JOYFUL PIECE #36
Surveilling Polluters To Protect The Planet
This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA.
According to Sciline.org, “Researchers estimate that there are between 2-3 million abandoned oil and gas wells in the United States, and more than 117,000 of those, across 27 states, are ‘orphaned’—that is, uncapped, unproductive, and with no responsible party identified to manage leakage or pollution risks.”
That is a hazard of immense proportions to our health and contributes enormous amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere that drive global warming. The wells leak at a higher rate than the companies that control them disclose information.
But there is now technology to identify those polluting wells and bring them under control.
A new “eye in the sky” is now available to do just that, according to this article in the New York Times. The new satellite, MethaneSAT, fills in an important gap in monitoring. According to the article, MethaneSAT can scan broad areas at a higher resolution than existing satellites. It detects gas concentrations in the 3 parts per billion range.
The data accumulated by MethaneSAT will be freely shared by its owner, the Environmental Defense Fund. This is a huge step. Regulations from the Biden Administration announced in 2023 go into effect this year and MethaneSAT will help to enforce them. What you measure you can improve. Knowing who is polluting, and the concentration of the emissions allows us to tackle the problem, and is cause for joy!
Good story and a reminder of the point, "if you can measure it you can do something about it. We can't measure everything but should measure what counts.
Amen! Thank you for posting this, Manuel. It is uplifting to read accounts about something positive for our environment. Go, MethandSAT!