When you've been told that there is a worldwide energy crisis, when you've been asked to conserve energy, or to reduce your carbon dioxide emissions, and asked to reduce pollution and save gasoline and energy, you should be aware of a very conspicuous waste of energy, on a gigantic scale.
The world is running out of petroleum, it is now an accepted fact that there is an increasing crisis from man made sources of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. But you, the public, are not the main cause, and your best efforts to conserve energy and reduce your carbon footprint are literally a drop in the bucket compared to some of the real causes of the crisis.
The truth is, the method used by world's petroleum producers in drilling for oil is one of the major causes of carbon dioxide emissions.
In many areas of the world, when an oil well is drilled, the oil deposits also contain vast quantities of natural gas. Oil is simple and easy to store and transport, natural gas is much more difficult and expensive to store and transport. Therefore, in the interest of maximizing profits and simplifying their operations, the oil companies have come up with a cost effective solution, they simply burn off all the natural gas and keep the oil.
In some cases, thousands of cubic feet of natural gas are burned for every gallon of crude oil recovered. The sheer magnitute of the wasted energy is literally inconceivable. The vast amounts of carbon dioxide and other pollutants being released into the air simply staggers the mind. And none of this energy is put to use, in many cases, entire towns and cities are going bankrupt from the cost of fuel used in power stations, people are literally freezing because they can't afford the cost of heating fuel, while just a few miles away there are oil fields burning off BILLIONS of cubic feet of natural gas, with no use at all being made of all that energy.
The BILLIONS of cubic feet of gas is entirely wasted, there are no attempts to lessen or mitigate the pollution being released, this is by far one of the world's greatest contributors of carbon dioxide emissions. Compared to this, all of the carbon dioxide emitted by cars, power plants, home heating, and other sources is literally a drop in the bucket.
I've put together some placemarks to illustrate the issue. These are gas flares, as they call them, they are gigantic plumes of burning natural gas, some of them are as much as a hundred feet across and burning in huge flares hundreds of feet high. Many of the gas flares in the Persian Gulf have been incorrectly identified as "oil fires," or they have been labled as damage from the gulf war. This is not true, these are deliberate and intentional burn offs of a precious resource that the oil companies regard as a nuisance that's not worth the effort to conserve.
You should be aware, these are only a tiny fraction of a percent of the gas flares being burned off around the world, these are only sites in high resolution areas where it is very clear what is happening. There are hundreds of thousands of these flares around the world, each and every one of them is consuming more energy, and emitting more pollution, than an average sized town. So when you look at them, please remember this is merely a tiny little sample of the true magnitude of the waste.
So if you are a conservationist, if you have been concerned about carbon dioxide emissions and conserving energy, if you have been working and sacrificing to help save our planet, I truly am sorry to shatter your illusions, but compared to the ongoing waste from these sites, all of your efforts have been a complete waste of time. Compared to the pollution and waste of even one of these sites, you have been conserving drops of energy while they have been burning hundreds of gallons.
Here is a sampling of some of the flares around the world. And remember, these are burning twenty four hours a day, year round. If you want a true perspective of the problem, use the NASA layer, and use the Earth City Lights function, compare the amount of light from these flares with the light produced by an average sized city.

Here are some of the Chinese gas flares

Here's one in Colombia, note the small town nearby, it would be a simple matter to use this wasted gas to heat and provide power to that entire town

Here's a huge cluster of flares in Kazakhstan

I wish to apologize for my overly passionate language in my first post about this issue, I've tried to tone it down.
And I'd like to thank the mods for their vigilance and help in calming me down and making it more........impartial and factual and less furious!
I do feel that anyone posting important environmental issues should try to be detached and factual about it, or we all wind up yelling and screaming at each other.
The explanation is, I lost my cool, when I started doing research on this issue, I found that, in some cases, they are burning off what amounts to, four gallons of gas for every gallon of refined oil they produce.
Compared to that kind of waste, we are saving pennies while the methods they use are burning off hundreds of dollars. So, I got a little upset in my first posting, and I apologize.

Iraq flares. These are NOT from bomb damage, they are NOT burning oil wells. These are natural gas flares from the oil refineries in Iraq, the gas is deliberately being burned.
Many of these sites have been misidentified as bomb damage from the Iraq war, or as oil well fires. But all of these attachments show deliberate venting and burning of natural gas from the oilfields.
By the way, if you display all of these attachments together, you can get a very clear idea of the linear locations of the oilfields in that part of the world.

Picture a solid mass of flame, 300 feet wide by 600 feet long, towering a hundred feet in the sky. That's what you'd get if you added the flares together just from this one attachment. And remember, these are only a tiny fraction of a percent of the gas flares burning in the world.
Here's my final collection of gas flares in the mideast, there are thousands more in the area, I've only selected flares that are in high resolution images.
I suggest you display all of these attachments at once, click on the Gallery, and turn on the NASA layer, with the Earth City Lights display, that shows the view at night. You can very clearly see the tremendous amount of energy being wasted, the light from many of these flares is much brighter than any of the cities in the area. The amount of carbon dioxide being released into the air is simply astonishing. Not to mention all of the other pollutants and contaminants being released, this is crude, unrefined gas and heavy waste petroleum residue being burned.
Compared to this gigantic waste, the pints and quarts of fuel we've been conserving as individuals is literally just a drop in the bucket. Bear in mind that these flares are burning twenty four hours a day, month after month, year after year.........

Gas flares in Russia and the Balkins. This gives you a good idea of the sheer amount of energy and waste pollutants being released from this method of oil drilling. Altogether, if you display all of these attachments at once and turn on the City Lights layer, you can clearly see the vast extent of the waste and carbon dioxide pollution. The toxic pollution from the hydrocarbons being burned in these flares is impossible to estimate, since this is raw natural gas, in most cases it is being burned completely unrefined, just as it comes out of the ground. In other cases the refineries inject waste products directly into the flame, where they are partially burned and dispersed downwind as toxic gases, particulate matter and soot.
These are not quiet little fires, these are wide diameter pipes pumping gas at high pressure, in some of these flares the flames are roaring a hundred feet high or more into the air. And these attachment do not include the offshore oil rigs, the individual refineries close to cities, and this is merely the middle east and Russia, don't forget all of the American oilfields, and the hundreds of refineries in the western hemisphere and the far east.
The worst part is, all of this pollution and waste is being created for absolutely nothing, all of this gas is being totally wasted, even if if it was merely being used to boil water for steam turbines it could supply entire cities with heat and electricity.

It is amazing..the title of this thread should have been the largest amount of greed. All waste of energy on this level is for someone to make money somewhere.

Thanks for your post.
I wasn't really aware of the problem.
But, I must say it doesn't really surprise me (sicken yes, surprise no).
The Oil companies, chemical companies, and most large companies have decided that Greed outweighs all other considerations... And, we let them get away with it. By we, I mean everyone, governments and people.
I wonder when we will have a system that puts these ******s in their place..