An Offer We Couldn’t Refuse

 Welcome to the Spot Writers. This month’s prompt: write about a memorable gift.

 

This week’s story was written by Phil Yeats. In September, 2021, he published The Souring Seas, the first volume in a precautionary tale about the hazards of ignoring human-induced climate change. The second volume, Building Houses of Cards, appeared in May 2022. Book three should be out soon. For information about these books, visit his website–https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com/

 

An Offer We Couldn’t Refuse

by Phil Yeats

 

I rushed home after the Environmental Conservation League’s extraordinary meeting. The ECL was the largest and most influential environmental group in the province. This evening’s meeting was remarkable. It wasn’t a meeting to discuss something mundane that couldn’t wait for a scheduled meeting. It was a discussion of an extraordinary opportunity.

Landscape painter Clary Franklin, a League member who recently joined the executive, offered us an equity stake in a carbon dioxide sequestering project. Clary, an ardent environmentalist and artist in the tradition of Tom Thomson, was the youngest son of oil baron Harold Franklin. It was an undeniable fact, and Clary acknowledged Franklin Petroleum’s ownership of the idle carbon sequestering project.

The executive and most of the audience favoured acceptance of Clary’s proposal. I, with a few others, recommended caution. We wanted to do our homework and investigate the details. After much discussion, our guarded approach prevailed. A quick decision was postponed.

I went away happy. They’d seconded me to a group tasked with looking into the chemistry of the process that converted CO₂ into simple organic molecules like ethanol. That made sense. I was a graduate student in chemistry and knowledgeable about the subject.

At home, I began digging into the chemistry. 

Darnell Dodd was a graduate student wunderkind at our university who published two pivotal papers in super acid chemistry before abandoning his studies. He didn’t graduate, but maintained a small bunker-like laboratory behind the chemistry building. He was seldom seen around campus, but he maintained an ongoing association with the department. His current interest, according to departmental scuttlebutt, was photosynthesis.

My search found the master’s thesis of an engineering student at one of the university’s satellite campuses. He’d designed and built a three-reactor test facility that produced ethanol from the super-acid-catalysed gas-phase reaction of carbon dioxide with water vapour. The energy source for the endothermic reaction was sunlight.

At 11:30, when someone hammered on my door, I was lost in the oft-quoted thesis. I opened the door and Minerva Hastings stormed into my room.

Minnie was a fellow member of the ECL. When I left the meeting, the Poli-Sci student was discussing the unexpected offer with other political-economists. Had that discussion just broken off?

“Why the skepticism?” she demanded. “Isn’t it a wonderful opportunity? A magnificent gift for the ECL, and the world’s golden opportunity to tackle carbon sequestering?”

“At first, I was worried we were jumping aboard too quickly. I figured we should step back and give the idea a chance to gestate. Then I asked myself, ‘why do I know so little?’ I mean, it’s a chemistry story. I should have known about it.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“Don’t know. Looks like a respected chemical researcher took a side road into chemical engineering, and I missed it entirely.”

She smiled, one of her trademark mischievous grins. “Sounds like an academic scientist ignoring work in applied fields.”

“I suppose, but this must be important. Why wasn’t it reported in New Scientist and the mainstream media?” I paused, scratching my head. “I dunno. Did someone squashed this story, kept it from the press?”

“You suggesting there’s something wrong?”

“You suggested a minute ago that this may be the world’s golden opportunity to solve the climate change problems. That’s what you suggested, isn’t it?”

“More or less. But you’re not explaining the problem you foresee.”

“A breakthrough of this magnitude should’ve caused a sensation. Oil companies should’ve been jumping on the bandwagon, and governments should be climbing all over it, claiming it solves the national carbon emission problem.”

“But Clary says they need support, specifically support from our major environmental group.”

“See. That says there’s a problem. We need to discover what.”

“Okay, you start. What’s wrong with the science?”

“The basic chemistry described in Dodd’s papers is both solid and breaks important new ground.”

“Give me the layman’s version of his discovery.”

“It goes something like this. He used super acid molecules stabilized on solid surfaces to catalyze interesting gas phase reactions—a new sub-field of gas phase chemistry.”

“Carbon dioxide’s a gas. Does that mean he learned something new about CO₂ chemistry?”

“Not in his papers, but I presume he did. That’s the problem. I can’t find anything that links Dodd’s initial papers and the engineering study showing details of energy costs and product yields for the process Clary described this evening. There’s nothing about the chemistry or how the catalyst works.”

“Okay. there are gaps, but we’re talking about a commercial venture. Presumably, the proponents are keeping the details from their competitors.”

“Yeah, yeah, know about that. But there’s something that doesn’t ring true.”

“For God’s sakes, Liam. What?”

“Two things, actually. First, Clary said the other oil companies are opposed—”

“Don’t see why not? They see a new competitor—an industrial processor that would compete with them.”

“Because they will produce ethanol for gasoline and a feedstock for the plastics industry?”

When Millie nodded, I continued. “Nothing new. They already compete with biofuel ethanol, and a way to sequester carbon dioxide must be in their interest.”

“And your other problem?”

“Why are governments standing in their way?”

“Because they’re afraid of being sucked into another industrial greenwashing scam?”

“Strong possibility, and it would explain why Clary wants us onboard. But I have an alternative explanation. The oil industry and governments, federal and provincial, are in this together. They’re protecting the oil industry at all costs.”

“That’s paranoia, nothing more. Everyone agrees with you. We should proceed carefully, checking for all the pitfalls. But the bottom line is we’re on the cusp of a great opportunity. We’ll provide the world with a marvellous gift—a commercially viable way to sequester carbon dioxide.”

Her enthusiasm was infectious. “I hope you’re right,” I said as I drew her into a hug.

 

*****

The Spot Writers – Our members:

Val Muller: http://www.valmuller.com/blog/

Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/

Phil Yeats: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com/

Chiara De Giorgi: https://chiaradegiorgi.blogspot.com/