Michael Mann has tweeted that he is in fundamental agreement with Roger Pielke Jr on the subject of shale gas, with :
I'm pretty much in agrent w/ @RogerPielkeJr on signif of dramatic recnt drop in U.S. CO2 emissions.
I always thought Mann was against fossil fuels, but perhaps I'm mistaken. The sudden outbreak of climate detente has been prompted by their comments in this interview.
Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, said the shift away from coal is reason for "cautious optimism" about potential ways to deal with climate change. He said it demonstrates that "ultimately people follow their wallets" on global warming.
"There's a very clear lesson here. What it shows is that if you make a cleaner energy source cheaper, you will displace dirtier sources," said Roger Pielke Jr., a climate expert at the University of Colorado.
While Pielke is also quoted as saying that shale is only an interim fix, we should probably welcome this outbreak of realism.