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Carbon-megaphoneAfter all the mess with the giant tick and the party for Pande Opposito, there was, and had been, peace in GreenVille for quite a while.
It was a nice spring day when GoGreen Man went to check on Hannah Heart. He wanted to make sure she had enough RNA pills, since she had take them everyday after being attacked by Dr. Pollution.
When GoGreen Man arrived at her house, he found her working in her yard planting new trees. He was relieved to see Hannah Heart doing well. He was always a little worried, especially after the kidnapping that something would happen to her.
“Hi, Hannah Heart! Do you need any help?” he called out. “No thanks, I’m okay. I love working with my flowers and planting trees. It’s a beautiful spring day and I’m using my solar sunglasses to help make my plants bigger and healthier.” Remember, Hannah Heart’s solar sunglasses give out two beams: one carries solar energy and the other carries nutrients to the plants.
GoGreen Man told her, “I love your flowers. They are always so beautiful and unique. But, why are you working with trees? I’ve never seen you planting them before.” Hannah Heart replied, “Spring is the best time to plant trees! Besides, trees are really good for GreenVille. You see, as the trees grow they store carbon dioxide and give out oxygen.” “I know that, Hannah Heart,” said GoGreen Man patiently. “But GreenVille already has a lot of trees. ” Hannah Heart shook her head, “As you know, GoGreen Man, GreenVille hasn’t always been green. There was a dark time in our history because of bad choices. Only because GreenVille’s citizens decided to do something about it, did GreenVille become beautiful again. We must always remember our past to prevent it from happening again.” GoGreen Man agreed, “You’re right, Hannah Heart. Here let me help you with that tree.”
Meanwhile, in Dr. Pollution’s lab there was furious activity. Dr. Pollution was upset his last two experiments failed; the attack on Hannah Heart and the DNA decoding machine, so he was letting out some of his frustration.
With his frustration spent, he decided he needed to get some new ideas. The best way to do that was to do some research. So, he went to his library and pulled out all of his science history books. One of his books was about the data found in arctic ice. It talked about the atmosphere, earth’s temperature and other things. You see, people can get ice cores and read the past (historic) weather of the earth by the way the ice (snow) is packed. It can also tell what was in the atmosphere and what the weather was like.
Dr. Pollution was intrigued by this data and something especially interesting to him was the effects of carbon dioxide on weather. In the book, it said data from the ice core showed that when there were higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the ice that season was thinner (less snow) and the weather was warmer. “Hmmm, this is interesting. Carbon dioxide goes into the sky... temperature goes up at the same time...” he read to himself. Caught up in the excitement of possibly finding something to work on, he continued reading. “When the sun’s rays come in to the earth they heat it up. When the rays try to go back out, they get trapped in the atmosphere because they are blocked by carbon dioxide.” Dr. Pollution remembered this process was called the greenhouse effect and thought it was a great idea to make the people of GreenVille miserable. “HAHAHA! This is it! I have found a new project to work on and I know it will work!” Remember, he has always been a great chemist.
“I’m going to need a lot of time to work on this project. When I’m finished, GreenVille is going to have the most miserable summer in its history!” laughed Dr. Pollution.
He was going to create a carbon-megaphone (you know, a megaphone makes your voice really loud when you talk in it). The carbon-megaphone, instead of amplifying a voice, it amplified carbon dioxide.
In order to get the carbon-megaphone to work, Dr. Pollution needed a lot of carbon. Where could he get it? The only place he could think of was from coal and the best place to get that coal was from a coal mine!
“My carbon-megaphone is very simple. I can’t believe I never thought of this before! All I do is mix the coal (carbon), pump in oxygen (which comes from air) and mix it all together. There you have it! Carbon dioxide. One carbon plus two oxygen equals CO2!” Dr. Pollution was talking to himself, something he did a lot when he was excited about a project. He also calculated how much carbon dioxide was needed to make an impact on GreenVille’s weather. “…If I can find enough coal, I can cover all of GreenVille with a blanket of CO2 in just a few days! The temperature will go up and…HAHAHAHA! This is the greatest invention ever!” Dr. Pollution went on and on about how great he was and how GreenVille was going to pay for not letting him have his way.
Dr. Pollution abruptly stopped his train of thought, “Where can I get my coal?” Since GreenVille used only renewable energy, all the coal mines had been shut down and closed off. This created a big problem for Dr. Pollution until he remembered something. “AHA! Petrol Pirate’s grandfather was famous for his coal mines, so I’m sure he has plenty of coal. Okay, so the best location to put my wonderful invention is by his grandfather’s coal mine. Actually, Petrol Pirate has now inherited it from his grandfather, that’s even better!”
