State Of Fear

A sheet of paper began to buzz out of the printer. Sanjong passed it to Evans.



Doran, P. T., Priscu, J. C., Lyons, W. B., Walsh, J. E., Fountain, A. G., McKnight, D. M., Moorhead,D. L., Virginia, R. A., Wall, D. H., Clow, G. D., Fritsen, C. H., McKay, C. P., and Parsons, A. N., 2002, "Antarctic climate cooling and terrestrial ecosystem response," Nature 415: 51720.



From 1986 to 2000 central Antarctic valleys cooled.7є C per decade with serious ecosystem damage from cold.



Comiso, J. C., 2000, "Variability and trends in Antarctic surface temperatures from in situand satellite infrared measurements," Journal of Climate 13: 167496.



Both satellite data and ground stations show slight cooling over the last 20 years.



Joughin, I., and Tulaczyk, S., 2002, "Positive mass balance of the Ross Ice Streams, West Antarctica," Science 295: 47680.



Side-looking radar measurements show West Antarctic ice is increasing at 26.8 gigatons/yr. Reversing the melting trend of the last 6,000 years.



Thompson, D. W. J., and Solomon, S., 2002, "Interpretation of recent Southern Hemisphere climate change," Science 296: 89599.



Antarctic peninsula has warmed several degrees while interior has cooled somewhat. Ice shelves have retreated but sea ice has increased.



Petit, J. R., Jouzel, J., Raynaud, D., Barkov, N. I., Barnola, J.-M., Basile, I., Bender, M., Chappellaz, J., Davis, M., Delaygue, G., Delmotte, M., Kotlyakov, V. M., Legrand, M., Lipenkov, V. Y., Lorius, C., Pepin, L., Ritz, C., Saltzman, E., and Stievenard, M., 1999, "Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica," Nature 399: 42936.



During the last four interglacials, going back 420,000 years, the Earth was warmer than it is today.



Anderson, J. B., and Andrews, J. T., 1999, "Radiocarbon constraints on ice sheet advance and retreat in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica," Geology 27: 17982.



Less Antarctic ice has melted today than occurred during the last interglacial.



Liu, J., Curry, J. A., and Martinson, D. G., 2004, "Interpretation of recent Antarctic sea ice variability," Geophysical Research Letters 31: 10.1029/2003 GL018732.



Antarctic sea ice has increased since 1979.



Vyas, N. K., Dash, M. K., Bhandari, S. M., Khare, N., Mitra, A., and Pandey, P. C., 2003, "On the secular trends in sea ice extent over the antarctic region based on OCEANSAT-1 MSMR observations," International Journal of Remote Sensing 24: 227787.



Trend toward more sea ice may be accelerating.



Parkinson, C. L., 2002, "Trends in the length of the southern Ocean sea-ice season, 197999," Annals of Glaciology 34: 43540.



The greater part of Antarctica experiences a longer sea-ice season, lasting 21 days longer than it did in 1979.



"Okay, well, I see slight cooling referred to here," Evans said. "I also see warming of the peninsula of several degrees. That certainly seems more significant. And that peninsula's a pretty big part of the continent, isn't it?" He tossed the paper aside. "Frankly, I'm not impressed."



Sanjong said, "The peninsula is two percent of the continent. And frankly, I am surprised that you did not comment on the most significant fact in the data you were given."



"Which is?"



"When you said earlier that the Antarctic is melting," Sanjong said, "were you aware that it has been melting for the last six thousand years?"



"Not specifically, no."



"But generally, you knew that?"



"No," Evans said. "I wasn't aware of that."



"You thought that the Antarctic melting was something new?"



"I thought it was melting faster than previously," Evans said.



"Maybe we won't bother anymore," Kenner said.



Sanjong nodded, and started to put the computer away.



"No, no," Evans said. "I'm interested in what you have to say. I'm not closed-minded about this. I'm ready to hear new information."



"You just did," Kenner said.



Evans picked up the sheet of paper again, and folded it carefully. He slipped it into his pocket. "These studies are probably financed by the coal industry," he said.



