If you subsist in an old city surround by account , chances are you also live with hundreds if not thousands of gas leaks all around you . It ’s bad for you ( think explosions ) and unsound for the environs ( think globular warming ) , so we should probably do something about it . That ’s why Google Street View and the Environmental Defense Fund ( EDF ) have team up tomap methane leaks in city .
Last bound , three of Google ’s photographic camera - laden Street View railroad car were fit out with an excess sensor for methane . They ram all over three cities — Boston , New York ’s Staten Island , and Indianapolis — to sniff out gas leak . you’re able to check out the resultinginteractive mapsyourself at the Environmental Defense Fund ’s website .
The difference between an old metropolis with rust pipes like Boston ( above ) and a younger metropolis like Indianapolis ( below ) is utterly striking . To put it into number , the Google Street View cars find one leak every knot in Boston and only one leak every 200 naut mi in Indianapolis .
Google and EDF are also planning to bring the methane - whiff cars to Los Angeles and Syracuse soon . sense a bit worried about your age city ? You cannominate your area to be mapped too .
As we’vewritten about before , gas leaks are an often inconspicuous problem in old cities — inconspicuous until something exit disastrously wrong . For those of you feeling self-satisfied about your shining , throttle leak - less metropolis , do n’t dismiss the greater environmental shock either . Methane traps 72 as much heat as atomic number 6 dioxide .
flatulence leak are pretty much a lose - lose for everyone involve , include the gas company who are literally let money be adrift aside . And while we have these crazy looking machine consecrate to driving around and covering literally all the road possible , we might as well slap some other sensors to them and make the most of the effort . Now what else could we lash to them ? [ Environmental Defense FundviaNew Scientist ]
An enclosure used to quantify methane concentrations versus a fluid Google Street View car . All image via the Environmental Defense Fund
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