Rob Jackson speaks about the Global Carbon Project, which projects that global carbon dioxide emissions from coal, oil and natural gas are set to hit another record high this year.
Natural gas use is surging across the world and fossil fuel emissions are hitting records that are unsustainable for the planet. "Any growth is more than we can afford right now,” says Rob Jackson. “What we need is for emissions to stabilize and drop.”
Mathieu Lapôtre's research helps quantify how vegetation influences river mobility and proposes a new theory on how river movement may have influenced ancient Earth’s climate.
America’s biggest rail companies—which move the majority of the country’s coal—have spent millions to deny climate science and block climate policy. Rob Jackson comments on emissions embedded in coal.
Although natural gas burns more cleanly than coal, it’s still one of the biggest sources of climate pollution. Globally, planet-warming carbon emissions from natural gas are rising more quickly than emissions from coal are falling, according to research led by Rob Jackson.
“Cows are pretty disgusting eaters, with methane coming from both ends,” says Chris Field about a claim made by Jack Black about the merits of veganism. “But most of it comes from burping.”
"Unless natural gas is replacing coal, it isn't a bridge fuel. Unless it is coupled with carbon capture and sequestration, it isn't a bridge fuel," says Rob Jackson.
"I don’t know of any other oil company that has pledged to be carbon-neutral, including the burning of their products,” says Rob Jackson about Spanish oil giant Repsol SA announcing their ambitious reduction efforts. “That is quite remarkable.”
"It's hard to view slower growth as good news. But nonetheless, compared to last year and 2017 the growth rate was down substantially. What we need is for emissions to decline, not to rise slowly," says Rob Jackson.
"The two places where renewables and natural gas are both displacing coal are here in the United States and in Europe," Rob Jackson says. But elsewhere around the world, "most of the new gas being burned isn't replacing coal – it's providing new energy for people."
“Even without knowing what the current level of greenhouse gas concentrations would be, the climate models predicted the evolution of global temperature quite well,” says Noah Diffenbaugh. “We have one planet Earth, so we can’t conduct controlled experiments on the actual climate system."
The air above Earth – especially above California – might have way more methane in it than anyone thought. And that could be good news. "Most of the emissions come from a small fraction of sources,” says Stanford Earth's Adam Brandt.
“This idea that you can just be off the grid, we are hearing that more and more,” Sally Benson says about backup power sources. Under some circumstances, the systems may do more environmental harm than good.
Stanford Earth's Paul Segall comments on a new, cheaper way to track crustal movements on the ocean floor. The method would replace expensive ships with ocean-going drones.
As governments in California increasingly consider limiting new residential natural gas connections, it is important to question whether banning natural gas is an “antidote to climate change,” writes Anthony Kovscek.
