Real-Time Carbon Counter Is 70-Foot-Tall Vision of Climate Doom

Curious how much carbon the atmosphere contains at this moment? Look no further than a giant "carbon counter" first switched on yesterday morning near New York City's Pennsylvania Station. The 70-foot-tall screen, lit by digital low-energy LED, displays in real time the amount of greenhouse gases present in the atmosphere--and therefore gives some indication of how much trouble humanity is facing from global warming. People outside of New York, don't despair: The constantly scrolling numbers can be viewed at the project's Web site as well. The numbers shown are based on measurements developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and include all the long-lasting greenhouse gases in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which was established at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change