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The virtual archive reunites what remains at the monastery with parts in England, Germany, and Russia. Each page appears in high definition along with a catalog of details. This lets scholars easily study features such as additions and corrections made until the 12th century, when the text was deemed outdated. Says the British Library’s Juan Garcés, who’s leading the four-year digitization effort, “It was alive for a long time.” And now it lives again. —A. R. Williams
Photo by British Library
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Comments
Dec 8, 2009 5PM #
The Carbon Bathtub is a Big Idea, very suggestive. Congratulations for the idea.
But, as it is, it is misleading.The 9.1 billion metric tons are the anthropogenic emissions and do not include the natural emissions. On the other hand, the 5 billion metric tons of the sink are the total outlet. Quite obviously, if the man made emissions were 0, there would remain the natural emissions, and after a while, the world woule return to the pre-industrial equilibrium (c. 280 ppm CO2).
Your explanation of the time constant is correct, the bathtub image is not. It would be correct if you added the natural emissions:if you stop all man made emissions, you still have, say, 3 billion tons of natural emissions, a sink which will progressively tend towards 3 billion tons, and hence a slow drain of the bathtub.
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