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"Leaked more than many countries do in a year" is an interesting way of expressing the scale. Many countries have little to no petroleum industry. > Or, for an

"Leaked more than many countries do in a year" is an interesting way of expressing the scale. Many countries have little to no petroleum industry. > Or, for another kind of context, the researchers point out that this Ohio well released more methane in 20 days than the oil and gas activities in most nations around Europe do in an entire year—save only the UK, Germany, and Italy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_produ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_natural_gas_production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_natural_g... Most European countries other than Norway have orders of magnitude smaller petroleum industries than the US, and many have near zero production. While leaking oil and gas is bad, this kind of journalistic sleight of hand is neither necessary nor productive. To better put this leak in perspective, the US alone apparently leaks 13 million tons of natural gas yearly [1], and 440 million tons are annually leaked world wide from both human and natural sources [2]. So this leak accounted for 0.5% of nation-wide gas leaking in a given year and 0.014% of global methane emissions in a given year. 1. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/oil-and-gas-facilities-leak-more-methane-than-previously-thought/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/oil-and-gas-facil... 2. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/methane-siberia-climate-change/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/methane-siberia-c...

take_a_breath 7y ago
==Most European countries other than Norway have orders of magnitude smaller petroleum industries than the US, and many have near zero production. While leaking oil and gas is bad, this kind of journalistic sleight of hand is neither necessary nor productive.== Isn't your comment an equal slight of hand? The article isn't about total leaks in the US compared to other countries. This is about one specific gas leak in Ohio, which they compare to other countries.
- manfredo 7y ago
  The point is, leaking any amount of oil is sufficient to exceed the petroleum leaks of many countries that have no petroleum production whatsoever. > Isn't your comment an equal slight of hand? The article isn't about total leaks in the US compared to other countries. This is about one specific gas leak in Ohio, which they compare to other countries The comparison to other countries, many of which have little to no petroleum industry, is the sleight of hand I'm addressing. Putting this leak in respect to the total amount of natural gas leakage in the country and the world is a straightforward was of representing the contribution of this leak to total natural gas leakage.
  - take_a_breath 7y ago
    ==The comparison to other countries, many of which have little to no petroleum industry, is the sleight of hand I'm addressing.== My point is that failing to mention that they are comparing 20 days of leakage to an entire year, is also a slight of hand. 20 days is about 5% of a year, so the comparison still works for any country producing even 5% of the amount of oil & gas as Ohio. Ohio drills about 88k barrels/day [1]. 5% of that is 4.4k. European countries that produce more than 4.4k barrels/day, according to your Wikipedia link, are: Croatia, Hungary, France, Netherlands, Ukraine, Romania, Denmark, Poland, Serbia, Austria, Albania and Belarus (along with Norway, UK, Germany and Italy already mentioned). [1] https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPOH2&f=M https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=M...
    - manfredo 7y ago
      I'm not sure I follow. You're counting nation-wide petroleum production of these countries against 1/20th of the oil production of one US state, which only produces a fraction of the 15 million barrels of oil produced daily in the US. How is that a better comparison? Let me make my point even clearer: go pour a glass of gasoline out in your yard (hypothetically, don't actually do this). You have now polluted more than over a hundred countries' oil production industries. Because out of the ~200 countries on Earth, only 96 have oil industries. I could turn around and write, "one man contributed more oil spills than the oil industries of hundreds of countries!" and in a purely factual sense this is correct. But anyone who bothers to scrutinize this statement will see that it is very misleading.
  - munk-a 7y ago
    It's certainly a poorly worded line but I think it'd be fair to read it as "... countries with petroleum industries". The other reading is quite in bad faith.
jxramos 7y ago
Not to mention the huge variance of population to the rest of the world. Many of the countries thought up for comparison pale in scale. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_%28United_Nations%29#List https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_populat...

take_a_breath 7y ago

==Most European countries other than Norway have orders of magnitude smaller petroleum industries than the US, and many have near zero production. While leaking oil and gas is bad, this kind of journalistic sleight of hand is neither necessary nor productive.== Isn't your comment an equal slight of hand? The article isn't about total leaks in the US compared to other countries. This is about one specific gas leak in Ohio, which they compare to other countries.

manfredo 7y ago
The point is, leaking any amount of oil is sufficient to exceed the petroleum leaks of many countries that have no petroleum production whatsoever. > Isn't your comment an equal slight of hand? The article isn't about total leaks in the US compared to other countries. This is about one specific gas leak in Ohio, which they compare to other countries The comparison to other countries, many of which have little to no petroleum industry, is the sleight of hand I'm addressing. Putting this leak in respect to the total amount of natural gas leakage in the country and the world is a straightforward was of representing the contribution of this leak to total natural gas leakage.
- take_a_breath 7y ago
  ==The comparison to other countries, many of which have little to no petroleum industry, is the sleight of hand I'm addressing.== My point is that failing to mention that they are comparing 20 days of leakage to an entire year, is also a slight of hand. 20 days is about 5% of a year, so the comparison still works for any country producing even 5% of the amount of oil & gas as Ohio. Ohio drills about 88k barrels/day [1]. 5% of that is 4.4k. European countries that produce more than 4.4k barrels/day, according to your Wikipedia link, are: Croatia, Hungary, France, Netherlands, Ukraine, Romania, Denmark, Poland, Serbia, Austria, Albania and Belarus (along with Norway, UK, Germany and Italy already mentioned). [1] https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPOH2&f=M https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=M...
  - manfredo 7y ago
    I'm not sure I follow. You're counting nation-wide petroleum production of these countries against 1/20th of the oil production of one US state, which only produces a fraction of the 15 million barrels of oil produced daily in the US. How is that a better comparison? Let me make my point even clearer: go pour a glass of gasoline out in your yard (hypothetically, don't actually do this). You have now polluted more than over a hundred countries' oil production industries. Because out of the ~200 countries on Earth, only 96 have oil industries. I could turn around and write, "one man contributed more oil spills than the oil industries of hundreds of countries!" and in a purely factual sense this is correct. But anyone who bothers to scrutinize this statement will see that it is very misleading.
- munk-a 7y ago
  It's certainly a poorly worded line but I think it'd be fair to read it as "... countries with petroleum industries". The other reading is quite in bad faith.

jxramos 7y ago

Not to mention the huge variance of population to the rest of the world. Many of the countries thought up for comparison pale in scale. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_%28United_Nations%29#List https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_populat...