With everything thought and planned out, Dr. Pollution summoned Petrol Pirate to his lab. He told him about his invention and what he needed. Petrol Pirate was glad to help, but didn’t quite understand what would happen.
Dr. Pollution, slightly frustrated, explained again only this time slowly and in more detail (because he really needed the coal mine), “This is my new invention, the carbon-megaphone. It’s like a miniature version of the coal power plant, but puts out mega carbon dioxide. It has a pump that pulls all the oxygen out of the air, mixes it with the carbon from the coal and then shoots out mega carbon dioxide. The mega carbon dioxide is put into the air of GreenVille and when enough is up there, the temperature will rise quickly. What that means is that summer in GreenVille will be very miserable. Which means people will be very hot. Okay?”
“Oh, no!” exclaimed Petrol Pirate. “If the temperature goes up, does that mean winter will be warmer, too? “Yes!” shouted an exasperated Dr. Pollution. “But, no one’s going to buy my oil if the winter is warm! It’s already bad because most people have already switched over to renewable energy heaters. There are only a few people in GreenVille who still use my gas heaters. I’m sorry, Dr. Pollution, I can’t help you this time.” Petrol Pirate told him.
Dr. Pollution, in an exaggerated calm voice, told him, “Do you ever think of the whole picture, Petrol Pirate? You only focus on one side and not two. If it’s miserable and hot in the summer, people are going to need bigger air conditioners. If more people use bigger air conditioners, they will need more power. In order to get more power, because I’m sure their renewable energy station can’t handle all the air conditioners, GreenVille will definitely need your Petrol Power Plant! So, not only will you have your Petrol Power Plant, you will also be making more air conditioners to sell in the summer!”
By the time he ended, Dr. Pollution was shouting at Petrol Pirate. Fortunately, Petrol Pirate finally understand. He was still a little worried so he asked him one more thing, “Are you sure it will work and I’ll make lots of money selling air conditioners?” With a look and a succinct, yes, Dr. Pollution convinced Petrol Pirate it would.
Getting excited, Petrol Pirate told Dr. Pollution, “You are the best and I will help you with everything you need to run the carbon-megaphone. I will go right now to my grandfather’s mine and reopen it.”
In GreenVille, Professor Fusionstein was deep in thought, while enjoying the spring day. He had been studying about trees, biomass and their effects on the environment. He really enjoyed working with trees and believed there were very valuable lessons to be learned from them. “This spring, I will have my students study trees. Trees are so important to us and the earth. Without them, life would be a lot different in GreenVille!” He said to himself.
Since it was recycle day, Roger Recycle was going around GreenVille getting everyone’s recyclables. While he was driving his route, he saw Petrol Pirate going down the road loaded down with mining equipment. “What are you doing, Petrol Pirate?” asked Roger Recycle. “Um, uh, nothing,” stammered Petrol Pirate, while trying to hide his equipment.
“Isn’t that mining equipment?” Roger asked him. “Wait a minute! Are you going to your grandfather’s mine? This road leads to the mountains.” Petrol Pirate stammered out, “Uh, yeah. Um, I was just looking at it and, uh, wanted to…” Roger Recycle interrupted him, “I used to work for him a long time ago. It’s dirty, dangerous work. Why do you want to go there?” Startled, Petrol Pirate burst out, “Hey, it’s my mine and I can do what I want to!” He then stalked off toward the mountain.
Now, it really bothered Roger Recycle to see Petrol Pirate with that equipment. He wondered if Petrol Pirate was working on reopening the coal mine, but he couldn’t understand why it would reopen. GreenVille exclusively used renewable energy and almost everyone preferred it that way. Whatever was going on, he thought it was very strange.
It was some time later before Dr. Pollution finally finished his carbon-megaphone and brought it to the mine. Now, because the mine was in the mountains, it was pretty easy to keep what he was doing a secret.
Once the carbon-megaphone was set up (outside the mine’s entrance), he ordered Petrol Pirate and his robot, the Trashinator 2000, to work on it right away. Dr. Pollution was pleased to see that Petrol Pirate and the Trashinator 2000 had already dug out quite a bit of coal. He was able to start operating the carbon-megaphone immediately.
When the Trashinator 2000 started dumping coal in the carbon-megaphone, they looked at the machine in awe. It was incredible! The oxygen was pulled from the air, started mixing with the coal/carbon and there it was - CO2! When it came out of the carbon-megaphone, the carbon dioxide was 99% density. What that meant was, almost pure carbon dioxide was going into the air over GreenVille at extremely high speeds.
Petrol Pirate told Dr. Pollution, “Your invention is great and it works fast, too.” Dr. Pollution smugly replied, “Yes, Petrol Pirate. In a couple of days my invention will bring more carbon dioxide to the skies than has even been seen in the history of GreenVille.
