Disclaimer: (The following story is pure fiction. All names, places and events are coincidental and are only used to embellish the story.)Climate Manipulators
by Mark Ryan © 2009
In December 2008, the Romeo gang met for lunch at Burton’s Grill in North Andover, MA near Merrimack College. The meal was great and the conversation even better. The Romeos (Retired Old Men Eating Out) are retired school teachers and supervisors who meet each month for camaraderie and laughs. After the great meal Joe Balsaro passed out some calendars for the New Year to his Romeo friends. The calendars were from the Swampscott Historical Society of which Joe is a volunteer member. The calendars included weather records from the local area that were printed on each date which Joe had contributed. Joe being an amateur weather buff included a discussion of some of the weather highlights and noted with some concern a disturbing weather pattern that he had accidently discovered.
Joe has kept meticulous weather records for years from his own mini weather station and each day sends the data to local TV stations as a local weather observer. When recently tabulating the some weather data he noticed various warming trends to the ocean waters along the New England coastline especially near the shores of Nahant, MA. The ocean temperatures are immediately accessible online from weather buoys and new undersea sensors of the NWS (National Weather Service). Along with the temperature spikes he also noted volcanic eruptions occurring in different regions of the world, especially along the Ring of Fire. These volcanoes exist along the Pacific Rim which encircles the coastlines in the Pacific Ocean off the continents of Asia, Australia, North and South America. There seemed to be a connection between the temperature spikes along Nahant beach and volcanic eruptions along the Ring of Fire.
A few months passed after the December Romeo lunch and we all got a notice that the April meeting of the North Shore Science Teacher’s group would hold their meeting at the Marine Science Center (MSC) of Northeastern University. The meeting would include a brief tour of the center and a discussion on the latest research being done at the facility.
The marine labs are located in Nahant, MA on rocky a coastal peninsula which originally housed an underground military base for harbor defense built in WWII and later used to launch SAMS (surface to air missiles) during the 1950s and 60s. The university bought the property in 1967 and then built the marine labs there.
Being retired science teachers the Romeos are always invited to attend these local science meetings and continue to learn all about the new and exciting ideas discussed in today’s science classrooms. Although the Romeo’s mostly meet for lunch each month at different restaurants, a few also attend the science teacher meetings and decided to go to this one. Those planning to attend were Jim Terlucci, Joe Balsaro, and Marco Greico. All were excited about touring the new MSC labs because it was almost 40 years since they last visited as grad students when the labs first opened. Joe Balsaro also thought the visit to the MSC might shed some light on his disturbing discovery concerning the Nahant ocean temperature and volcanoes.
The MSC is well known for its cutting edge research in Marine Ecosystems, Community Ecology, Marine Genomics, Neurophysiology and Microbial Ecology, Biological Oceanography, Vertebrate Systematics and Ecology (including fish and marine mammals), Algal Biotechnology, Marine Pollution Remediation and Ocean Climatology. The center also offers some courses in marine science to students from local high schools as well as to those in graduate school.
On the planned date of the science meeting we all met in the main library of the MSC and listened to a brief discussion of the center’s educational goals and the type of research that was done there. After this brief introduction we toured some of the labs which were located underground in the now vacated military missile silos. We first entered a large steel door and then turned down a long lighted tunnel which went on for about 500 feet. Along one wall of the tunnel were display cases which housed small skeletons of various marine fish and mammals. Along the opposite wall and on the floor were the skeletons of several giant whales that measured over 50 feet in length. These whales had washed ashore after being killed at sea from collisions with large ships but who also died after being disoriented by the warmer water viruses caused by global warming. Several doors along the tunnel walls were labeled with the names of various labs doing research at the Nahant facility.
