Current Events > Russia now intentionally causing global warming, presumably out of spite

(+) Yeah! (+)

The tldr is that the energy embargo from the EU has led to Russia having way more natural gas than they normally would, and either due to incompetence or spite their response has been to burn it off 24/7 since June rather than shut down some plants.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62652133

As Europe's energy costs skyrocket, Russia is burning off large amounts of natural gas, according to analysis shared with BBC News.

Experts say that the gas would previously have been exported to Germany.

They say the plant, which is near the border with Finland, is burning an estimated $10m (8.4m) worth of gas every day.

But since June, researchers have noted a significant increase in heat emanating from the facility - thought to be from gas flaring, the burning of natural gas.

While burning off gas is common at processing plants - normally done for technical or safety reasons - the scale of this burn has confounded experts.

"I've never seen an LNG plant flare so much," said Dr Jessica McCarty, an expert on satellite data from Miami University in Ohio.

"Starting around June, we saw this huge peak, and it just didn't go away. It's stayed very anomalously high."

But as well a releasing around 9,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent every day from this flare, the burning causes other significant issues.

Can we blow it up?