Housing
Maps Designed to Stop Gas Explosions—and Help the Climate
The Environmental Defense Fund teams with Google Earth to detect hidden methane leaks.
Last March’s gas explosion in East Harlem—which killed eight people and obliterated two buildings—was an awful consequence of a too-common problem: old, leaking pipes, which lie beneath countless major U.S. cities.
And in addition to causing tragic blasts, tattered lines are also culprits in an even greater health threat: global warming. Methane, the major component in natural gas, is extremely effective at absorbing and trapping the sun’s heat.