Millie Microbe and her billions of relatives live a quiet life in rural Iowa County happily “fixing” nitrogen for their plant partners.  (To “fix” nitrogen Millie combines nitrogen with another element like hydrogen or oxygen so that it’s useable as fertilizer for plants.)

        Millie is grateful for the good life she has but a twinge of jealously occasionally nags at the back of her mind.  It’s her cousins, the Rhizobias.  You see, Rhizobia bacteria live in the root nodules of legumes like beans, alfalfa and clover.  Farmers are always bragging about how those bacteria help fertilize their soil.  Millie’s family works hard too, but they never get any recognition. 

       Then one day a surprising letter arrived.  It was from the Secretary of Bacteriological Research at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.  The secretary indicated that she had an important assignment for Millie’s family, and she’d be calling the next day!

       “Yes Millie, this is Secretary Ima Germm from the USDA.  So good of you to take my call.”  Secretary Germm went on to explain that the earth was suffering from an overload of factory-made nitrogen fertilizer.  Excess fertilizer washes off fields into water systems causing algal blooms that suck the oxygen out of the water.  The result is more than 400 so-called “dead zones” around the world.  It’s estimated that over 200,000 tons of sea life die each year at the mouth of the Mississippi River.  Not only that, it takes huge amounts of energy to manufacture the world supply of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.  It’s more than all the wind and solar energy produced worldwide last year!  “We just can’t keep doing this,” Germm fretted. “That’s where you come in.

       “Humans have figured out that you and hundreds of other kinds of microbes live inside LOTS of different plants and fix nitrogen for them.  You consume a plant’s sugars and in return, produce nitrogen fertilizer that’s available exactly when and where each plant needs it.   Soon you’ll be commercially available.  And then, no more excess fertilizer run-off.  Huge energy savings too!  We knew that sooner or later they’d learn to value your work,” Germm winked.

       “When the humans work out the details, we’re happy to be of service,” Millie smiled.  “Anyway, who wants a bunch of dead zones on the only home we’ll ever know?  After all, we’re here forever…Earthbound.”

       “Betty!  It’s been ages!” Cecilia Seedmuncher gushed. “So glad we could do lunch.  But you look so thin!  Everything all right?”
       “Well,” Betty Buggobbler hesitated and then replied, “it’s nothing.”

       Cecilia and Betty chatted about old times as they flitted from branch to branch.  Eventually they settled in the fronds of a coconut palm. “I declare,” seed-munching Cecilia said stifling a burp, “I couldn’t eat another bite!”  But Betty hungrily continued to scan for some flying or crawling morsel as they spied a couple of humans making their way through the undergrowth.

       Ray Searcher was explaining the survey his team had recently concluded here in Puerto Rico’s El Yunque national rain forest reserve.  Juan T’Know, a sixth generation Puerto Rican, listened intently.

       Ray related how his team had been in this same area in 1977 surveying the quantity and variety of invertebrates living there including the insects, spiders and centipedes.  They had also inventoried the number of insectivores (insect eaters) - the birds, frogs and lizards.  Now, 40 years later, they returned and conducted the same type of survey in the same place.

       The results were shocking!  They found only 1/4th as many creatures creeping through the vegetation as compared to 40 years earlier.  And the loss of ground crawling creatures was far greater still.  In area after area where they’d previously found several thousands, they now found only a few hundred critters.

       “No wonder you’re so thin,” Cecilia cried.  “Poor thing! There’s nothing here for you to eat!”  They continued to listen as Ray explained that temperatures in the tropics stick to a relatively narrow band, but over those 40 years the average high temperature had increased by 4 degrees Fahrenheit. The invertebrate critters that live there, likewise, have adapted to this narrow band of temperatures and don’t do well outside them.  Bugs can’t regulate their internal heat.

       “Besides pollinating our food supplies, these little guys form the very base of our food web.  When they decline, so do all of the creatures who rely on them,” Ray continued as he looked up pointing to Betty, “including buggobblers like that one.”

       As Betty flew off looking for a bit more lunch, she hoped that Ray and Juan would find a way to restore this jungle to the vibrant home she had grown up in.  Because where else would she fly?  She’s here forever…Earthbound.  

       The Friday night card game attracted a handful of the usual suspects.  Japan was there and Brazil, India, China, and even Saudi Arabia.  And of course, with the tallest stack of chips and the world’s largest economy, America sat in the corner.

       The betting and negotiations had been hot and heavy.  Each country maneuvering to grow its stack of chips, all the while aware that at some point the “house” would be looking to take its cut of their profits.  You see, in this game countries wager that the extra profits they can squeeze out of their economies by not paying for the damage carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions cause, will be greater than the price they’ll pay for the “social costs of carbon.”

       The social costs of carbon are the expenses incurred from rising global temperatures including higher health and energy costs and damage to property and agriculture.  It’s a complicated calculation that puts a price on the future damages resulting from fossil fuel emissions.  These future social costs of carbon are calculated in today's dollars.

       “All right boys!”  It was Ma Earth, proprietor of the establishment. “Time for the house to take its cut.”  She looked around the room until her gaze fell on India.  “Sorry Indie, but the latest reports show that you’re really going to get whacked.  I’ve gotta charge you $86 per ton for the carbon you add to the atmosphere if you want to stay in the game.  Sorry, but these rising temperatures are going to hit you hard!”

       Then she turned, “And don’t look so smug, America.  You’re next!”  Ma Earth explained that for America to avoid the added future costs caused by today’s fossil fuel carbon emissions, the U.S. should be investing $48 per ton of carbon it expels into the atmosphere to increase its energy efficiencies and for transitioning to clean energy.  (For example, burning 100 gallons of gasoline produces about one ton of CO2.)  Ma Earth held out her hand.  “Pay now and save yourself a bundle of trouble, or pay later and suffer the consequences.”
 
       Shrewd gambler that she is, America weighed Ma Earth’s ultimatum.  In the end, it wasn’t a tough decision.  Investing now in a cleaner, healthier future is a gamble well worth taking.  Because Ma Earth runs the only card game in town.  There’s no place else to play.  We’re here forever…Earthbound.