Fracking has unlocked new oil supplies in states like North Dakota, reducing crude imports.
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But as Yale historian Paul Sabin notes in The Bet, his new book on the Simon-Ehrlich wager, "the lessons of the bet don't extend to climate change." The same innovations that have resurrected oil and gas production in the U.S. have extended the age of fossil fuels, making it that much more difficult to break free of them. A number of independent studies have suggested that the world has to stop emitting carbon dioxide by midcentury to avoid dangerous climate change. We're not likely to get there if we keep inventing ways to extract and then burn the hydrocarbons still in the ground. "It appears that the good Lord has set up a real test for us," says Bill McKibben, the writer-activist who helps lead the group 350.org "We have to decide if we want a habitable planet or not--and if we do, we can't dig this stuff up."
The threat of climate change is very real, and we now know that we're ingenious enough to extract more than enough hydrocarbons to burn ourselves alive. McKibben is right. If we want a habitable world, we'll need to choose it. Geology won't do it for us.