"Probably," Kenner said. "I'm sure that explains it. But then, everybody's paid by somebody. Who pays your salary?"



"My law firm."



"And who pays them?"



"The clients. We have several hundred clients."



"You do work for all of them?"



"Me, personally? No."



"In fact, you do most of your work for environmental clients," Kenner said. "Isn't that true?"



"Mostly. Yes."



"Would it be fair to say that the environmental clients pay your salary?" Kenner said.



"You could make that argument."



"I'm just asking, Peter. Would it be fair to say environmentalists pay your salary?"



"Yes."



"Okay. Then would it be fair to say the opinions you hold are because you work for environmentalists?"



"Of course not"



"You mean you're not a paid flunky for the environmental movement?"



"No. The fact is"



"You're not an environmental stooge? A mouthpiece for a great fund-raising and media machinea multi-billion-dollar industry in its own rightwith its own private agenda that's not necessarily in the public interest?"



"God damn it"



"Is this pissing you off?" Kenner said.



"You're damn right it is!"



"Good," Kenner said. "Now you know how legitimate scientists feel when their integrity is impugned by slimy characterizations such as the one you just made. Sanjong and I gave you a careful, peer-reviewed interpretation of data. Made by several groups of scientists from several different countries. And your response was first to ignore it, and then to make an ad hominem attack. You didn't answer the data. You didn't provide counter evidence. You just smeared with innuendo."



"Oh, fuck you," Evans said. "You think you have an answer for everything. But there's only one problem: Nobody agrees with you. Nobody in the world thinks that Antarctica is getting colder."



"These scientists do," Kenner said. "They published the data."



Evans threw up his hands. "The hell with it," he said. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."



He walked to the front of the plane and sat down, crossed his arms, and stared out the window.



Kenner looked at Sanjong and Sarah. "Anyone feel like coffee?"



Sarah had watched Kenner and Evans with a certain amount of uneasiness. Even though she had worked for the past two years for Morton, she had never shared her employer's passion for environmental issues. All during that time, Sarah had been in a tempestuous, exciting relationship with a handsome young actor. Their time together consisted of an unending series of passionate evenings, angry confrontations, slammed doors, tearful reconciliations, jealousies, and infidelitiesand it had consumed her more than she cared to admit. The truth was that she had paid no more attention to NERF or Morton's other environmental interests than the job required. At least, until the sonof-a-bitch actor appeared in the pages of People magazine with a young actress from his TV show, and Sarah finally decided she had had enough, erased the guy from her cell phone, and threw herself into her work.



But she certainly held the same general view about the state of the world as Evans did. Perhaps Evans was more aggressive in stating his views, and more trusting of his assumptions, but she basically agreed with him. And here was Kenner, casting doubt after doubt.



It left her wondering whether Kenner was really correct about everything he was saying. And it also made her wonder just how he and Morton had become friends.



She asked Kenner, "Did you have these same discussions with George?"



"In the last weeks of his life, yes."



"And did he argue with you the way Evans is?"



"No." Kenner shook his head. "Because by then, he knew."



"Knew what?"



They were interrupted by the pilot's voice on the intercom. "Good news," he said. "The weather's broken over Weddell, and we will land in ten minutes. For those of you who have never made a landing on ice, seat belts should be low and tight, and all your gear safely stowed. And we really mean it."



The plane began a slow, curving descent. Sarah looked out the window at a crusty expanse of white, snow-covered ice. In the distance she saw a series of brightly colored buildingsred, blue, greenbuilt on a cliff, overlooking the gray and choppy ocean.



"That's Weddell Station," Kenner said.



Chapter 32



WEDDELL STATION



WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6



11:04 A.M.



Trudging toward structures that looked like oversize children's building blocks, Evans kicked a clump of ice out of his path. He was in a grumpy mood. He felt relentlessly bullied by Kenner, whom he now recognized as one of those perpetual contrarians who argued against all conventional wisdom, simply because it was conventional.



But since Evans was stuck with this lunaticat least for the next few dayshe decided to avoid Kenner as much as possible. And certainly not engage him in any more conversations. There was no point in arguing with extremists.



