If you reside in an old city-limits amidst by history, affairs are you aswell reside with hundreds if not bags of gas leaks all about you. It's bad for you (think explosions) and bad for the ambiance (think all-around warming), so we should apparently do something about it. That's why Google Street View and the Ecology Defense Fund (EDF) accept teamed up to map methane leaks in cities.
Last spring, three of Google's camera-laden Street View cars were adapted with an added sensor for methane. They collection all over three cities—Boston, New York's Staten Island, and Indianapolis—to detect out gas leaks. You can analysis out the consistent interactive maps yourself at the Ecology Defense Fund's website.
The aberration amid an old city-limits with breakable pipes like Boston (above) and a adolescent city-limits like Indianapolis (below) is absolutely striking. To put it into numbers, the Google Street View cars begin one aperture every mile in Boston and alone one aperture every 200 afar in Indianapolis.
Google and EDF are aswell planning to accompany the methane-sniffing cars to Los Angeles and Syracuse soon. Activity a bit afraid about your crumbling city? You can nominate your breadth to be mapped too.
As we've written about before, gas leaks are an generally airy botheration in old cities—invisible until something goes disastrously wrong. For those of you activity complacent about your shiny, gas leak-less city, don't abolish the greater ecology appulse either. Methane accessories 72 as abundant calefaction as carbon dioxide.
Gas leaks are appealing abundant a lose-lose for anybody involved, including the gas companies who are actually absolution money float away. And while we accept these crazy searching cars adherent to active about and accoutrement actually all the alley possible, we ability as able-bodied bang some added sensors to them and accomplish the a lot of of the effort. Now what abroad could we band to them? [Environmental Defense Fund via New Scientist]
An asylum acclimated to admeasurement methane concentrations against a adaptable Google Street View car. All images via the Ecology Defense Fund
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