Such Great Heights
One aspect of gas fields that you wouldn't know about unless you've been on the ground is the incredible noise coming from the compressor stations that move the gas through the pipelines. Have you thought of including sound recordings with your images and using video as well as still images? -- Bill Mitchell, Vashon Island, Wash.
John Amos is head of SkyTruth.
You are absolutely right about that. We've got a new YouTube video and companion Google Earth project up on our website that features drilling in western Wyoming, but we haven't captured the noise yet. Sound has a huge impact, especially on local residents, and possibly on wildlife. I've been on diesel-powered drill rigs and next to those compressor stations. The rigs run 24/7 while drilling, then move on to the next location once the well is completed; but the compressor turbines, which are a lot like a jet engine, run continuously for the life of the field (24/7 for decades). We'd love to collect some video with sound shot in the field, and post that to YouTube to give folks a feel for this. Now if we can only find a way to convey the smells as well -- got any ideas, folks?
By the way, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has just released a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Pinedale Anticline field, featured in our video, that would permit the drilling of 4,400 new wells. The public can comment on this plan until Feb. 12. Go straight to the source: the press release on the BLM's Pinedale Field Office website. And check in with the Upper Green River Valley Coalition.
What photo that you've taken has affected you the most, and why? -- Name not provided
Hard to say, but the most recent one that made me go "Yikes!" is a time-series of satellite images we produced showing the downstream impact of gold mining in Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Check out the images in our Grasberg Mine gallery. Mine waste (called "tailings") from the Grasberg mine up in the mountains has been dumped directly into the adjacent rivers that flow down into the lowland forests, burying the floodplains with tailings and killing off the vegetation across a huge area (the ugly purple swath in the images). When I saw this, my very first thought was, What makes anyone think they have the right to do this? My second thought was that if it wasn't for satellite imagery, few people would ever even know stuff like this was happening. We've harnessed a technology that will expose bad practices like this wherever they are happening in the world. From now on, no company or government will be able to get away with stuff like this without being noticed.
So I hope our imagery will make people think about that the next time they're shopping for a nice piece of gold jewelry, and ask some hard questions about where that gold is coming from and what the consequences are. Let's clean up our bling! A good place to start is the No Dirty Gold website.
First, you are the first person I know of besides myself who has admitted to Joe Versus the Volcano being a favorite film. Do you have any time-lapse type photos of the ongoing deforestation of the Amazon jungle? -- Mark Foley, Wrentham, Mass.
Another Joe fan! That's a movie that you either love or hate. But what I really liked was the cartoonish way they explored a fundamentally important theme: it's your life, and it is what you make of it. Be bold. Swim upstream. It took me a long time (under a lot of grim fluorescent lighting) to learn that and do something about it. For that reason I rank it as one of the best films Tom Hanks has ever done, and Meg Ryan too.
Lots of groups have been using satellite imagery to monitor deforestation in the Amazon, including the Brazilian government. Google "Amazon deforestation" and see what pops up. Another great source for images showing all kinds of things, both beautiful and disturbing, is the Earth Observatory run by NASA. And when it comes to deforestation, let's not forget about the boreal forests of Canada and Russia, or the hardwood forests of the southern Appalachians which have the highest biodiversity in North America (and are being hit by a one-two punch of logging and mountaintop-removal mining for coal). See here for a great video and Google Earth project on that topic.
Does SkyTruth decide for itself where to concentrate its efforts, or do you respond to requests from concerned individuals and/or groups? Are the satellite images you use freely available to anyone? If so, how would one go about obtaining them? -- Name not provided
I love a good nuts-and-bolts question. SkyTruth operates independently. But we do work closely with conservation organizations, and occasionally government agencies, to help us determine the issues and places where our work with satellite and aerial imagery would be useful and timely. Our experienced board of directors also provides guidance to help us set the priorities for our very limited resources. There are so many areas where our work can play a valuable role (energy development, mining, logging, urban sprawl, climate change, offshore pollution monitoring, to name a few) that it's a big job simply to stay on top of the issues, what's happening, and where it's happening. And occasionally something big happens in the world that we just feel compelled to move on.
