#stopbigoil

Day 409: August 22nd, 2020. This is Part II of yesterday's post. You don't necessarily need to have read yesterday's post to understand this one, but I'd recommend it as it provides context.

Yesterday while I was researching light pollution, I came across plenty of statistics and satellite maps showing exactly how much light there is across the globe. They highlighted the major metropolitan areas across the globe, showed how light pollution severely thins as you start to get into the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, but it also showed a curious hotspot in what looked like Montana or North Dakota. I don't know how familiar you are with United States geography, but there are no major metro areas within hundreds of miles of those states. And this dot (depending on the map) rivaled the size of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, an area home to over 3 million residents. So what was it? A secret military-base I had not heard about? A massive cluster of data centers? No, it's the Bakken fields, an oil-rich area that has drove North Dakota to becoming the second-largest oil producing state in the U.S.

All that light comes not only from the lights on the oil rigs, it also comes from something called flaring. Fracking, a technique oil producers use to extract oil from deep within the Earth, also causes natural gas to seep up out of natural gas pockets. But since oil producers aren't in the market for the byproduct, they burn it (or 'flare' it) as it comes up. So yes: when oil producers are fracking to find fuel, they are at the same time burning fuel - and lots of it. In 2013, drillers in North Dakota alone were burning enough gas to heat half a million homes EVERY SINGLE DAY. Natural gas is much harder to capture and transport than oil, but it also brings in a lot less money, meaning it's "not worth it" to oil producers. North Dakota has laws and regulations against that much burning, but officials have been slow to enforce them. There were also a lack of natural gas pipelines in the area, so the governments had to decide if either they would let oil producers burn off the natural gas, instead have the natural gas just leak straight into the atmosphere, or halt fracking altogether, one of the biggest source of jobs the state had to offer.

Since 2013, more infrastructure for capturing natural gas has been put in place, but flaring remains a huge problem, even across the globe. In 2018, 145 billion cubic meters of gas was flared, the same amount that Central and South America use in a year combined. While capturing and using natural gas is not the end goal (natural gas is not green energy, people), it only makes sense to capture the gas as long as fracking is going on. We need to stop fracking, flaring, and using oil altogether, but until we get everyone on the same page, we need to stop senselessly burning fuel in order to get to other fuel.

I read so many different articles on this one, pick any of them and you're guaranteed a good read: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/flaring-or-why-so-much-gas-is-going-up-in-flames/2019/09/10/934b369a-d3f5-11e9-8924-1db7dac797fb_story.html

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-north-dakota-natural-gas-flaring-carbon-emissions-20190527-story.html

Challenge 113: Green New Deal: Leave It Better Than We Found It

Having worked for a green home energy company for about a year I’ve learned a lot about how much we contribute here in the USA our carbon footprint onto the world….even in places like our own homes. Making sure your home runs efficiently and cost-effective these changes are much needed for both your wallet as well as our environment. Fast forwarding to 2019 I have and continue to take responsibility for what my artwork represents and gets printed on. As a designer it’s important to practice responsible design without sacrificing quality of the art. Every business can do their part to be environmental-friendly and making it a lifestyle to protect our planet. The Green New Deal to me is just simple common sense and our responsibility as capable human beings to preserve our natural resources by keeping them free of toxins all while, keep our air, waters, and earth clean. We are also responsible for the many species on this planet that cannot keep up due to our own destructive advances that our Earth simply cannot keep up with. The Green New Deal is the perfect solution to making humans be responsible for our own actions as a whole, and will be a huge step in the right direction. 

There is much I have to say on this topic as the Green New Deal can address the following and help our planet in so many ways such as:

* No more oil - more electric, solar, and wind jobs

* No more plastic - switch to bio-degradable materials including lotus flower and bamboo fiber for our clothing in result eliminating microfibers and waste dumped into our oceans

* No more toxic pesticides and GMOs - eating cleaner and living longer healthier lives with less illness and deformities while keeping our air clean

* No more toxic pollutants in our air - if things are done right by practicing clean energy in our businesses, production plants, transportation and more, our air will be cleaner and healthier to breath resulting in a cleaner healthier life for all. 

* No more toxic jobs - more jobs that result in healthier environments, non-toxic work spaces, and more jobs to preserve our environment over destroying it.

Leaving it better than we found it is the solution to so many problems happening globally, and I am glad that our government is finally starting to represent that with the Green New Deal. Let’s work together on an individual level and hold our politicians and big money companies accountable on a national and international level to make it happen and have a better future for everyone!

~Tina

www.tinaschofield.com