A new study performed by Tom Wigley, National Center for Atmospheric Research’s (NCAR), senior research associate indicates that the increased level of natural gas usage substituting the use of coal does not decelerate climate change.
The study to appear in the forth coming issue of the Springer journal Climatic Change Letters emphasizes on various ways the use of fossil fuel impacts the environment.
The study shows that though coal discharges increased level of carbon dioxide and other pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide and ash particles at an increased level, the particles and other harmful pollutants chills the earth by stopping the incoming light. It found that the burning of natural gas releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas and the vagueness in calculating the level of such release makes the issue more complicated.
The computer models utilized in the study shows that the partial change over from coal to natural gas will continue to speed-up the climate change throughout 2050 even if no methane gas is discharged. It further indicates that with a considerable level of methane leaks the climate change will continue up to 2140 and will start decelerating the level of the worldwide average temperature but at a nominal level of a few tenths of a degree. The study tries to call for a further comprehensive look at the subject by including consequences of cooling of sulfur particles linked with coal burning and by examining the complicate methane influence on environmental gases such as water vapor and ozone.
Wigley found out that a 50% decrease in the use of coal and an equivalent increase in natural gas will lead to a slight increase of 0.1° in global warming in 40 years and such regular usage will bring down the global warming only by a marginal level instead of the presently projected increase of 5.4° by the year 2100. It also found the need to maintain the methane discharges at 2% or lesser level to reduce the impact level of natural gas than that of coal due to the maturation of methane.
Source: http://ncar.ucar.edu/