A great example of that is the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. While most of the attention was rightly focused on the human tragedy and the huge oil spills that happened on shore (9 million gallons from damaged refineries, pipelines, and storage tanks; Exxon Valdez was 11 million gallons), we saw images that seemed to show large oil slicks out in the Gulf of Mexico's offshore oil fields. We pulled a couple of all-nighters cranking out maps that pinpointed the apparent sources of some of this oil, posting them in a public image gallery and encouraging government agencies to use the images to guide their response and repair efforts. Instead, they held a press conference insisting that there were "no significant spills" offshore, and questioning our credibility. Six months later, they published data showing that a major spill had indeed occurred, with over 100 platforms totally destroyed, many others damaged, and over 450 pipelines on the seafloor damaged.
Many of the images we use are available for free from a variety of sources, but you need GIS or image-processing skills and software to handle the digital data and turn it into useful maps and graphics. Our intent is to make our work available to the public. You are free to browse much of what we've done in our public image galleries. If there's anything you'd like to download and use in a presentation or publication, just send us an email requesting permission. We generally grant it for noncommercial, educational purposes, and sometimes make exceptions for commercial use too.
Do you think you could be doing what you are right now if you hadn't worked for oil and mining companies first? Do you feel that you gain or lose legitimacy coming from the background that you do? -- Sarah Bronstein, Seattle, Wash.
Who knows how things would have turned out? During those years I honed many of the skills I'm using now, earned a lot more money than I make now, and was exposed to many images showing environmental destruction. The skills and money saved helped me take the leap to launch SkyTruth, and the images provided plenty of motivation.
Regarding legitimacy, it goes both ways. On one hand I have some good insider knowledge of the energy industry, an understanding of what is technically feasible to minimize damage to the environment, coupled with an appreciation of the challenges all companies face sustaining a business. I like to think that gives me some perspectives and useful insights that provide credibility. On the other hand, I'm a neophyte when it comes to conservation. Many of the people I meet have dedicated their entire lives working to protect the environment. They have fought a lot of battles, winning a few, and they keep at it. That can make me feel like a bit of a dilettante by comparison.
Don't count on people being shocked by any landscape destruction for too long: they'll grow accustomed to or suppress just about anything. I live about a mile away from a 300-foot-deep lignite surface mine that is about to destroy our village. There is an observation platform at the other side of the mine where visitors may be seen gazing in awe into the depths. -- Jeffrey Michel, Heuersdorf, Germany
We do have a tendency to get hardened to things over time. Maybe that's just an aspect of human nature that allowed us to survive in an often-tough world. There are so many things that are wrong, it can be paralyzing. But if we could all just pick one thing to do outside of ourselves, and be satisfied knowing that we can't possibly fix everything, humanity would make great progress.
You also touch on an excellent point: we live in the here and now. When many of us see the big pit, we think "wow, what a cool hole in the ground" because we never had the opportunity to see what was there before the pit, and know what was lost. Some of our most effective images have been time comparisons: satellite images taken years ago, compared with how things look now, or even a projection into the future of what things might look like if we don't insist on changes. It's one way we can try to reestablish the baseline in people's minds of what should be considered "normal" in their environment.
Under what conditions would you approve of oil and gas extraction on public lands? What specific lease terms would you require? -- Ted Borawski, Harrisburg, Pa.
