Mother Earth Will Avoid Global Warming Catastrophe -- London School Of Economics -- June 8, 2015

I can't get my mind around these numbers, but ...

This is from a story about burning coal seams in India. In the article:

BCCL accounts for about 7 percent of Coal India's output and has projected growth of 54 percent to 53 million tonnes in five years, according to a company document seen by Reuters.

Its success will help decide how close Coal India gets to its ambitious target of output of 1 billion tonnes by 2019/20.

Meanwhile, over at the World Resources Institute which advocates reduction of greenhouse gases:

Our research shows that 1,199 new coal-fired plants with a total installed capacity of 1,401,268 megawatts (MW) are being proposed globally. If all of these projects are built, it would add new coal power capacity that is almost four times the current capacity of all coal-fired plants in the United States."

That was back in 2012.

But apparently things look much better than alarmists suggest. This is from Bonn, Germany, which really likes coal:

In a boost for hopes to curb climate change, China's greenhouse gas emissions will probably peak in 2025, five years earlier than its stated target.

On current trends, the world's biggest carbon emitter will discharge 12.5-14 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) in 2025, after which emissions will decline.

"This finding suggests it is increasingly likely that the world will avoid global warming of more than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels," they said in a statement.

The average temperature goal, which translates into 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, is the upper limit targeted by the UN, which is seeking to enshrine it in a global accord in December.

My hunch is that the cutback in flaring in the Bakken and the trend toward decreasing shale oil production, provided most of the good news with regard to the risk of the earth overheating.