Gas flaring wastes resources, pollutes atmosphere.

• Author: Herro, Alana
• Position: EYE ON EARTH

Every year, the oil industry burns off up to 170 billion cubic meters of natural gas released in the oil extraction process, according to a new report from the World Bank. The practice, known as gas flaring, not only harms the environment by emitting some 400 million tons of carbon dioxide globally, but is also wasteful of the gas itself, notes Bent Svensson, manager of the Bank's Global Gas Flaring Reduction partnership. "In Africa alone about 40 billion cubic meters of gas are burned every...