Will Dr. Pollution really change the weather in GreenVille? Will GoGreen Man figure out what’s happening before its too late? Find out in the next chapter.
In GreenVille, the meteorologists regularly document air quality and temperature. Meteorologists like to do this because it is their job to forecast the weather. They put the information (data) they get into a computer and the computer tells them what will probably happen weather wise in the future (that’s what an extended forecast is on TV). On this day, the meteorologists noticed the oxygen level in GreenVille was dropping at an alarming rate. (Although any rate would be alarming!) All of their computer models didn’t show something like this happening so they were confused. They tried to work it out themselves, but weren’t getting anywhere. Someone mentioned Professor Fusionstein, “Professor Fusionstein is the leading scientist in GreenVille. I think we should go to him with our problem.” Everyone unanimously agreed, and immediately got on the phone. They explained the situation and asked him for his advice.
“Hmmm, very interesting,” he said. “Oxygen levels can be decreased at higher altitudes, but these readings are at, or near, sea level. Keep watching this and let me know if there are more changes. I’m going to need more information. Over the next few days, bring me the data so I can go over it.” Then he said to himself, “I hope it doesn’t cause problems for the people in GreenVille, especially those with asthma or breathing problems.” In GreenVille, even with the decreased oxygen level, most of the citizens were blissfully ignorant of Dr. Pollution’s evil plan.
Every week Roger Recycle had a recycling meeting open to GreenVille’s citizens. Some weeks he had a large group, but this week only his friends showed up (except GoGreen Man). As Roger Recycle was giving recycling tips, he noticed Hannah Heart coughing. He asked her, “Hannah Heart, are you okay? You seem to be coughing a lot.” Hannah Heart waved aside his concern, “I’m okay. It just started today, so I’ll probably be fine tomorrow. I have slight asthma, so maybe the air is a little dirtier than usual.” “I understand,” he replied. “When I worked in the coal mine, I was always coughing because of the bad air.” “Did you really work in the coal mines?” asked Hannah Heart incredulously. Roger Recycle laughed, “Yes, hard to believe isn’t it? I….wait a minute!” It was then he told the group about seeing Petrol Pirate earlier that day. “It’s strange, when I saw him he was acting very odd. He was carrying a lot of mining equipment and heading towards the mountains. Actually, it was in the direction of his grandfather’s mine. Why would he be going there? There’s no use for coal now.” Water Woman thought, “Maybe he wants to open it to search for gold or diamonds.” “No, it’s a coal mine not a diamond or gold mine!” laughed Roger Recycle. When GoGreen Man walked in, he overhead Roger Recycle and asked, “What are you talking about mines for? Aren’t they closed down in GreenVille?” When he heard the news, he thought it was very interesting. “I’d better check it out after I finish inspecting GreenVille’s renewable energy stations.”
Although he didn’t mention it to the others, GoGreen Man was very suspicious of Petrol Pirate’s activities. Unfortunately, the inspections were due that week and he had to get them finished. Observing Petrol Pirate would just have to wait until later.
Several days later as the meteorologists read their data reports, they were much more alarmed! Not only was the oxygen level decreasing, the carbon dioxide levels were rapidly increasing! To make matters worse, the temperature was very high, well above normal. They couldn’t believe this was happening because it had only been a few days since they first noticed the changes. The meteorologists looked at each other and agreed that something unusual was going on. That day’s temperature was already at a historic record high for spring in GreenVille. They knew they needed to give this information to Professor Fusionstein, immediately!
When Professor Fusionstein received the latest data from the meteorologists, he was astounded, “That’s impossible! The temperature can’t rise like that without a reason. Actually, that much carbon dioxide can’t get into the air without a reason either. There hasn’t been a volcanic eruption and the data doesn’t show anything else unusual in the air except excess carbon dioxide. … Something is incredibly wrong. I will put this data in my supertron (kind of like a super computer) right away so it can analyze it.” When he put the information in the supertron, the results were astounding. It said, “Reason: Unknown; Projected weather changes: Increased tornados; year-round temperature increases; catastrophic hurricanes. Warning: High heat alert for summer. Dangerous zone!” Professor Fusionstein shook his head, “This is impossible! Just impossible! I must give this data to the meteorologists and talk to GoGreen Man.” After sending the information and summoning GoGreen Man, Professor Fusionstein paced anxiously.
When GoGreen Man arrived, he was exhausted and extremely hot. “Whew! I don’t what’s going on, but it’s hot out there! It feels like summer outside,” he puffed, out of breath.
“That’s why I called you. GreenVille is in an emergency situation right now. Look at this data!” Professor Fusionstein paused, then continued, “Look at the CO2 levels. I don’t know why they are increasing. Possible areas of concern are volcanoes (although not very likely) or…well, just anything you can find. This is becoming a very serious situation. I will be sending up a climate balloon to test the levels more accurately in the atmosphere. I suspect the recent temperature increase in GreenVille is a direct result of the high levels of CO2.
