Nooooot Dooooomed!!! GDP growth no longer means carbon growth

The Atlantic has what they’re calling the biggest news of the millennium. And it’s good news.

For the second year in a row, global GDP grew in 2015 while global carbon emissions stayed flat. This terminates a link that had persisted for 200 years, and it suggests that mitigating climate change won't be disastrous for the global economy. Since the Industrial Revolution, fossil fuels—coal for warmth and power; petroleum for asphalt and transport—have driven and even indicated economic growth. Given this history, and given the grave consequences of carbon emissions, it seems no exaggeration to call this the most important political-economy news this millennium. CO₂ emissions aren’t just another economic indicator.

Think about that a sec. For 200 years, the growth of our civilization has been measurable in CO₂ output. That’s because CO₂ has marked the energy we’ve used to construct buildings, transport goods, and heat our homes. So those arguing that any attempt to regulate CO₂ might affect the quality of life had a couple of centuries of if-this-then-that to fall back on.

Only now … that’s no longer true.

Additionally, 21 countries have grown their economies while shrinking their carbon emissions since 2000, according to new research from the World Resources Institute. They are all developed, post-industrial economies in Europe or the Americas… The United States is the largest country to have decoupled: Since 2010, its carbon emissions have fallen 6 percent.

Which, on the surface of it sounds like not good news … but fran-friggin-tastic news. Except that sadly, everything isn’t quite so shiny as it seems. Because one word can explain how the United States pulled off this miracle, and that word is: Fracking.