But Robert Howarth, an environmental biology professor at Cornell University, estimates that methane emissions produced by shale gas from wellhead to delivery could add up to a 12-percent leak rate — causing substantially more warming in the short term than coal. Howarth sees the rapid rise in gas development as a contributor to the recent spike in global temperatures, including record-breaking heat waves in 2015 and 2016. “The buildout of pipelines,” he said, “is a true climate disaster.”
Climate Urgency
Jump to a Subcategory
All News Categories
Record 4-year Global Heating Continues As Whistleblower Complaint Leads to Inquiry into Underreporting of Methane Emissions — Note to Editors from NC WARN
The EPA’s inspector general’s office announced Wednesday that it will evaluate EPA methane emissions estimates for the oil and gas sector to determine “whether concerns about technical or other problems with [the Allen studies of 2013 and 2014] were … addressed or resolved” by the EPA. Those problems were the subject of a June 2016 complaint filed by NC WARN. See report on Inspector General’s announcement in Inside Climate News.
Focus should be on methane emissions — Letter to the Editor of the Charlotte Observer
By Ron Bryant. I appreciate the Observer’s reporting on the climate treaty but want to add some important facts from Cornell University’s Methane Project. Natural gas is not a “cleaner” option to coal, as methane, including that leaked/vented from natural gas operations, is 100 times worse than CO2.
Please Tell the People: Global Heat Wave Continues in 2017; Methane from Fracking is Major Cause – The Greensboro Times
This ongoing heat wave supports the case made by Cornell scientists and others who argue that methane emissions from the US fracking boom
are a key factor in the unexpected rate of heating since 2014. That fracking boom is being driven by Duke Energy and other utilities burning more and
more shale gas.
Please Tell the People: Global Heat Wave Continues in 2017; Methane from Fracking is Major Cause – Note to News Editors from NC WARN
The nation’s largest carbon-polluting utility is trying to build up to 20 fracked gas-fired power plants in the Carolinas alone, plus the $5.6 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline to supply those plants with fracked gas. Thus Duke Energy is responsible for much of the methane emissions that are now driving the climate crisis.
New Initiative Targets 2020 in Race to Tackle Dangerous Climate Change — United Nations Climate Change
London, April 10, 2017: A group of leading climate and business experts today identified the year 2020 as a game changing opportunity to turn the tide on the devastating impacts of carbon emissions. Convened by Christiana Figueres – former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – the group met today in London to encourage urgent action in the next three years.
The Single Shining Hope to Stop Climate Change — Time Magazine
A unique opportunity to slow the climate crisis — The Fayetteville Observer
Op-Ed by Jim Warren. The asteroid cluster has been hurtling toward Earth for decades, monitored warily by scientists. Early debris is already harming millions of people and the impacts are accelerating. Engineers know how to steer the cluster away from direct impact. But the most government is barely willing to discuss the challenge…
Asteroids, Climate Chaos and Fracking — CounterPunch
Ending fracking’s methane releases is crucial to averting a climate crisis — News & Observer
Op-Ed by Jim Warren. The fracking boom of recent years – which poisons air and water in thousands of communities and causes earthquakes – has also accelerated the climate crisis at the worst possible time. The good news is that scientists say reducing methane emissions can slow warming in the crucial short term, buying more time to replace fossil fuels with renewables and slowing deforestation.