Chicago, July 3 2050: It's a clear crisp 25 degree Fahrenheit day here in the snowy city, a day before the nation celebrates its 274th birthday, but on the gloomy side the mercantile market in Carbon Dioxide (CO2) has finally collapsed! It is anticipated that overseas markets in raw materials will also be rattled today.
A product highly dependent on CO2 is seltzer. The commercial cost for a ton of CO2 was approximately $1500 per Ton (75 cents per pound), but has now dropped to $500 per Ton (25 cents per pound). CO2 has been called Carbon since the global warming panic of CY 2008.
A few scientists in CY 2008 concluded that another ice age was approaching, not global warming due to CO2, but what did they know? This fact came to light when the famous "Hockey Stick" Curve that showed a temperature increase over time was found to be backwards. A child of the United Nations (UN) Scientist responsible for printing the draft of the final climatology report was putting a Che Guevara decal on a Tee shirt and left the printer set on "Mirror." The rest is history.
In CY 2008 every Country in the world established mandates to take effect in CY 2010 to begin reducing their Carbon footprints to CY 2000 levels by CY 2030 (world total of 25 Billion Tons per year). Heavy industries and power plants would prevent the generation of, or remove and then store Billions of Tons of Carbon. Further estimates showed that by CY 2050 a world total of 60 Billion Tons per year would be dumped into the atmosphere and that CY 2050 was a better target year to go "green". Leading universities in the USA and abroad, estimated there would be added consumer costs, to remove, transfer and store the excess Carbon. A total Carbon footprint of approximately 850 Billion Tons needed to be removed or not generated by CY 2050. Another realization was that employment of on site Carbon storage, or use of existing, pipelines vice transportation via liquefied gas tanker ships/trucks, or free shipping being available was cost effective. For example, liquefied tanker ship cargo capacities were about 800,000 Tons, with a limited number of available assets. One might say the tanker fleets have since multiplied like rabbits, as ship owners and shipbuilder's around the world jumped in to fill the void to facilitate storing anybody's Carbon anywhere on the globe. Amazingly, they couldn't seem to provide free shipping when it came to moving USA donated foodstuffs for overseas consumption in Africa and Asia.
Global Organic Research Enterprises (GORE), a Tennessee based corporation specializing in Internet research began to manufacture Carbon capture equipment in CY 2005. GORE started with a 10% market share, which increased to 80% by CY 2020. Rurally located GORE companies bought Carbon offsets under the conditions that only their Carbon capture equipment would eventually be installed in the Carbon offsets seller's facilities. These market share numbers may be a little misleading, as new Nuclear electrical generating power plants, solar plants, windmills, improved commercial equipment efficiency, increased transportation efficiency and conservation measures took care of the other 20% of world generated Carbon. However, politicians and scientists familiar with India and China believe that the estimates that GORE has 100% of the Carbon capture market are incorrect, based on over estimating GORE's global influence. A safer estimate would be 51%. Rumors have long been circulating in the world's financial markets that the other 49% is controlled by a China India Carbon Coalition known as the Organization of Carbon Exporting Countries (OCEC). GORE has been urged to join OCEC at a number of informal get acquainted meetings held aboard private jets headed for Asia.
Since CY 2010 GORE has shipped, compressed and stored approximately 425 Billion Tons of CO2 at its various Tennessee locations, as GORE can process a lot of gas. The cost to GORE was rather minimal as consumers paid most of the costs as increased consumer product prices, service fees and taxes over the 40 year period. Gore lost $100 Billion in buying Carbon offsets during the initial decade of the company's existence. However, GORE currently has $500 Billion in the bank, as the company gets a $1.00 to $2.00 fee for each ton of Carbon stored. Gore has offered to now sell CO2 at $500 per Ton (25 cents per pound) exclusive of OCEC, who are eagerly watching the outcome of the current situation. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said today that "GORE's Carbon footprints are all over this deal".
Reaction has been swift to these market developments. Foreign and Domestic CO2 producers say they cannot compete with GORE when it comes to commercial production of CO2 and will have to shut down their facilities. This means that GORE and OCEC will eventually have a Carbon monopoly and charge any price they want for CO2! Save Cows and Trees (SCAT), a vegan environmental group plans to picket the White House and the Capitol, demanding that Carbon capture be halted and a government program to develop alternate Carbon sources to GORE and OCEC be initiated. They threatened to torch the White House, knowing that the CO2 fire extinguishers are empty, unless the President and Congress act. Cattle ranchers were ecstatic over the news of the CO2 shortage, oops that's Methane! The Democrats quickly blamed George W. Bush, who was the Republican president in 2008. A spokesman for The New Black Tabby Party commented "they have now taken our Carbon, you know it's our's because it's black!" A number of fringe groups suggested that "a US government conspiracy was behind the CO2 removal because of numerous hushed up giant Venus Fly Trap attacks in the mid-west." Former astronauts remembered Earth as a blue planet, then a green planet and now a brown planet like Mars.
