Marylanders need to do their part to help President Obama fight global warming
To the Editor,
Although the article, “State of the Union is nearly hunky-dory,” touched on Obama’s pledge to the environmental community to work against global warming, it is also important to consider the ways that environmental issues affect the state of Maryland.
Among the extensive problems associated with fracking, one little-discussed issue is how it can contribute to global warming, a topic Obama brought up in the State of the Union. Fracking produces methane pollution that contributes approximately $130,000 in social costs related to global warming from a single well. In addition, each fracking well requires approximately 400 truck trips for the transport of water alone. At this rate, The International Energy Agency says that fracking puts us on a trajectory to exceed the goal of only a 2 degree Celsius rise in temperature by almost double.
As a state, we need to do our part to fight global warming. We cannot sit back and let Obama magically fight it alone. We must take the initiative to protect Maryland’s residents from the costs of global warming by supporting a bill banning fracking. This can both decrease future effects of global warming, as well as save our residents from the other negative effects of fracking like health problems and environmental damage.
Sincerely,
Erika Burns
Organizer, Environment Maryland
(Feature photo from Chasing Ice)
I will respectfully suggest that Marylanders need to do their due diligence to determine if President Obama’s ‘global warming fight’ actually has any validity. Skeptic climate scientists are saying the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has not conclusively made its case that human-induced greenhouse gases are the primary driver of global warming, and they offer their highly detailed opinions in climate assessment reports (e.g. the NIPCC Reports http://www.nipccreport.org/reports/2011/2011report.html ) which cite scores of peer-reviewed science journal-published papers.
If it cannot be conclusively shown that human activity drives global warming, then it is not only an anti-science effort to ‘fight global warming’, it is also fundamentally illogical.
If Obama was serious and truly understood the danger, he would have done more in his first term and spoken of it more during his re-election campaign. He is in too tight with oil and gas concerns. I expect his name in the near future will be scorned for his inaction.