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.
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!
Plus, our individual impact affects their impact. It’s all connected.
If we all suddenly plan more efficient routes and carpool, and now we’re only driving half as much, well, those big companies start selling us half as much gas.
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.
You didn’t need to write a word of that. I know exactly what you are doing and why you think you’re doing it.
Do you really think there is nothing for individuals to do, here? 8 billion people. Do they tend to just do the right thing unprompted? Is it corporate malfeasance anytime someone puts up a sign about what can / cannot be recycled in this bin?
Aha. Here is where I call on you to produce the phantasm. This is the supposed person walking behind you crying SHAME that I referred to. DO BETTER.
Can you show this relentless drumbeat to me? If this is really an ever present voice in your ear, you must be able to produce examples of someone saying “consumers, it’s all your fault.” Show me where anyone is actively pointing at consumers, guilting them, engaging in this propaganda. If this drumbeat is so relentless it must be all over the web. Give me half a dozen links telling you to turn off the lights because you are destroying the planet.
As a somewhat market economy believer , I even believe collective individual actions can help trigger corporate changes. Think of the huge chunk of climate change caused by fossil fuel industry. It’s maddening, and dwarfs anything people can affect.
But you can choose battery electric or human mobility, you can chose an electrified house, you can even chose to pay for all renewable electricity generation. We’re on the cusp of shrinking that fossil fuel industry. If only enough people would chose to go in that direction, the industry would have to follow and that would make a real difference
I blame government more than corps. Corps just act according to the market they’re in, morality isn’t relevant. But government’s role should be shaping the market to serve society, and they are abject failures. Government’s role should be to serve the people, not get captured by corps and a handful of ultra-wealthy. At this point the failure is malicious
Yes collective action matters. I also think it’s hard to wholly separate corporate activity from consumers. It’s not like factories are just over there polluting for their own reasons. At the end of the day, most of what is produced goes to consumers. Now, there are times when individuals don’t have good options to choose. Want to avoid plastics? Good luck eating. We do need to lean on corporations and governments to solve some problems. So let’s do that! It’s not mutually exclusive with individual and collective action.