Youth Climate Initiative: Stopping Methane Super Emitters

Hi, we are the Youth Climate Initiative, high school kids from North Carolina that found an easy, affordable way to have big climate impact. Our story was recently covered in the NYT.

In May of 2024, we completed our first project: Stopping the emissions from an abandoned 'Super Emitter' gas well. This stopped tens of thousands of tons of greenhouse gas emissions from spewing into the atmosphere and further warming the planet.

We've proven that even kids can have massive, measurable climate impact!!

It took us a while to figure it out and now that we have proven that it works, we are ready to share the news and start our next project. Please join us!!

Backstory:

Like many young people we realize that Climate Change is a huge challenge that we will have to deal with in our lifetime. So we wanted to do something about it. But, how could we? Most kids aren't old enough to drive a hybrid/electric vehicle or install solar panels on a home, even many adults can't afford these options.

There had to be a way that was affordable, accessible and more impactful than these options, and it turns out there is!

A bit of science:

Greenhouse gasses, like Carbon Dioxide and Methane, are among the main drivers of global warming. But, it turns out that Methane causes over 80 times more global warming than Carbon Dioxide does. This makes Methane an incredibly powerful source of environmental damage, and it also presents a great opportunity to address this problem.

One of Methane’s main sources are abandoned/orphaned gas wells that are strewn across the US. These wells were drilled for oil or gas many decades ago, but eventually they fell into disrepair and no one maintains them anymore.. Today, all these orphaned wells spew millions of tons of Methane gas. This not only threatens nearby land, water, humans, animals, and plants, but it also enters the atmosphere and causes a massive amount of warming for all of us.

Some of these wells are considered 'Super Emitters' because of the massive amount of Methane they spew every second (actual video below of the well we helped adopt and plug).

The solution:

Luckily, Super Emitter wells can be plugged to stop their emissions. Plugging a single well one of these wells can prevent more greenhouse emissions than those produced by thousands of cars or homes. Not only is stopping a Super Emitter tremendously impactful, it is accessible to kids and everyday people since anyone can make a donation, big or small.

We formed the Youth Climate Initiative to spread the word, raise funds to plug Super Emitter wells, and prove that everyday people and kids can help stop global warming.

We partner with the Well Done Foundation (WDF), anestablished non-profit that has found, adopted and plugged over 40 orphaned wells. For our first project we worked with WDF to plug and stop a Super Emitter on a horse farm, near Akron, Ohio (below: plugging crew at work in late April, 2024).

We know this works! That's why we are now starting our second project to adopt and plug another Super Emitter.

Please Donate and Follow us!

Check out our Instagram posts and info from our first project:

https://www.instagram.com/youth_climate_initiative/

See info on the first well we plugged in May, 2024:

https://welldonefoundation.org/projects/mccleary-unit-001/

See the NYT article on our work:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/24/climate/orphan-wells-capping-methane-leaks.html?unlocked_article_code=1.uU0.cwd4.cMDz1FwUJ3MY&smid=url-share

Kids and everyday people can take action. We can have massive climate impact. Anyone can!

All donations go directly to WDF. Thanks in advance for your high impact contribution towards stopping a powerful source of global warming.

Well Done Foundation Mission Statement: Plugging orphan oil and gas wells, resulting in immediate elimination of greenhouse gas emissions. Fighting climate change, one well at a time. (Images/video credits by WDF)