Democracy Now airs pro-natural gas argument from 'former climate skeptic'

We received the following email message from Democracy Now today (August 2, 2012). We are encouraging our readers to contact Democracy Now to take issue with their guest.

Good morning,

I'm writing to share a Democracy Now! interview with physicist Richard Muller, a once-prominent global warming skeptic, who recently published an op-ed in The New York Times in which he now claims global warming is real and man-made.

I thought you would be particularly interested in Muller's suggestion that combating global warming will require heavy international investment in natural gas, and energy conservation.

"My new message is: there are two things that must be done to stop this," Muller says. "One of them is an extensive program in energy conservation and energy efficiency... The other thing we need to do, and this is one where, unfortunately, a lot of my Democrat friends have a knee-jerk reaction against it, but I think it's essential - we have to get the Chinese to convert, to move over, to get away from coal, into a natural gas economy."

Muller says the U.S. should help China switch from coal because China's CO2 emissions are rising and will continue to do so in the future, while U.S. emissions have been declining, and because natural gas produces only one-third of the carbon dioxide that coal produces.

Muller says that the process of fracking to extract natural gas can be made safe.

"No, we don't want dirty fracking in China any more than we want it here. But we can make it clean. It's just a matter of using the technology to assure that it will be clean, that it won't cause earthquakes and so on. That, as a technical problem, is not that difficult."

Please feel free to share our report today by posting on your website or social media network. I have provided the links and video embed code below. The complete transcript will be posted soon on our website.

For all of our climate change coverage, visit our topic page:

www.democracynow.org/topics/climate_change

Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Please let me know if you have any questions.

My best,

Jared Rader

Social Media and Online Outreach Intern

Democracy Now!

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HEADLINE:
Climate Skeptic, Koch-Funded Scientist Richard Muller Admits Global Warming Real and Humans the Cause

DEMOCRACY NOW LINK:

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/2/climate_skeptic_koch_funded_scientist_richard

YOUTUBE LINK:

http://youtu.be/QqPuKxXUCPY

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Jared Rader

Social Media and Online Outreach Intern

Democracy Now!

212-431-9090 x 8806

www.democracynow.org

Twitter: @democracynow

Facebook.com/democracynow

YouTube.com/democracynow

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