現在經過紐約市川流不息的第33街與第七大道路口，就在麥迪遜廣場花園和賓州車站之外，可以看到一個偌大的新電子廣告看板，上頭記錄著大氣中的溫室氣體濃度。
這幅21公尺高的碳計數器看板，顯示著任一時間内二氧化碳等溫室氣體的總量。目的為教育和提高人們對氣候變化的認知。活動是由德意志銀行氣候變化顧問組贊助。
銀行的全球資產管理部負責人派克（Kevin Parker）和一名該行的集團執行委員會成員，於6月19日冒雨舉行的儀式中，打開世界上第一個科學並可即時顯示的碳計數器開關。
派克表示，「大氣中的碳量已達到80萬年來最高。 我們看不見溫室氣體，所以很容易忽略大氣中的碳在迅速積累。」
計數器上的數字，是根據麻省理工學院的科學家發明的碳測量方法。其中涵蓋了所有在京都和蒙特婁議定書内界定，臭氧和氣溶膠除外，共計24種不易散去、長期存留於空氣中的溫室氣體。
目前在碳計數器上，大氣中長期存留于空氣中溫室氣體數量的讀數為3.64兆噸，每月增長約20億噸左右。
隨著科學家共識的演變，若目前這種趨勢持續下去，接二連三大範圍氣候變化轉換，形成一個個獨立快速氣候變化的週期概率就越來越高。
此外，溫室氣體的追蹤是採用「政府間氣候變遷小組」（IPCC）2007年的第四次評估報告作為出發點。由麻省理工學院大氣科學系教授普霖（Prinn）操作散佈于世界各地幾十處，分屬於美國「國家海洋暨大氣總署」與美國宇航局的「全球先進大氣層氣體實驗」（AGAGE）網絡的設備所取得。
碳計數器的即時顯示，是根據最新的測量數據來推算當前的數值。同時預測值會隨著每個月接收到的數據重新進行校正。
碳計數器本身為碳平衡－－以低風險的碳信用額度抵消其能源使用。而電子數字是使用40,960個低耗能的LED燈來顯示的。
其數據也提供24小時網路查詢服務，網址為http://www.know-the-number.com，讀者也可用twiiter即時追蹤 http://twitter.com/knowthenumber。
Crowds moving past the corner of 33rd Street and 7th Avenue outside Madison Square Garden and Penn Station in New York City can now keep track of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations on a new giant digital billboard.
The 70-foot-tall carbon counter keeps a running total of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases as part of a climate change awareness and education initiative sponsored by Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors group.
Kevin Parker, global head of Deutsche Bank's Asset Management Division and a member of Deutsche Bank's Group Executive Committee, flipped the switch on the world's first scientifically valid, real-time carbon counter at a rainy ceremony Thursday morning.
"Carbon in the atmosphere has reached an 800,000-year high," said Parker. "We can't see greenhouse gases, so it is easy to forget that they are accumulating rapidly."
The numbers on the Carbon Counter are based on measurements developed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that include all long-lived greenhouse gases covered under the Kyoto and Montreal Protocols - a total of 24 gases, excluding ozone and aerosols.
The current quantity of long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as shown by the Carbon Counter is 3.64 trillion metric tons, increasing by approximately two billion metric tons per month.
According to an evolving consensus of scientists, as this trend continues there is an increasing probability that a series of macro-climatic shifts will set up a self-sustaining cycle of rapid climate change.
Using work from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 Fourth Assessment Report as a starting point, greenhouse gases are tracked by equipment operated in dozens of locations around the world by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA's Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment, run by Ronald Prinn, professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT.
The carbon counter's real-time display is a running projection of the current quantities based on the latest measurements available. The projection is recalibrated every month as new data are received.
The Carbon Counter sign is carbon-neutral. Low-risk carbon credits are in place to offset its energy use, while the digital numbers are displayed by 40,960 low-energy light emitting diodes, LEDs.
The Carbon Counter Number is available 24 hours a day at http://www.know-the-number.com/ and updates will be available at http://twitter.com/knowthenumber.
作者
In my healing journey and learning to attain the breath awareness, I become aware of the reality that all the creatures of the world are breathing the same breath. Take action, here and now. From my physical being to the every corner of this out of balance's planet.