As they were both thinking about the situation, GoGreen Man remembered what Roger Recycle had said at his last recycle meeting. “Wait!” Go Green Man said to Professor Fusionstein, “Doesn’t coal create carbon dioxide? “Yes, when coal is burned it emits carbon dioxide but GreenVille doesn’t use coal anymore,” answered Professor Fusionstein.
“Well,” GoGreen Man continued, “The reason I ask is because Roger Recycle mentioned seeing Petrol Pirate with mining equipment earlier this week. Not only that, he was headed toward his grandfather’s coal mine. Roger Recycle was wondering if he was opening the coal mine.” “That is very suspicious!” exclaimed Professor Fusionstein. “You should go check it out.” GoGreen Man agreed to go and went to get more information from Roger Recycle.
At the same time across town, Dr. Pollution was visiting checking on his carbon-megaphone. He was very pleased with the results so far. “As I planned, the carbon dioxide levels increased dramatically. I think the people of GreenVille have noticed the changes. I’d better shut down the carbon-megaphone before GoGreen Man and Professor Fusionstein figure something out.” He quickly went to the coal mine.
When he arrived, Petrol Pirate was excitedly working (he was thinking about all the money he’d be making). Dr. Pollution told Petrol Pirate, “You did a great job! The carbon-megaphone has worked perfectly, but now you to clean up the site. I don’t want GoGreen Man or Professor Fusionstein to find us.” Not quite finished, Dr. Pollution continued, “It’s time to start the second phase of my plan. I need to go talk to Pol’ Tick Al about building the Petrol Power plant in time for the summer heat wave. After you clean up, you will probably be very busy at your air conditioner factory and stores making lots of money. HAHAHAHA!” Petrol Pirate, pleased with the prospect of perpetual fortune said, “I will clean it up right away!” He then quickly turned to begin cleaning up, as Dr. Pollution left the mine.
GoGreen Man, after talking to Professor Fusionstein, quickly went to Roger Recycle’s to find out where the coal mine was located. When he got there, there were a lot of people like Sandra Sunburn and Water Woman talking about the unusually hot spring weather.
They were discussing whether or not to call the weather station to find out what was going on. Hurriedly getting Roger Recycle’s attention (without even saying, “Hi.”), GoGreen Man asked him for directions to the coal mine. “It’s very difficult to find because it’s in the mountains, but I know exactly where to find it. Come on, I’ll show you how to get there.” Roger replied.
Water Woman and Sandra Sunburn were curious about why GoGreen Man was in such a hurry. Sandra Sunburn said, “It probably has something to do with that coal mine Roger Recycle mentioned the other day. Anyway, let’s call the meteorologists and ask them when this heat wave is going to end.”
When Roger Recycle and GoGreen Man got to the mine, Petrol Pirate had already finished cleaning up. As Petrol Pirate was about to leave the site, he saw them and called out, “Why are you here?” GoGreen Man, when he saw the large machine asked, “What is that machine and why is it here outside the coal mine?” “This is my business property and you don’t have to know what I’m doing here. But if you have to know, I was looking for gold and diamonds here. Since I didn’t find any, I’m closing down the mine,” retorted Petrol Pirate. “I don’t have to explain myself to you,” he shot at them and left.
Roger Recycle and GoGreen Man were not convinced - actually they were very suspicious of Petrol Pirate’s explanation. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do because they had no proof of Petrol Pirate doing anything wrong. In frustration, they went back to Professor Fusionstein and described the machine they saw.
When Professor Fusionstein heard what happened at the coal mine, he agreed that Petrol Pirate was probably lying. “The likelihood of finding gold or diamonds is very small. The machine you described does not sound like a mining machine. Did you ever see one like that, Roger Recycle?” “No, I never saw anything like that before in a mine,” answered Roger Recycle. Professor Fusionstein continued, “I suspect Dr. Pollution and Petrol Pirate are behind the CO2 readings. I have received the readouts from my weather balloon and the most concentrated areas of CO2 are from the mountain area you said the mine is located. We have to do something quickly because this summer will be unbearable with extreme weather changes. If we don’t fix the problem soon, there will be a shortage of energy because everyone will be using more air conditioning. Not only that, the storms will be stronger probably causing damage to GreenVille.”
What will happen to GreenVille? Dr. Pollution won this time, but at what cost? Can GoGreen Man find proof that Dr. Pollution and Petrol Pirate are working together? A dark cloud of gloom covers GreenVille and its future is too hot to handle.
Find out what happens in the next story, Carbon-o-matic.
