Google Street View finds gas leaks

Gas leaks in Boston
Credit: Environmental Defense Fund

Methane is a greenhouse gas. Many times worse than carbon dioxide. Around 120 times. Being combustible, it doesn't persist long in the atmosphere. It combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide, which still isn't good — just less bad.

Methane is the major component of natural gas. One use of natural gas is domestic heating & cooking. It gets to homes through pipes laid in the ground. As the pipes age, they start to leak. This is not normally a fire risk. But we don't want methane in the atmosphere.

Google & Environmental Defense Fund have co-operated in a pilot project to fit methane sensors to 3 Street View cars.

http://www.edf.org/climate/methanemaps

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/google-uses-its-street-view-cars-to-sniff-out-gas-leaks/#!bgNYyN / street streets Boston Staten Island Indianapolis Google’s Street View cars collecting panoramic imagery fitted with methane sensors cars sniffing out natural gas leaks hazard affects many cities world wide US Environmental Defense Fund EDF Google Earth Outreach conduct pilot project Street View cars gathering 15 million readings thousands of leaks utility pipes beneath the streets providing officials data on pollution used to be invisible EDF’s Fred Krupp data has been added to maps Boston older city with older pipes most leaks Indianapolis newer pipes Staten Island number of located leaks immediate threat to safety utilities monitor deal with the more serious ones powerful effect on the global climate warming effect carbon dioxide climate change global warming greenhouse effect gas plug leaks leak reduce near-term climate impacts inexpensive sensors cloud computing data analysis social media transforming environmental protection /