The latest data on emissions of carbon dioxide show that the U.S. has reduced our emissions by nearly 20% over the past decade or so.
Most HOTLINE readers are smart enough to know this has nothing to do with windmills or solar panels.
The real contribution to reduced emissions has been the explosive growth of cheap and abundant natural gas. We’re not overly concerned with CO2 – but those who are should be singing the praises of natural gas.
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Via Rational Optimist Society:
Dan Steinhart: Try asking a random adult: Do you think US carbon emissions are up, down, or about the same in the last 20 years? As an ROS member, you know the answer: down 20%, thanks mostly to cheap natural gas from fracking.
Seems important! Yet most people have no clue… giving cover for states like New York to keep its inexplicable ban on fracking.
Note this does not mean global warming isn’t real. The Antarctic ice sheet lost 142 gigatons a year from 2011 to 2020. The recent rebound recoups less than 2 ½ years’ worth of losses. The researchers attribute the rebound to unusual increases in precipitation, which probably won’t persist.
But it’s important to rationally consider all evidence, especially when evaluating doomsday predictions, which have always been wrong.
