Yesterday’s People’s Climate March in New York City drew an estimated 310,000 – 400,000 people, putting it up there with some of the country’s largest historical mass protests. It’s great that so many people are passionate about doing something to address climate change, but it sometimes seems like people are quick to jump behind a cause without really understanding the patchwork of issues that encapsulates it.

As such, today’s quote is actually a tweet from Financial Times’ US Industry and Energy Editor Ed Crooks, who was present at yesterday’s protest:

 One would assume that at a march devoted to addressing climate change, anti-coal sentiment would be louder than calls for reduced natural gas production given coal’s much more extreme greenhouse gas emissions profile. From a climate perspective, coal is simply a bigger fish to fry.

Recent US greenhouse gas emissions reductions – aside from decreases related to diminished economic activity – can be largely attributed to greater use of natural gas for power generation at the expense of coal.

Using more natural gas in the transportation sector would also help reduce total US greenhouse gas emissions, which was clearly a major objective promoted at yesterday’s People’s Climate March. So if natural gas is part of the solution – at least over the short term – why such a disproportionate outpouring of anti-fracking zeal?

See a detailed Breaking Energy slideshow about unconventional natural gas development – including fracking- here.

In another tweet Crooks suggested the rally’s dynamics unfolded that way because it’s easier to care about local issues than distant, global ones. And while that’s probably accurate, it’s also likely that anti-fracking crusaders were just seizing an opportunity to advance their message at a major gathering. Unfortunately, the anti-fracking message – which has become a bit of a cloudy mess – actually impedes the climate change mitigation movement inasmuch as power generation is concerned, which is a lot.

If you are against unconventional natural gas development because of its impact on rural communities, public health or water resources there are numerous respectable forums within which to discuss those legitimate issues, but a climate change march is not one of them.