Since we all like to, and must, use energy, that is a great question. Let me just say that, generally, our public lands (and offshore waters) should be held to the highest possible standards, not the lowest. BLM routinely publishes guidelines that they call "best management practices" addressing many of the drilling techniques and equipment, day-to-day operational practices, and remediation actions that can minimize the environmental impact of extraction. But they require none of this; it's all just advisory and left up to the discretion of the companies. Since many of these BMPs are more expensive to implement than the older, dirtier practices, they are typically ignored. (I'll bet Wall Street investors and stock analysts would argue that it's fiscally irresponsible for a publicly held company to adopt more expensive practices that aren't legally required.) So the responsibility lies with our land-management agencies. I think those best practices should be required, and should be the de facto standard for operating on public land. If an energy company can't use those best practices and still make a profit with current energy prices, then they have no business operating on our public lands.
Also, I think there are some places on our public lands where we just shouldn't drill. The people of New Mexico -- Republicans, Democrats, ranchers, outfitters, conservationists, hunters, Boy Scouts, and homemakers -- recently decided that was the case for the Valle Vidal, and are now working to protect the Otero Mesa. Montanans did the same for the spectacular Rocky Mountain Front. Folks in Wyoming think the same about the Red Desert and the Wyoming Range. All of these places put together represent a small percentage of the area of public lands that is already wide open for oil and gas drilling. And combined, the total oil and gas resources under those lands wouldn't last this country more than a few months at our current rates of consumption -- drill all we can, and we will still be dependent on foreign imports and at the mercy of some very unstable governments. I've never seen an oil or gas field on public lands that has been restored to the way it was before drilling. Should we squander these special places to feed our addiction to oil and gas for a few more months, and further delay taking any real action to change our ways?
As a geologist I know that fossil-fuel resources are finite, and throughout the oil industry it is widely acknowledged that the days of "easy" oil are over. We could continue to drill everywhere until the very bitter end, leaving a legacy of utter dependence on fossil fuels, a crippled manufacturing sector, continuous military interventions around the world, permanently scarred lands and depleted wildlife, and a runaway and unpredictable climate. Or we could get serious right now about using our energy more intelligently and more efficiently and developing viable sources to supplement our use of fossil fuels.
I live in a beautiful mountainous area in northwestern Maine. The visible signs on the horizon of logging have been growing at an accelerating pace. With Google Earth I can see many more surprising effects that I had no way of knowing about. How about a way to review the visual impact of forestry practices and understand their real impact, keeping track of who does what? -- Lloyd Griscom, Phillips, Maine
That is a wonderful idea, and Google Earth would be a great tool to use for exactly that purpose. All we need is another staff member or a dedicated volunteer! In the meantime, check out the work that the Native Forest Council just released, an aerial showcase of logging in our national forests.
How many people work for SkyTruth? -- Grist editors
Counting our staff, part-time volunteers, and very active directors, there are 10 of us right now.
As a professor at a large university, I often meet students that say they want to do creative environmental communication work when they graduate. Beyond "following their dreams," what specific skills do you think are the most valuable to learn or to gain for someone who wants to make a living working creatively as an environmental communication practitioner today? -- Professor Pezzullo, Bloomington, Ind.
Being fairly new to this line of work, I'm not really a communications specialist. But in my opinion, the basic, most important skills are writing and research. Given the revolution in "new media" and tools like Google Earth -- and who knows what we'll be buzzing about next year -- the ability to use the latest internet and telecommunications technologies is definitely a must. Finally, I'm a bit old-fashioned in that I think everyone should get a solid background in science so they can build defensible science-backed arguments for conservation. Science alone doesn't win the day in the policymaking arena, but you won't be taken seriously without it.
Can you tell me more about volunteering opportunities with SkyTruth? -- Name not provided
Sure thing. We've got a growing list of projects we wish we could get to! Most of our needs are technology-based: image processing, digital graphics production, Google Earth and other "virtual globe" database building and programming, Geographic Information Systems work, and web-based mapping, to name a few. But we also could use help getting out a regular e-newsletter, maintaining and updating our website (it gets stale shockingly fast), and of course fundraising (we'd love to find corporate sponsors and reach out more to individual donors). If you've got those kinds of skills and are interested in helping us out, please contact us and we'll do our best to put you to work. Just be patient -- we are very busy here!
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