The Trans-Alaska Pipeline is aboveground for half its length. Because oil here is at 120 degrees Fahrenheit when it enters the pipe, the line would melt the permafrost underlying its route if it were buried, causing the pipeline to rupture. ©U.S. Geological Survey
Climate change. It’s been on my mind for almost 20 years now. Close to two decades ago, I remember being part of a panel at a writing conference and telling the session participants that the one topic that consistently engrosses me—the one that keeps me up at night and keeps my motivation to write high—is global warming and its consequence, climate change.
Since August 2009, I’ve been writing for this Good Nature Travel blog. I’m heading into my eighth year on its pages. In that time, I’ve written dozens of articles on climate change research, its effects here and around the world, the news headlines it makes—or doesn’t make—and what we can do to try to stem its relentless, incoming tide.
Over the past few years, it’s been encouraging to see some positive action on this critical challenge facing the planet, such as the Paris agreement on global warming, and to learn that more and more people are realizing there can be no more denying that our world is rapidly warming, and it’s due to human actions.
The last two months, however, have made me feel that soon all that will be left to write about climate change will be an obituary for efforts to mitigate it. We now have a president-elect who questions the science of climate change. The United States, under the president-elect’s direction, may withdraw from the Paris agreement and promote—rather than move away from—the production of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. Even now, “zombie wells” (gas and oil wells that have been abandoned) are leaking methane, adding more of one of the most dangerous greenhouse gases to our atmosphere. And that’s without building even one more well.
After almost 20 years of deeply caring about climate change, I would be remiss if I stopped being honest with you and writing to you about the dangers I see coming. I would be derelict if I didn’t note the following facts.
Denial of global warming and the promotion of fossil fuels
The production from wells on federal and tribal lands accounted for 11 percent of the natural gas and seven percent of the oil produced in the U.S. in fiscal year 2015. ©Bureau of Land Management
The Republican president-elect has said he will “cancel the Paris climate agreement and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.” He has also promised to promote coal power and fracking, and he says he will endeavor to allow for oil and gas drilling on federal lands.
He’s asked TransCanada to renew its permit application for the Keystone XL pipeline. All of these measures are extremely troubling and menacing for the planet.
Pulling out of the Paris pact
Last year, in Paris, on December 12, 2015, 197 countries agreed to limit global warming to below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) and work toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. This accord entered into force on November 4, 2016, and has been ratified by 112 countries so far, including the U.S.
In Marrakech, Morocco, last week, diplomats from around the world met to discuss the details of last year’s agreement and move us closer to controlling the industrial emissions that are heating the planet. If the president-elect fails to honor the signed compact, punishing the United States with a carbon tariff—a pollution import tax on all American goods—is an option the diplomats will consider. According to The New York Times, Rodolfo Lacy Tamayo, Mexico’s undersecretary for environmental policy and planning, said, “We will apply any kind of policy necessary to defend the quality of life for our people, to protect our environment and to protect our industries.”
The U.S. is second only to China in greenhouse gas emissions. ©Bloomberg
If we Americans won’t stand up for saving our planet from the effects of climate change, perhaps other nations will require and demand that we do so.
Zombies are already here
In December 2014, an astonishing report was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In Pennsylvania alone, abandoned oil and gas wells account for 5 to 8 percent (or 0.04 to 0.07 metric tons) of the annual human-caused methane emissions in the state. This source of methane—a greenhouse gas 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide—hadn’t been accounted for in previous greenhouse gas budgets.
In the study, researchers looked at historical documents, scientific literature, state databases and conducted boots-on-the-ground fieldwork to get a better understanding of the number of abandoned wells in Pennsylvania. They measured methane flow from 88 wells across the state. Nearly all nonfunctioning oil and gas wells—90 percent—were found to be releasing methane.
There some things worth fighting for together. On May 16, 2015, “kayaktivists” protested Royal Dutch Shell’s plan to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean. ©Daniella Beccaria, flickr
An estimate of 470,000 to 750,000 abandoned wells in the state is probably a conservative one, since records are incomplete, especially for older wells from the early years of our century-and-a-half-long era of oil and gas development. That means that the commonly cited figure of three million abandoned oil and gas wells in the United States is also likely to understate the situation. And, of course, there are many millions more abandoned wells around the world—numbers that will only increase in the future.
I hope with this article, I’m not writing an obituary for the planet and about the death of climate change action quite yet. Despite who you voted for in our recent presidential election or your personal political beliefs, there some things worth fighting for together. There are some things on a planetary level that should come before anything else.
I find myself repeating a few lines from a Dylan Thomas poem these days. “Do not go gentle into that good night … rage, rage against the dying of the light.” But I have to admit that, lately, I wonder if we will.
Will you?
Here’s to finding your true places and natural habitats,
Candy
