For anyone who cares about the climate, the bottom line there — because natural gas
emits nearly half the
carbon dioxide as coal for the same
amount of produced heat — is finding a way to manage risks from harvesting
vast deposits
of gas without rejecting that resource altogether.
«One major concern about wildfires becoming more frequent in permafrost areas is the potential to put the
vast amounts of carbon stored there at increased risk
of being
emitted and further amplify warming,» said Todd Sanford, a climate scientist at Climate Central and lead author
of the group's newly released report on Alaskan wildfires, by e-mail.