By reducing our reliance on coal, the shale-gas boom helped push U.S. carbon emissions in the first quarter of 2012 to their lowest point since 1992 reflecting fewer emissions not just of carbon but of other byproducts of coal combustion that kill tens ofthousandsofpeople a year.
And because of technology today, if an organization like that got a weapon of mass destruction on its hands -- a nuclear or a chemical or a biological weapon -- and they used it in a city, whether it's in Shanghai or New York, just a few individuals could potentially kill tens ofthousandsofpeople, maybe hundreds ofthousands.