As humanity wrings ever more fossil fuels from our planet, the question of when the taps will start to run dry -- when "peak oil" will occur -- looms ever closer on the horizon. Some say a decade, maybe two. Some say it's already passed. No one is sure.
Whatever the answer, new research has come to the ominous conclusion that slackening oil and gas supplies could actually accelerate the pace of global warming.
If it seems counter-intuitive, consider that generating a kilowatt hour of energy by burning oil pumps 274 grams of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Natural gas is cleaner, accounting for 202 grams. But coal is by far the worst polluter, clocking in at 331 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour (a kilowatt hour is when 1000 watts of energy is used for one hour).
As the oil and gas begin to dry up, coal could move in to fill the demand for energy, Pushker Kharecha of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University explained. And unless the carbon it emits is captured and sequestered underground, it will saturate the atmosphere, pushing temperatures ever higher and worsening a host of global environmental problems.
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