By Dominic Frongillo of syracuse.com
Gas from fracking is mostly methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas that is up to 105 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over 20 years.
As this record-breaking summer continues to heat up, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is purportedly nearing a decision about fracking. In support of his commitment to base his decision on the facts and science, I strongly urge the governor to heed the warnings from two recent national stories.
First, this month the U.S. Department of Agriculture designated more than half of all U.S. counties disaster zones, due to excessive heat and devastating droughts. Second, a new study — from top NASA scientist James Hansen — concludes the extreme heat and drought in the U.S. and around the world is due to global warming.