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Western Canada has tens of thousands of inactive oil wells, like this one near Red Deer in Alberta province. With its flaking red paint, broken pressure gauge and cranks fallen to the ground, an oil well sits forsaken in western Canada, like tens of thousands of others that have been out of service for decades—but never plugged. Activists and experts say the existence of these inactive oil and gas installations—often dug hundreds of meters (yards) below the surface in Alberta province—is a ticking ecological time bomb for the vast country. "Every single one of them is simply steel and concrete. They erode and break down," said Regan Boychuk, the founder of Reclaim Alberta, a group advocating for the clean-up of such wells. "Every one of these holes needs to be managed, monitored for eternity because of the danger of leaks," he told AFP. Each one of these wells also emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas that, over a 20-year period, is "86 times more impactful compared to a molecule of carbon dioxide," stresses McGill University professor Mary Kang, who has written a study on the issue. It’s a source of pollution that she believes is likely underestimated and "has […]
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