10:31 P. M.
On the flight back, Sarah Jones was overcome with confused feelings. First of all, she was profoundly distressed by the fact that George Morton's body had been recovered; in some part of her mind, she had been hoping against hope that he would turn up alive. Then there was the question of Peter Evans. Just as she was starting to like him--starting to see a side of him that was not wimpy, but rather tough and resilient in his own bumbling way--just as she was beginning, in fact, to have the first stirrings of feelings toward the man who had saved her life, suddenly there was this new woman, Jennifer somebody, and Peter was obviously taken with her.
And in addition, there was the arrival of Ted Bradley. Sarah had no illusions about Ted; she had seen him in action at innumerable NERF gatherings, and she had even once allowed him to work his charms on her--she was a sucker for actors--but at the last moment decided he reminded her too much of her ex. What was it about actors, anyway? They were so engaging, so personal in their approach, so intense in their feelings. It was hard to realize that they were just self-absorbed people who would do anything to get you to like them.
At least, Ted was.
And how had he been injured? Bitten his own tongue? Sarah had the feeling it had to do with this Jennifer. Undoubtedly, Ted had made a pass at her. The woman was pretty enough in a street-smart kind of way; dark hair, toughish face, compact body, muscular but skinny. A typical speeded-up New York type--in every way Sarah's opposite.
And Peter Evans was fawning over her.
Fawning.
It was sort of disgusting, but she had to admit she was disappointed personally as well. Just as she had started to like him. She sighed.
As for Bradley, he was talking to Kenner about environmental issues, showing off his extensive knowledge. And Kenner was looking at Bradley the way a python looks at a rat.
"So," Kenner said, "global warming represents a threat to the world?"
"Absolutely," Bradley said. "A threat to the whole world."
"What sort of threat are we talking about?"
"Crop failures, spreading deserts, new diseases, species extinction, all the glaciers melting, Kilimanjaro, sea-level rise, extreme weather, tornadoes, hurricanes, El Nino events--"
"That sounds extremely serious," Kenner said.
"It is," Bradley said. "It really is."
"Are you sure of your facts?"
"Of course."
"You can back your claims with references to the scientific literature?"
"Well, I can't personally, but scientists can."
"Actually, scientific studies do not support your claims. For example, crop failure--if anything, increased carbon dioxidestimulates plant growth. There is some evidence that this is happening. And the most recent satellite studies show the Sahara has shrunk since 1980.*As for new diseases--not true. The rate of emergence of new diseases has not changed since 1960."
"But we'll have diseases like malaria coming back to the US and Europe."
"Not according to malaria experts."*
Bradley snorted and folded his hands across his chest.
"Species extinction hasn't been demonstrated either. In the 1970s, Norman Myers predicted a million species would be extinct by the year2000. Paul Ehrlich predicted that fifty percent of all species would be extinct by the year 2000. But those were just opinions.+Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice. Do you know how many species there are on the planet?"
"No."
"Neither does anybody else. Estimates range from three million to one hundred million. Quite a range, wouldn't you say? Nobody really has any idea."++
"Your point being?"
"It's hard to know how many species are becoming extinct if you don't know how many there are in the first place. How could you tell if you were robbed if you didn't know how much money you had in your wallet to begin with? And fifteen thousand new species are described every year. By the way, do you know what the known rate of species extinction is?"
"No."
"That's because there is no known rate. Do you know how they measure numbers of species and species extinctions? Some poor bastard marks off a hectare or an acre of land and then tries to count all the bugs and animals and plants inside it. Then he comes back in ten years and counts again. But maybe the bugs have moved to an adjacent acre in the meantime. Anyway, can you imagine trying to count all the bugs in an acre of land?"
"It would be difficult."
"To put it mildly. And very inaccurate," Kenner said, "which is the point. Now, about all the glaciers melting--not true. Some are, some aren't."*
"Nearly all of them are."
Kenner smiled thinly. "How many glaciers are we talking about?"
"Dozens."
"How many glaciers are there in the world, Ted?"
"I don't know."
"Guess."