This story was originally published by Mother Jones and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

The US government is a big-time hoarder. At last count, in three locations — Denver, Fort Knox, and West Point— it had socked away 248,046,115.696 troy ounces of gold. One might think to round that to the nearest ounce, but at today’s prices, that extra 0.304 ounces of gold would fetch about $1,060, and the entire hoard is worth more than $865 billion. Except it isn’t, because this gold is not for sale.

Sequestration has rendered it priceless.

Why do we keep it? Good question. President Richard Nixon ended the Gold Standard more than a half-century ago — that is, the practice of using gold reserves to backstop the dollar. For 54 years now, the value of our currency has been based on faith — that the United States, like the Lannisters, always pays its debts. There’s not much practical sense in keeping all this treasure around, though. It’s a symbolic, quasi-religious thing. “I think it’s because gold has been an index of power for thousands of years,” says Gustav Peebles, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Stockholm in Sweden. “I think of it as a sacred hoard.”

Peebles, who is American, has been thinking about this a lot. Because, if people can unearth vast amounts of a “profane” commodity such as gold, build an economy around it, and then take most of that gold out of circulation and into the realm of the sacred, why couldn’t we do the same thing with other profane commodities — like excess atmospheric carbon? Why couldn’t we collect it, bank it, and then stow it away, harmless?

We’ve tried other tactics. The world’s wealthiest 10 percent are responsible for two-thirds of global carbon emissions, but the comfort class hasn’t shown much willingness to change its behavior. Nor have governments done enough — the Trump administration is now taking us backward — and industrial polluters aren’t about to do the right thing. Tech solutions like direct air capture are pricey and problematic, as this magazine has reported. But if we could convince the masses that waste carbon dioxide is sacred and worth hoarding — like gold — one of our most existential problems might solve itself.

Please don’t scoff. We all have questions. But Peebles is serious. An expert in the history of monetary systems, among other things, he has teamed up with the........

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