One lab door was open slightly and the tour guide peaked inside and asked Dr. Lamb who ran the lab if the teachers could take a quick tour. This was the Ocean Climatology Lab and Dr. Lamb reluctantly agreed to show us the lab and all the gizmos and high end electronic equipment that encircled the facility. As we looked around, he said please don’t touch any machines because I am in the middle of an experiment. Dr. Lamb was quite protective of one machine over in the corner that seemed to be running at high speed and had dials on it for longitude and latitude as well as high frequency EMR (Electromagnetic Radiation). The EMR dials seem to be set in the powerful range of gamma radiation (1026) Hz. That seemed quite odd since this EMR range was beyond the capabilities of current machinery and was similar to solar flare radiation on the sun’s surface. When I looked at the dials for (Lat/Long), I recognized that they were set for the west coast since my family had once lived there.
Being curious about the machine settings and the electrodes sticking into the rock wall, Joe Balsaro asked Dr. Lamb about them. Dr. Lamb didn’t think that mere high school science teachers could understand the power of his machines and quickly ended the tour by saying he had to get back to work. We were then quickly ushered out by the guide and continued our tour in the long tunnel.
Later that evening we heard on the news that Mt. St. Helens in the state of Washington had erupted again as well as some other volcanoes along the Pacific Rim. Hearing this, Joe wondered whether these eruptions were connected to the settings on Dr. Lamb’s machines. He also got on his computer and looked up the off shore ocean temperature data for Nahant from the NWS web site and sure enough saw the unusual temperature spikes he had seen before.
After verifying this data, Joe called the other Romeos who had visited the MSC lab at Nahant and said that we needed to go back tomorrow and confront Dr. Lamb with this evidence. We all agreed and said we would meet there at 12 noon and just confront Dr. Lamb with our information so he could explain a justifiable reason. Otherwise, we had to notify federal authorities because manipulating any natural phenomena must be a criminal offense or at least under some government control.
The next day we all met in the parking lot of the Nahant MSC and went straight for the Ocean Climatology Lab. We entered the long tunnel and saw the lab door open and walked in. Dr. Lamb was startled and asked what we wanted? We explained the coincidence of the Nahant ocean temperature spikes and volcano activity. Although Dr. Lamb was surprised and irritated, he quickly explained that he belonged to a group of scientists that saw a need to control global warming before it is too late. This new science was called geoengineering. He also thought that there was nothing wrong with what he was doing. Besides, what could these local-yokels do?
We all looked at each other with surprise since we had heard about how geoengineering scientist would use the new technology to tinker with the Earth’s delicate climate balance. We also read that some of these scientists who have studied the idea were worried about the possible misuse of their research. If this technology for manipulating world climate fell into the wrong hands the world could be held hostage if these mad scientists threatened the world with their new ability to cause violent earthquakes, massive floods or devastating hurricanes.
Dr. Lamb explained that some geoegineering scientists met at a conference to discuss the ramifications of this manipulation and also to discuss some possible technical methods. The conference was sponsored by NASA and held at Stanford University in 2006. Dr. Ken Caldeira of Stanford constructed various computer models of geoengineering which predicted that if you blocked 20 percent of the sunlight over the Arctic Ocean with volcanic ash, it would be enough to restore the lost Arctic sea ice which had occurred recently. In fact recent volcanic eruptions filled the atmosphere with enough ash to deflect sunlight and reduce global temperature by an average of 0.9 degrees. This would certainly help since global warming is melting the sea ice at an alarming rate.
However, he didn’t tell us that Calderia was “philosophically opposed” to the idea without first reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Even President Obama’s new science advisor, John P. Holdren told the Associated Press in April 2009 that geoengineering the climate is being discussed by the White House but that these measures would only be used as a last resort.
Dr. Lamb said that he couldn’t wait any longer for the slow wheels of governmental action to control global warming. He had to do something now before it was too late even if there was some collateral damage. Consequently, he had actually developed machinery over the past few years to manipulate climate. By using high energy EMR Gamma Radiation that he shot into the mineral veins that traveled through the Earth’s crust to the center of the Earth, he could control heat vents all over the world.
