"Something about your involvement in getting the papers signed to finance this suit."
So that was it, Evans thought. They were putting him on television so he would not be able later to say anything about the gift of ten million dollars to NERF. No doubt they would stick him in the background for the announcement ceremony, maybe make a brief acknowledgment of his presence. Then Drake would say that the ten million was coming, and unless Evans stood up and contradicted him, his silence would be taken as acquiescence. Later, if he developed any qualms, they could say, But you were there, Evans. Why didn't you speak up then?
"I see," Evans said.
"You look worried."
"I am..."
"Let me tell you something," she said. "Don't worry about it."
"But you don't even know--"
"Just listen to me. Don't worry about it." She was looking directly into his eyes.
"Okay..."
Of course she meant well, but despite her words, Evans was experiencing an unpleasant, sinking feeling. The police were threatening to issue a warrant for his arrest. The firm was complaining about his absences. Now this effort to force him into silence--by putting him on television.
He said, "Why did you want me here so early?"
"We need you to sit in the hot seat again, as part of our test for jury selection."
"I'm sorry, I can't--"
"Yes. You have to. Same thing as before. Want some coffee?"
"Sure."
"You look tired. Let's get you to hair and makeup."
Half an hour later he was back in the deposition room, at the end of the long table. There was again a crew of eager young scientific types looking down at him.
"Today," Jennifer said, "we would like to consider issues of global warming and land use. Are you familiar with this?"
"Only slightly," Evans said.
Jennifer nodded to one of the researchers at the far end. "Raimundo? Will you give him the background?"
The researcher had a heavy accent, but Evans could follow him. "It is well known," he said, "that changes in land use will cause changes in average ground temperature. Cities are hotter than the surrounding countryside--what is called the 'urban heat island' effect. Croplands are warmer than forested lands, and so on."
"Uh-huh," Evans said. Nodding. He hadn't heard about these land use concepts, but it certainly stood to reason.
Raimundo continued, "A high percentage of weather stations that were out in the countryside forty years ago are now surrounded by concrete and skyscrapers and asphalt and so on. Which makes them register warmer."
"I understand," Evans said. He glanced away, through the glass wall. He saw film crews moving around the warehouse, shooting various things. He hoped the crews wouldn't come in. He didn't want to sound stupid in front of them.
"These facts," Raimundo said, "are well known within the field. So researchers take the raw temperature data from stations near cities and reduce them by some amount to compensate for the urban heat island effect."
Evans said, "And how is this reduction calculated?"
"Different ways, depending on who does it. But most algorithms are based on population size. The larger the population, the greater the reduction."
Evans shrugged. "That sounds like the right way to do it."
"Unfortunately," he said, "it probably isn't. Do you know about Vienna? It was studied by Bohm a few years back. Vienna has had no increase in population since 1950, but it has more than doubled its energy use and increased living space substantially. The urban heat island effect has increased, but the calculated reduction is unchanged, because it only looks at population change."*
"So the heating from cities is being underestimated?" Evans said.
"It's worse than that," Jennifer said. "It used to be assumed that urban heating was unimportant because the urban heat island effect was only a fraction of total warming. The planet warmed about .3 degrees Celsius in the last thirty years. Cities are typically assumed to have heated by around .1 degree Celsius."
"Yes? So?"
"So those assumptions are wrong. The Chinese report that Shanghai warmed 1 degree Celsius in the last twenty years alone.+That's more than the total global warming of the planet in the last hundred years. And Shanghai is not unique. Houston increased .8 degrees Celsius in the last twelve years.++Cities in South Korea are heating rapidly.*Manchester, England, is now 8 degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside.+Even small towns are much hotter than the surrounding areas."
Jennifer reached for her charts. "Anyway," she said, "the point is that the graphs you see are not raw data. They have already been adjusted with fudge factors to compensate for urban heating. But probably not enough."
At that moment, the door opened and one of the four video crews came in, their camera light shining. Without hesitation, Jennifer reached for some charts, and brought them up. She whispered, "B-roll is silent, so we need to be active and provide visuals."