Exclusive: Fixing a leak can be simple and equivalent to closing a coal power station, making lack of action maddening, say analysts
The world’s worst mega-leaks of the potent greenhouse gas methane in 2025 have been revealed by an analysis of satellite data.
The super-polluting plumes from oil and gas facilities have a colossal heating impact on the climate but often result from poor maintenance and can be simple to fix. The assessment found dozens of mega-leaks, each having the same global heating impact as a coal-fired power station.
The researchers said it was “maddening” that such easy action to fight the climate crisis was not being taken, and said people should be angry. Stopping the leaks can even be free, given that captured gas can be sold – methane is the “natural gas” that fires power stations.
But make sure you turn lights off, consumer, because it’s all your fault.
What’s your carbon footprint
I get what you’re saying and the “individual carbon footprint” is often used to blame shift to regular people just living their lives, but we do still have a carbon footprint. It may be a tiny, rodent-sized footprint compared to the Kaiju-sized ones of big industries, but our actions and choices do have an effect (especially collectively).
I just don’t like dismissing the individual carbon footprint as total propaganda because it’s not wrong (though I acknowledge it is abused). Dismissing it like that just puts out a defeatist “nothing I do matters” message when our individual choices do matter and add up.
Can you live a totally carbon-neutral life in the modern age? No, probably not. But we also shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and do nothing.
You’re taking about fixing the leaky sink while the house is on fire.
No one is saying that we don’t have a carbon footprint. All life does.
But we, as a society, need to first focus on the things that are most destructive. In this case, fossil fuel infrastructure and the institutions keeping it in place.
It’s not an “or” situation. It is and always has been an “and”.
My gripe is with people refusing to do anything on a personal level because “what does it matter when X industry pollutes more in 5 minutes than I do in a year?”.
I’ll have you know, my energy utility just emailed me today that I’m ranked in the top 20% of energy and water savers in my city and I use less than half of the average household. /s
That’s good news, if more people in your area were like you, they could probably open another AI data center and only jack your rates up a little bit. :)
Well these d-bags aren’t operating these oil or gas wells for funzies
Please stop turning this into an either / or.
Where did I do that?
I admit my thoughts on this go far beyond just your comment. This is a widespread narrative about how corporations pollute, therefore consumer footprint is bullshit or an outright conspiracy.
People keep standing up and pointing at commercial polluting and saying “well? Which is it? Should I turn off the lights at home or should corporations stop polluting?” It’s not either / or. It’s both. You should absolutely turn the lights off when not in use.
Here’s how this should go:
Instead, with your now highest-voted comment, here is what’s happening:
Do you see how this is the wrong outcome?
The thing I never buy about this is that people make out as if someone is going around with a bell crying SHAME SHAME at them every time they don’t recycle. IMO this is a phantasm: we all know what’s the right thing to do - maybe we feel guilty if we don’t do it, but there is no oil company representative going around wracking us all with guilt.
There are 8 billion consumers, with projections of 12 in our lifetimes. It absolutely matters what consumers do. If you want to reduce this to you personally agains the actions of some corporation, that’s simply bad faith. Collectively, consumer action is extremely important, especially in purchase decisions, which put direct pressure back on the companies polluting the worst, and at the ballot box, where we put pressure on our governments to regulate them.
Please stop moaning about the injustice of “personal footprint” every time you see evidence of a corporation misbehaving. It’s not either they have to act or we do. It’s both!
My aim was at the incessant drumbeat pointing to individuals to “do better” when there’s basically silence about corporate interests. People are conditioned to feel personally responsible, and either feel like there’s nothing more for them to do outside of their own behaviors, and/or bear the guilt personally which should be borne by the aforementioned corporations.
While it is of course proper for individuals to tailor their own behaviors for the greater good, make no mistake: when you see or hear produced messaging pointing to how individuals should modify their behavior with respect to climate, it is propaganda.
Taking over a coal power plant by force and shutting it down will do much more to combat climate change than separating paper from plastic in recycling.