When the Pack Overruns the Story

I don't know about you, but I'm still getting whiplash from the write-ups of the splashy Cornell University study that concluded shale gas is probably every bit as potent a greenhouse gas as coal and oil. (I first wrote about the study here.) Let's retrace the course of the media coverage this past week. Hang on tight. First, in the peer reviewed paper itself (published in the journal Climatic Change), it bears pointing out that the authors admit their data is "limited" and based in part on "PowerPoint slides from EPA-sponsored workshops." On Tuesday, BBC's Richard Black wrote a credulous article on the Cornell study that doesn't mention this at all. Yet lead author Robert Howarth is quoted in the story, saying to Black: