Flaring Allows More Methane Into The Atmosphere Than We Thought!

Oil and gas producers rely on a special technique called flaring to limit the venting of natural gas which is coming from the facilities. But, a new study which is being led by the University of Michigan shows that in our world, flaring is less effective than estimated! Did you know that this process releases 5 times more methane in the USA than previous thought!!

Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas. It is more than 10 times more capable of warming the earth than CO2! Scientists say that burning the methane off at Oil and Gas wells is the most effective way of preventing methane gas pollution.

Data from the journal science shows that we overestimated flaring’s effectiveness. As a result of our overestimation, methane pollution increased. So, if we fix flaring issues, the result is really big! This is as equivalent to removing 3 million gasoline-powered cars off the road!

Let’s stop flaring so we could make our earth more sustainable!!

Author: Sri Nihal Tammana

Source: University of Michigan