In recent years, as the natural gas boom has led to the fuel playing an increasing role in the U.S. energy mix, a debate has been raging over its climate benefits.
A number of studies measuring emissions of methane, a key component of natural gas with 30 times the warming potential of CO2, have measured significant leakages of the gas.
If such leaks are common, the climate benefits of burning natural gas rather than coal diminish.
"Methane is a potent greenhouse gas," said Adam Brandt, a Stanford University professor who studies methane leaks. "So relatively small leaks can have a significant impact on the overall greenhouse gas intensity of using natural gas."
EPA Has Underestimated Methane Emissions, Including Those from Gas Leaks -- Study
An international team of scientists says that by the end of the century one probable consequence of climate change will be a change in patterns of vegetation over much of the planet’s land surface.
Half of Plants May Move in Warmer World
Senate Democrats recently joined a longstanding liberal coalition of media critics to demand that major news networks up their coverage of climate change.
This is not what they had in mind.
Sunday's episode of NBC's "Meet the Press" featured a "climate change debate" between celebrity science educator Bill Nye ("the science guy") and Tennessee Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn.
For the political coalition—and, indeed, for the overwhelming majority of climate scientists— the connection between human greenhouse gas emissions and climate change is settled science, and they were hoping the networks would cover the impacts of that change. But Blackburn has disputed the scientific consensus on human-induced global warming, and the segment's critics fear the episode will feature a he-said-she-said vibe that's at odds with the science.
"Next week's debate: Do cigarettes cause cancer? An oncologist debates a tobacco executive!," writes environmentalist Miles Grant on his blog.
Democrat, Greens Fume over NBC’s Global Warming ‘Debate’
The founder of $100 billion funds manager GMO Capital is known as a contrarian. But he suggests that the pace of change in the fuel supply will surprise everyone, and have huge implications for fossil fuel investments.
“I have become increasingly impressed with the potential for a revolution in energy, which will make it extremely unlikely that a lack of energy will be the issue that brings us to our knees,” Grantham writes in his latest quarterly newsletter.
“Even in the expected event that there are no important breakthroughs in the cost of nuclear power, the potential for alternative energy sources, mainly solar and wind power, to completely replace coal and gas for utility generation globally is, I think, certain.
“The question is only whether it takes 30 years or 70 years. That we will replace oil for land transportation with electricity or fuel cells derived indirectly from electricity is also certain, and there, perhaps, the timing question is whether this will take 20 or 40 years.”
Grantham’s predictions go against the conventional wisdom of the fossil fuel industry, but they the thoughts of many people, including Stanford researcher Tony Seba, who said last year this could occur within a few decades.
Jeremy Grantham: Wind, Solar to Replace Fossil Fuels Within Decades
Unfortunately, as W. Chris King told members of the Kansas Farmers Union during their annual convention in Topeka on Jan. 4, there is no historical precedence for what the nation and the world face in the future from the combined forces of climate change, overpopulation and resource depletion.
“We have nothing on which to base projections,” he said. “We have to assume climate change is going to make everything worse. And there’s no easy, immediate fix. It’s a really, really hard problem.”
King, chief academic officer for the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College, said that while the idea of climate change seems addressed to our times, it was already being discussed back in the 1970s and 1980s. The problem was, nobody was listening, least of all the U.S. military. Nor did the military consider them worthy of study.
Assume the Worst When It Comes to Climate Change and Population
President Barack Obama drew a link between climate change and California's drought, and said the U.S. must do a better job of figuring out how to make sure everyone's water needs are satisfied.
On a tour of central California on Friday, Obama warned that weather-related disasters will only get worse.
Obama: Figure Out How to Satisfy US Water Needs
.jpg "Major TV networks cover climate change and extreme weather on Sunday morning. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) Click to enlarge.")
