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They are everywhere. We can’t see them, but little by little they are destroying our way of life. But for the first time ever, they are being caught red-handed. They are greenhouse gases. And today Deutsche Bank unveiled the world’s first real-time carbon counter to measure these microscopic murderers.

Deutsche Bank’s 70-foot-tall digital billboard was unveiled today at 33rd Street and 7th Avenue in the heart of New York City. It stands right outside Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, displaying the running total of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Kevin Parker, Global Head of Deutsche Bank’s Asset Management division (DeAM) and a member of Deutsche Bank’s Group Executive Committee, switched on the counter at a ceremony this morning.

The belief that information acts as a catalyst for action plays the muse for the Carbon Counter’s creation. The number displayed on the scientifically-valid Counter is based on measurements that come from scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The measurements track all long-lived greenhouse gases covered under the Kyoto and Montreal Protocols (24 gases excluding ozone and aerosols).

“It will be a huge task to bring global emissions under control and my hope is that putting this data in the public view will spur both governments and markets to move us more quickly to a low-carbon economy,” said Parker.

“The Carbon Counter is a bold new experiment in communicating climate science to the public,” said Ronald Prinn, Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT. “With climate change in the news around the world, it is useful to have an up-to-date estimate of a single integrating number expressing the trends in the long-lived greenhouse gases contributing to that change. This number can help convey how fast these greenhouse gases are increasing, and the progress, or lack thereof, in slowing the rate of increase. The number on the Counter is based on global measurements. It shows the total estimated tonnage of these gases expressed as their equivalent amounts of carbon dioxide, with seasonal and other natural cyclical variations removed to more clearly reveal the underlying long term trends driven by human and other activity. It is indeed a number to watch.”

With carbon in the atmosphere reaching an 800,000 year high, it is indeed a number to watch. The number on the counter shows that the current quantity of long-lived greenhouse gases is 3.64 trillion metric tons. And that number is increasing by approximately 2 billion metric tons per month, a frightening amount.

“The science shows that unless this trend is addressed now there is a growing likelihood of increased warming and more severe disruptions for economies and societies,” said Parker. Scientists tend to agree with Parker. Scientists predict that if this trend continues there is an increasing probability of macro-climatic shifts that will create a self-sustaining cycle of rapid climate change.

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The process of tracking current carbon levels relies on regular measurement of long-lived greenhouse gas concentration data from equipment operated in dozens of locations around the world by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA’s Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment. The total is re-calibrated every month as new data is brought in.

Because the goal of the Counter is to raise awareness and decrease carbon emissions, the Counter is carbon neutral. It uses low-risk carbon credits (CERs) to offset its energy use while the digital numbers are generated by 40,960 low-energy light emitting diodes (LEDs). It is possible track the number 24/7 at know-the-number.com and to receive Carbon Counter updates via twitter. A widget is also available for download.

In 2008 Deutsche Bank set a target to reduce its global carbon emissions by 20 percent annually and is committed to being carbon-neutral from 2013 onward.

Photo by Brandon Barrett, courtesy of Deutsche Bank

There is an urgent need to bring down the rising carbon emissions and switch over from the dirty fossil fuels to clean alternative energy sources. Leaders of the developed and developing nations completely agree over this plan of action but, sadly, the agreement between the two ends there. Both parties agree that they have got to act quickly but none is willing to take the initiative on the economic front of the fight against climate change.

Under the Kyoto Protocol the onus of controlling and bringing down the carbon emissions was on the developed nations with the help of tools like the national carbon registry and the emission permits whereas the developing nations were not obligated to any emission cuts. Now that the talks for a new climate treaty have started to gain momentum the developed nations want the developing countries to reduce their carbon emissions under that treaty. And although the developing countries recognize their responsibility in the fight against climate change they are unwilling to bear the full economic burden of the same.

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Remember CFCs? They had the power to flavour teenage armpits and work wonders on refrigeration.

There’s two things I remember from when I was growing up. Well, not two things literally. That would suggest a woebegone adolescence. No, two things of environmental importance.

At 15, Chernobyl. A complete nuclear meltdown causing Europeans to duck for cover to avoid the prevailing winds.

Yeah, so plants are safer now, aren’t they? Well, look, personally, when you play with atoms, I still think of Hiroshima and Chernobyl, once smiling communities now nothing but cancerous shells of their former selves. Higher safety standards lead to greater complacency. No-one reading this can guarantee that another nuclear disaster won’t happen, so please, let’s leave that one alone. I’ve heard it all before.

(I don’t like things that glow in the dark really. I have innate misgivings.)

And as well as Chernobyl, we had an enormous hole in the ozone layer recognised for the first time.

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