Scientists had recently discovered that mineral veins of iron, copper, silver and gold spread out through the solid Earth like strands in a giant spider web connecting the Earth’s core to external heat vents. These heat vents were strategically located along tectonic plates in deep ocean valleys as well as within the major active volcanoes along the Ring of Fire. After firing bursts of EMR radiation down through the Earth’s neural network of mineral veins, he could cause specific volcanoes to erupt and spew volcanic ash into the atmosphere. The ash would then block the sun and thus cool the underlying areas a few degrees. With his Gamma Machine he could temporarily and periodically curtail global warming.
Jim Terlucci tried to explain to Dr. Lamb that tinkering with the Earth’s delicate climate balance would cause damaging side effects. Although the volcanic ash might reduce atmospheric temperature and curtail global warming, it would also cause health, economic, weather and agricultural problems. The ash in the air would cause respiratory difficulties for local populations. The blocked sunlight would reduce the growing season for farmers. The ash in the air would seed clouds and cause torrential rains. These environmental problems would cause an economic burden to nations providing relief to their effected citizens. Dr. Lamb was so blind sided by his desire to reduce global warming that he could nor see the resulting damage and asked us to leave; saying that there was no law against what he was doing.
As we returned to the parking lot of the MSC we were completely distraught with Dr. Lamb’s decision and decided to take other action. We all said that maybe new laws should be created to prevent this malicious climate manipulation and that we should contact our state senators and congressmen to immediately do something. We knew that Senator John Kerry was very active in areas of reducing carbon emission that effect global warming. In fact an international summit of 192 nations would soon be held during December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark to update the Kyoto Protocol from 1997.
The next day the three of us met again at Senator Kerry’s office at the state house in Boston to discuss this serious matter. However we were told that we had to make an appointment and were disappointed. At that very moment Senator Kerry came out of his office and we quickly told him that there was a world wide crisis brewing in Nahant which would cause devastating consequence and that he could fix it. He agreed to meet us in his office and Joe Balsaro explained his discovery of ocean temperatures and volcanic activity and the subsequent meetings we had with Dr. Lamb. We then asked Senator Kerry to write immediate legislation to block this malicious environmental manipulation.
During the following weeks Senator Kerry attended the Copenhagen Summit and introduced his ideas regarding carbon emissions, global warming and preventing geoengineering from manipulating the climate without strict controls by all nations involved. When he returned home from Copenhagen he further strengthened his commitment to working on this serious problem by introducing legislation that would put strict government controls on geoengineering and prevent haphazard tampering with the environment. Since Joe Balsaro had been so instrumental in bringing this problem to light, Senator Kerry named the legislation “The Balsaro Bill”. That made us all feel gratified that even after retiring; we could still contribute to society and make a difference.
Comments: (always welcome). Email to markryan82@comcast.net
Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank my Romeo friends for their colorful backgrounds and giving me the inspiration for my stories.
References:
Burton’s Grill – North Andover, MA
http://www.burtonsgrill.com/
Ring of Fire – Pacific Rim Volcanoes
http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/ringfire.htm
EMR Radiation Spectrum
http://www.astrosurf.com/luxorion/qsl-em-radiation.htm
Nahant Marine Science Center
http://www.marinescience.neu.edu/pdf/NewsltrSp2007.pdf
Boston Globe Articles 11-13-09 Climate Change
http://search.boston.com/local/Search.do?s.tab=globe&s.largeMap=&s.sm.query=climate+change&s.ypsearch=&s.yplocation=&when=&qf=&qn=&qc=&qs=&s.town=&s.si%28simplesearchinput%29.sortBy=-articleprintpublicationdate&s.dateRange=
Climate Change Summit
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/11/30/climate_talks_progress_but_hurdles_remain/
Climatechangegate
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/12/02/climategate_dissent_on_ice/
Manipulating Earth’s Climate
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/18/talk_of_manipulating_earths_climate/
Climate Engineering
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/04/09/us_considering_climate_engineering/ Underwater Sensors off Massachusetts
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2007/09/10/under_the_sea/
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