He looked at Sarah, walking across the ice airfield beside him. Her cheeks were flushed in the cold air. She looked very beautiful. "I think the guy is a nut," Evans said.



"Kenner?"



"Yeah. What do you think?"



She shrugged. "Maybe."



"I bet those references he gave me are fake," he said.



"They'll be easy enough to check," she said. They stamped their feet and entered the first building.



Weddell Research Station turned out to be home to thirty-odd scientists, graduate students, technicians, and support staff. Evans was pleasantly surprised to find it was quite comfortable inside, with a cheerful cafeteria, a game room, and a large gym with a row of treadmills. There were big picture windows with views of the choppy, restless ocean. Other windows looked out over the vast, white expanse of the Ross Ice Shelf, stretching away to the west.



The head of the station greeted them warmly. He was a heavyset, bearded scientist named MacGregor who looked like Santa Claus in a Patagonia vest. Evans was annoyed that MacGregor seemed to know Kenner, at least by reputation. The two men immediately struck up a friendly conversation.



Evans excused himself, saying he wanted to check his e-mail. He was shown to a room with several computer terminals. He signed on to one, and went directly to the site for Science magazine.



It took him only a few moments to determine that the references Sanjong had given him were genuine. Evans read the online abstracts, and then the full text. He began to feel a little better. Kenner had summarized the raw data correctly, but he had drawn a different interpretation from that of the authors. The authors of those papers were firmly committed to the idea of global warmingand said so in the text.



Or at least, most of them did.



It was a bit complicated. In one paper, it was clear that even though the authors gave lip service to the threat of global warming, their data seemed to suggest the opposite of what they were saying in the text. But that apparent confusion, Evans suspected, was probably just the result of drawing up a paper with half a dozen authors. What they said was they supported the idea of global warming. And that was what counted.



More disturbing was the paper on the increase in ice thickness in the Ross Ice Shelf. Here Evans found some troubling points. First, the author did say that the shelf had been melting for the last six thousand years, ever since the Holocene era. (Though Evans could not remember reading, in any article about melting Antarctic ice, that it had been going on for the last six thousand years.) If that were true, it wasn't exactly news. On the contrary, the author suggested that the real news was the end of this long-term melting trend, and the first evidence of ice thickening. The author was hinting that this might be the first sign of the start of the next Ice Age.



Jesus!



The next Ice Age?



There was a knock on the door behind him. Sarah stuck her head in. "Kenner wants us," she said. "He's discovered something. Looks like we're going out on the ice."



The map covered the entire wall, showing the enormous, star-shaped continent. In the lower right-hand corner was Weddell Station, and the curving arc of the Ross Ice Shelf.



"We've learned," Kenner said, "that a supply ship docked five days ago bringing boxes of field material for an American scientist named James Brewster, from the University of Michigan. Brewster is a very recent arrival who was permitted to come at the last minute because the terms of his research grant were unusually generous in their allowance for overheadmeaning the station would get some much-needed money for operations."



"So he bought his way in?" Evans said.



"In effect."



"When did he get here?"



"Last week."



"Where is he now?"



"Out in the field." Kenner pointed to the map. "Somewhere south of the slopes of Mount Terror. And that's where we're going."



"You say this guy's a scientist from Michigan?" Sarah said.



"No," Kenner said. "We just checked with the university. They have a Professor James Brewster, all right. He's a geophysicist at the University of Michigan, and right now he's in Ann Arbor waiting for his wife to deliver a baby."



"So who is this guy?"



"Nobody knows."



"And what was his offloaded equipment?" Evans said.



"Nobody knows that, either. It was helicoptered out to the field, still in the original crates. The guy's been out there a week with two so-called graduate students. Whatever he's doing, he's apparently working across a large area, so he moves his base camp frequently. Nobody here knows precisely where he is." Kenner lowered his voice. "One of the graduate students came back yesterday to do some computer work. But we won't use him to lead us out there, for obvious reasons. We'll use one of the staff people at Weddell, Jimmy Bolden. He's very knowledgeable.