Is shale gas good for climate change?

Daedalus

Volumn 141, Issue 2, 2012, Pages 72-80

  Schrag, Daniel P ^a  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84859311561     PISSN: 00115266     EISSN: 15486192     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1162/DAED_a_00147     Document Type: Article

References (22)

1. For a good review of the environmental issues surrounding shale gas
2. The Future of Natural Gas: An Interdisciplinary MIT Study (Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011).
3. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, "Shale Gas Production Subcommittee Second Ninety Day Report," November 18, 2011, http://www.shalegas.energy.gov/resources/111811_final_report.pdf.
4. Robert W. Howarth, Renee Santoro, and Anthony Ingraffea, "Methane and the Greenhouse- Gas Imprint of Natural Gas from Shale Formations," Climatic Change 106 (4) (2011).
5. Robert W. Howarth, Renee Santoro, and Anthony Ingraffea, "Methane and the Greenhouse- Gas Imprint of Natural Gas from Shale Formations," Climatic Change 106 (4) (2011).
6. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, First Assessment Report (Geneva, Switzerland: un Environment Program me and World Meteorological Organization, 1990).
7. Keith P. Shine, "The Global Warming Potential-The Need for an Interdisciplinary Retrial," Climatic Change 96 (4) (2009): 467-472.
8. Drew T. Shindell, Greg Faluvegi, Dorothy M. Koch, Gavin A. Schmidt, Nadine Unger, and Susanne E. Bauer, "Improved Attribution of Climate Forcing to Emissions," Science 326 (5953) (October 30, 2009): 716-718.
9. Tom M.L. Wigley, "Coal to Gas: The Influence of Methane Leakage," Climatic Change 108 (2011): 601-608.
10. Keith P. Shine, Jan S. Fuglestvedt, Nicola Stuber, and Kinfe Hailemariam, "Alternatives to the Global Warming Potential for Comparing Climate Impacts of Emissions of Greenhouse Gases," Climatic Change 68 (3) (2005): 281-302;
11. Jan S. Fuglestvedt, Keith P. Shine, Jolene Cook, Terje Berntsen, David Lee, Andrea Stenke, Ragnhild Bieltvedt Skeie, Guus Velders, and Ian Waitz, "Transport Impacts on Atmosphere and Climate: Metrics," Atmospheric Environment 44 (2010).
12. Andy Reisinger, Malte Meinshausen, Martin Manning, and Greg Bodeker, "Uncertainties of Global Warming Metrics: CO2 and CH4," Geophysical Research Letters 37 (14707) (2010).
13. How arth et al., "Methane and the Greenhouse-Gas Imprint of Natural Gas from Shale Formations."
14. Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone (Geneva, Switzerland: un Environment Program me and World Meteorological Organization, February 2011).
15. Myles R. Allen, David J. Frame, Chris Huntingford, Chris D. Jones, Jason A. Lowe, Malte Meinshausen, and Nicolai Meinshausen, "Warming Caused by Cumulative Carbon Emissions towards the Trillionth Tonne," Nature 458 (7242) (2009): 1163-1166.
16. Myles R. Allen, David J. Frame, Chris Huntingford, Chris D. Jones, Jason A. Lowe, Malte Meinshausen, and Nicolai Meinshausen, "Warming Caused by Cumulative Carbon Emissions towards the Trillionth Tonne," Nature 458 (7242) (2009): 1163-1166.
17. H. Damon Matthews, Nathan P. Gillett, Peter A. Stott, and Kirsten Zickfeld, "The Proportionality of Global Warming to Cumulative Carbon Emissions," Nature 459 (June 11, 2009): 829-832.
18. David Archer and Victor Brovkin, "The Millennial Atmospheric Lifetime of Anthropogenic CO2," Climatic Change 90 (3) (2008): 283-297.
19. Daniel P. Schrag, "Making Carbon Capture and Storage Work," in Acting in Time on Energy Policy, ed. Kelly Sims Gallagher (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, May 2009).
20. Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2010 (Washington, D.C.: Department of Energy, April 2010).
21. I benefited from conversations with many people, whose comments have improved the argument presented here.
22. Graham Allison, David Keith, Henry Lee, Henry Breck, Tim Wirth, Robert Ziff, Steve Pacala, Julie Shoemaker, and Tess Williams. I thank Judith Levi for special encouragement.