The most underrated threats to modern society

quora.com

10 pointsrpsubhub3 comments

I'm not too fussed about peak oil causing a sudden unavailability of petrochemical products, for the reason that coal can be cracked down to oil. And there's a lot of coal left. And if we run out of coal, wood can be cracked down to oil. And we've got a grip on this tree-growing business.

Not to mention the huge amounts of LNG capacity that's coming online around the world.

Only if you don't mind that drilling for Marcellus Shale is destroying our aquifers and covering America in endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, and radioactive compounds :(

Here are some reports from affected landowners collected as part of a MIT research project: http://wellwatch.org/wiki/ComplaintsAndNotes

Also see the recent study from Ithaca about natural gas being worse for emissions than coal while having more of the bad effects up front.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com