The carbon life cycle wars continue with the formal publication of another paper debunking the work of Professors Howarth and Ingrafea. This time the stinging rebuke comes from a colleague at Cornell University.
"Replacing coal with natural gas cuts the creation of greenhouse gases that cause global warming, a Cornell University researcher has concluded, rebutting the findings of colleagues at the university" reports Business Week about Cornell Professor Cathles' paper. www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-10/cornell-researcher-rebuts-colleagues-on-fracking-leaks.
The paper was published in the journal Geochemsitry, Geophysics, Geosystems. Cathles is a professor in the Cornell Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Other researchers, including from Carnegie Mellon University and Worldwatch Institute, have published studies that reach conclusions similar to Professor Cathles, finding that gas emits about 50% less heat trapping pollution than coal, when both are compared on a full life cycle analysis.
Reducing methane leakage by better operations and by implementing the April, 2012 final EPA rule on air emissions remains an important task. Yet, the reductions in carbon emissions achieved to date, as gas displaces coal and oil, is stunning.
America's 2011 energy-related carbon emissions fell to 1996 levels and 2012 emissions could decline to 1990 levels or slightly more. The biggest driver of these large, quick carbon reductions is the growing use of gas to make electricity.
You wrote:
ReplyDelete"Other researchers, including from Carnegie Mellon University and Worldwatch Institute, have published studies that reach conclusions similar to Professor Cathles, finding that gas emits about 50% less heat trapping pollution than coal, when both are compared on a full life cycle analysis."
Why do you keep paying lip service to the lie that CO2 is a pollutant?
It's not, and unless we stand up and object every time these blatant canards are repeated, we're never going to prevail in this battle. When we do object, we should also never forget to mention the fact that WARMING is nothing to fear. Only extreme cooling poses a threat to man.
F. Swemson
F.S. // You could take that up with ranchers and farmers in our west and midwest.
DeleteTell them - 'Don't worry 'bout a little heat, CO2 fertilization will more than make up for that.' Or the ever popular - 'We can always adapt, up in Manitoba.'
Occasional droughts and heat waves are normal incidents of weather... We're not talking about weather here... we're talking about climate. They're 2 entirely different things.
DeleteIncreasing levels of CO2 are caused by rising temperatures, not vice-versa.
From the SPPI blog: Over the last 150 years CO2 (or its equivalents) has doubled. This has been accompanied by a rise in temperature of seven or eight tenths of a degree centigrade.
(Professor) Lindzen (of MIT) says: “Claims that the earth has been warming, that there is a Greenhouse Effect, and that man’s activity have contributed to warming are trivially true but essentially meaningless.”
Viewed in the long term, which is the only way to look at climate change, the earth is currently still in a cool period. During the earth's coldest periods, the major ice ages, temperatures were only 3 to 4°C cooler than they are now. During earth's warmest periods however, temperatures were as much as 12 to 14°C higher than they are now. All life forms flourish during the warm periods... It's no accident that the height of the Minoan and Roman civilizations coincided with peaks in earths warm periods (interglacials).
Man made climate change is at best a monumental scientific error, and more likely a deliberate hoax. Alarmists over the last several years have been screaming about the danger of our CO2 levels rising above 350ppm, yet the CO2 levels in a typical crowded nightclub, or in a submarine, run from 6,000 to 8,000 ppm. Saying that our current level of roughly 390ppm is dangerously high is simply nonsense. The more we have the better off we are.
fs
Even Lindzen who is almost alone among scientists with elite credentials that disagrees with what you call likely a hoax agrees increasing carbon traps heat and has raised temperatures. He also concedes his extreme minority view might be wrong. He says we will know in 40 years . He goes on to say that if he is wrong that it will not be too late to avoid immense damage. The overwhelming majority of scientists say he is wrong and the to run the risks Lindzen accepts is irresponsible.
DeleteIs F.S. really suggesting that we can let CO2 levels rise towards those in a night club or submarine?
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