тАЭ

Alice nodded. тАЬIt's all very hard to quantify, and it's even more complex because it might change with
time, if the carbon sinks get saturated. Some new work claims the major sinks are on land in the northern
hemisphere. and nobody knows how effectively sea water soaks up carbon dioxide or where it goes
from the ocean surface.тАЭ She sighed in discouragement.

An undergraduate knocked at the door, a typically tall and skinny kid with rumpled kinky hair.
тАЬProfessor Morris?тАЭ he asked, hesitatingly. тАЬI had some questions about this assignment....тАЭ

It was time for Alice's undergraduate office hours. I excused myself to look for some fresh ideas. They
were very slow in coming.

****

Over the next week, I added the carbon content of housing to the model, and it vanished into
insignificance. I adjusted some assumptions about the atmosphere, with no visible result. Two days of
searching every database vaguely related to carbon-dioxide absorption by the oceans gave me sore eyes,
and left me amazed at how little solid information existed.

I was comparing two runs of the model when Alice arrived at my tiny basement office bearing her