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Clean Gas–Not

January 12, 2016

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And here’s the kind of future from which we need to save ourselves. Clean gas–that is, 330,000 car-years worth of greenhouse emissions. Leaking since October.  Say what–October? 2,000 residents displaced? Where has this news been?

And there are 400 similar facilities around the country. Meanwhile, the fracking is starting earthquakes, but the drillers refuse to follow regulations.

The problem with “natural gas” is that it’s a gas; it seeps through the smallest crack. Even a functioning well loses large quantities; no one really knows how much.  Left in the earth, to seep slowly, the methane largely gets oxidized for food by methanotrophs–bacteria that breathe oxygen to convert the methane to CO2. But the large-scale release by human technology, like the BP oil spill, are unprecedented. Time to look for geothermal heating and solar planes.

 

2 Comments
  1. Robert van der Heide permalink
    January 12, 2016 10:02 pm

    I’d like to see fossil fuels held to the same safety standards as nuclear power.

    • January 17, 2016 8:15 pm

      Fair enough, but all of them–solar, nuclear, hydrocarbon–need to be held to a longer term standard. That’s the real problem, we’re not yet ready to admit that Earth is a bedroom planet. You wouldn’t run a home generator in the bedroom. No matter what the source, it’s got to be outside.

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