Coal, Gas and Hot Air

While on the topic of inexplicable influences on the culture and society we can not overlook the strange open-mindedness we have for totally discredited people and opinions. These are especially common in science which the public cannot seem to understand despite all the information conceivable. The overwhelming difficulty seems to be in understanding the limits of studies, how evaluations cannot be perfect and how conclusions are often only extrapolations, not decisions. So otherwise reasonable people deprive their children of vaccines on the advice of an exposed scoundrel.

The debate over gas exploration supplies another example.
"Natural gas has been widely touted as a clean energy source that will help the U.S. transition to renewable energy options while lowering greenhouse gas emissions relative to other fossil fuels. While it is true that end-use combustion of natural gas emits markedly less carbon dioxide (CO2) than other fossil energy sources, methane (CH4) losses during modern gas exploration and development, as well as processing, transmission and distribution may fully negate these CO2 savings. A full accounting of modern gas development indicates that natural gas may actually exacerbate, rather than mitigate, global climate change." This is an overview of a paper by Professors Howarth and Ingraffea that analyze and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of coal versus gas energy. But six recent studies have criticized this paper and have dismissed it: Carnegie Mellon University study financed by the Sierra Club, the WorldWatch Institute study, the National Energy Technology Laboratory Study, the University of Maryland, other researchers at Cornell University itself, and CERA. Yet despite these papers Howarth continues to be quoted and lionized, recently by Robert Kennedy, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Chesapeake Bay Journal.


Everyone has an agenda, everyone their own ax to grind. No one wants to surrender any ground. This type of behavior is a hallmark of non-science. Science is where truth is the only agenda. But in non-science opinions will lurk forever in the background, like vampires, long after they are dead and buried.