Shawn raises an interesting point here. At some depth, the shale
layer will lose the gas it might otherwise contain. By the time the
Marcellus surfaces in Marcellus, any gas is long gone. Just how far
south do you have to go before there are economically viable amounts
of gas to extract? a geologist friend of mine thinks Tompkins County
is unlikely to worth exploiting. I'd be interested in Shawn's take
on that.
Joel
Since there's shallower gas available north of Tompkins County, then
it's possible that there's gas in TC. The faults can either help trap
gas in folds, or they can help it escape. That's as much as I can
figure, which isn't worth more than two cents. I guess I can put one
more idea out there: just as much as your typical environmental
science teacher tends to be more "environmentalist" than your typical
physics teacher, your typical geologist is pro-exploration (and
anti-regulation). Joel's friend sounds fringe.
There are no "objective" scientists. What's funny about the climate
change denialists is that they ask anthropogenic climate change
prognosticators for ultimate "objective" empiricism, but they don't
hold themselves to the same standard. Prejudiced, hypocritical
cherry-pickers, but aren't we all?
What if all humanity follows the 350 credo starting next week, the
GHGs stabilize, and nothing catastrophic happens with climate in the
next 100 years? The denialists will just say "see, the earth takes
care of itself" just as easily as the 350ers will say "see, we needed
that."
So, "objective science" will not be the reconciliation some of us
educators and politicians hope for.
--
-Shawn Reeves
[email protected]
http://energyteachers.org
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