CHAPTER 17
FALSE HYPOTHESIS
On board Chorley’s great ship, the chief scientist, Ansenhog was experimenting with his own gas and water filled terrarium. He would change the amount of each gas in the terrarium and note the change in the internal atmospheric temperature. His data was telling him that water vapor was the predominate greenhouse gas, but that even small amounts of the gas carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere would amplify the amount of warming. He knew that burning coal would produce carbon dioxide in the little terrarium’s atmosphere. As the terrarium sat on the ship’s deck, he would add carbon dioxide and see the temperature rise. He didn’t notice the bubbles forming in the water as the sun warmed the terrarium, however.
Towards evening, the sun was no longer striking the terrarium directly. The internal temperature cooled and measurements of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere showed a decline. So, he concluded, the temperature goes up based on the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, assuming the water vapor stays constant. “We can control the atmospheric temperature by controlling the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere! Arrhenhog and Charnswine were right all along” he thought. When he told Chorley of his findings, she snorted, “I knew it all along. We must stop burning things, especially that black honey, black rocks and gas from rocks.”
The big ship sailed and puttered along to the south, trailing grey and black smoke. The next morning, the secret stash of black rocks that Mericus and Christop had smuggled aboard was depleted. The chug, chug of the engine ceased and the breeze out of the south started to push the vessel away from the southern Kannuck shoreline. Chorley et al were being forced to the northeast, towards the west coast of the continent of Fraland.