Famed Environmentalist Embraces Gas & Says UK Should Be Going Mad For Fracking

Perhaps, you have to be 92 years old and a famed environmental scientific guru living in the UK to say good environmental stewardship requires using gas aggressively right now. James Lovelock, the father of Gaia theory, minces few words in, "James Lovelock on shale gas and the problems with greens." See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/jun/15/james-lovelock-fracking-greens-climate.

Lovelock says the "UK should be going mad for fracking" and explains why he is "cross" with greens for attacking shale gas:

"Gas is almost a give-away in the US at the moment. They've gone for fracking in a big way.  This is what makes me very cross with the greens for trying to knock it: the amount of co2 produced by burning gas in a good turbine gives you 60% efficiency.  In a coal-fired power station, it is 30% per unit of fuel.  So you get a two-to-one there straight away.  The next two-to-one-gain you get is that methane has only got half its energy in the carbon, the other half is in the hydrogen, so there's a four-to-one gain in co2 output from the same amount of electricity by burning methane.  Let's be pragmatic and sensible and get Britain to switch everything to methane. We should be going mad on it..."

The foregoing explains why the USA has led the world in reducing carbon emissions since 2006. The whole interview is well-worth reading and will surely make uncomfortable everyone who reads it.