One Nordstream pipeline sabotage point is the largest methane (CH
4) leak ever detected on earth from a single source, emitting 174,000 lbs of CH
4 (methane)/ hour from only one of multiple damaged regions of the pipeline, reported The European Space Agency using satellite data recorded September 30, 2022 by a company named GHGSat.
This instantaneous rate of methane release from damage to Nordstream 2 from this section alone is
equivalent to burning two million pounds of coal per hour. This is only one of four pipeline damage areas. Nordstream 2 was not operational but contained highly pressurized methane gas at the time it was remotely exploded in at least two sections. The damaged regions of the pipeline have still not been repaired as of the date of this article, March 4, 2023, more than five months after intentional detonation of explosives caused the rupture. The methane is being released into the Baltic Sea.
Methane is responsible for approximately 30 percent of the global rise in temperatures to date, even though it represents only a fraction of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, far less than CO
2. This is because the methane molecule, even though rarer, has far more powerful effects on global warming than does C0
2.
Pulitzer-prize-winning New York Times journalist Seymour Hersh in an investigative news article that was published on Substack gave a detailed account, using inside sources, of how and why the United States detonated explosives to rupture the Nordstream Pipeline. In an operation led by Jake Sullivan, explosives were placed on the pipeline by U.S. Navy personnel during NATO exercises, and detonated months later remotely by Norway using sonic devices, under an agreement with the United States, said the report. The United States has denied all the statements contained in the report and any involvement. Current and former U.S. intelligent officials suggested Russia damaged its own pipeline for the purpose of blaming others for the damage, or that it exacted the damage in order to gain authorization to repair the damage as a "foot in the door" to getting sanctions lifted. Numerous responses to these statements by the U.S. public indicate the public did not find any of the reasoning promulgated by U.S. intelligence officials to be plausible. Sweden conducted a physical investigation into the damage, and confirmed that the evidence collected at the site supports that explosives were detonated, but classified other results of the investigation, including who was found responsible.
Referring to the pipeline, the Biden Administration had been publicly threatening that it would "shut it down" as a method of influence over Russia, despite the pipeline project not being under U.S. control, while other members of the U.S. presidential administration and of the U.S. Congress
publicly relished at the thought of disabling it for strategic interest purposes. Danish police confirmed the damage was intentional. Danish police agencies also found explosives were used, reported news outlet The Hill. Nordstream 1 and Nordstream 2 each have two trunk lines. Damage was exacted via the use of explosives in at least three locations spaced apart from one another. The explosive detonations were detected in background seismic monitoring.
Climate Change is the third largest cause of massive declines in populations of over 20,000 species of wildlife whose populations are being monitored. The first two largest causes of population decline and species extinction are direct habitat modification and overexploitation.
