One of the most dangerous greenhouse gases is leaking into the atmosphere relentlessly from the European Union’s easternmost edge.
Invisible plumes of methane escape from Romania's oil fields, gas pipes, rusting storage containers and even a well next to a playground. The job of finding the leaking gas, with more than 80 times more warming power than carbon dioxide in the short term, falls to James Turitto from the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force. He's found more than 70 leaks using a special infrared camera capable of detecting the odorless gas.
"It felt like every well in Romania is leaking,” said Turitto, who’s traveling around Europe with the €100,000 ($118,000) camera to track down fugitive releases. "Tanks were rusted out. It was impossible to document all the methane emissions.”