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2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Where does Hillary stand on fracking these days [View all]athena
(4,187 posts)94. The problems with fracking were not known until recently.
When Clinton supported fracking, it was believed to be a way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. It was not known that methane, a worse gas, escapes from the earth during fracking.
Would you be happier with a politician who did not change her opinion as new facts came to light?
Reference:
https://www.thenation.com/article/global-warming-terrifying-new-chemistry/
To the extent our leaders have cared about climate change, theyve fixed on CO2. Partly as a result, coal-fired power plants have begun to close across the country. Theyve been replaced mostly with ones that burn natural gas, which is primarily composed of methane. Because burning natural gas releases significantly less carbon dioxide than burning coal, CO2 emissions have begun to trend slowly downward, allowing politicians to take a bow. But this new Harvard data, which comes on the heels of other aerial surveys showing big methane leakage, suggests that our new natural-gas infrastructure has been bleeding methane into the atmosphere in record quantities. And molecule for molecule, this unburned methane is much, much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.
The EPA insisted this wasnt happening, that methane was on the decline just like CO2. But it turns out, as some scientists have been insisting for years, the EPA was wrong. Really wrong. This error is the rough equivalent of the New York Stock Exchange announcing tomorrow that the Dow Jones isnt really at 17,000: Its computer program has been making a mistake, and your index fund actually stands at 11,000.
These leaks are big enough to wipe out a large share of the gains from the Obama administrations work on climate changeall those closed coal mines and fuel-efficient cars. In fact, its even possible that Americas contribution to global warming increased during the Obama years. The methane story is utterly at odds with what weve been telling ourselves, not to mention what weve been telling the rest of the planet. It undercuts the promises we made at the climate talks in Paris. Its a disasterand one that seems set to spread.
The EPA insisted this wasnt happening, that methane was on the decline just like CO2. But it turns out, as some scientists have been insisting for years, the EPA was wrong. Really wrong. This error is the rough equivalent of the New York Stock Exchange announcing tomorrow that the Dow Jones isnt really at 17,000: Its computer program has been making a mistake, and your index fund actually stands at 11,000.
These leaks are big enough to wipe out a large share of the gains from the Obama administrations work on climate changeall those closed coal mines and fuel-efficient cars. In fact, its even possible that Americas contribution to global warming increased during the Obama years. The methane story is utterly at odds with what weve been telling ourselves, not to mention what weve been telling the rest of the planet. It undercuts the promises we made at the climate talks in Paris. Its a disasterand one that seems set to spread.
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May I please ask how your post fulfills the mission Skinner has established for our board?
DemocratSinceBirth
Jun 2016
#60
Raising the cap or better yet removing the cap is a solution. It will definitely require Congress
still_one
Jun 2016
#9
The Party Platform is like Miss Congeniality. it will get written, looked at, then tucked away
leftofcool
Jun 2016
#15
I expect it to be similar to 2008 although I think Obama will announce for Hillary
leftofcool
Jun 2016
#19
sure.. because there's ZERO similarity between '08 and this cycle...
HumanityExperiment
Jun 2016
#20
May I please ask how your post fulfills the mission Skinner has established for our board?
DemocratSinceBirth
Jun 2016
#37
I don't think the issues that caused a significant share of people to vote for Bernie.....
Armstead
Jun 2016
#69
hoping isnt a part of this. There is no doubt both conventions have an insurgency
swhisper1
Jun 2016
#77
I am glad you have come to my way of thinking that we need a united convention.
DemocratSinceBirth
Jun 2016
#93
I was involved in writing the platform for the CT State Convention in 2010....
George II
Jun 2016
#28
“A Democratic platform that is not robust in aggressively addressing climate change ends up being,
TwilightZone
Jun 2016
#46
"I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place..."
LanternWaste
Jun 2016
#45