Energy and the Environment

  Gas flaring, when associated gas produced from a reservoir during oil production is flared or burned off, has been identified as a significant contributor to climate change (World Bank GGFR). According to the World Bank, ‘thousands of gas flares at oil production sites around the globe burn approximately 140 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, causing more than 300 million tons of CO2 to be emitted to the atmosphere”. There is also evidence that flaring can have significant negative health effects on surrounding communities as well. We’ll explore these issues here using data visualization in GeoDa. Remember to Label your maps with a title that describes the map as well. And include map legends in all maps. 1. 5pts First, NOAA has provided some detailed data on global gas flaring here: http://skytruth.org/viirs/ . Included in the ‘hw2’ zip file is a shapefile of the world (called “world_electricity”). The columns labeled “bcm_x” stand for billion cubic meters of flared gas in year x. Create a map of the distribution of flared gas in 2016. Which countries were the top 5 countries for gas flaring in the world? Has the top 5 ranking changed between 2012 and 2016? 2. 5 pts The world shapefile also includes columns showing the percentage of the population in each country with access to electricity for each year where data is available labeled “XYear” (so X2012 is the percentage of the population in each country with access to electricity in year 2012). Create a map of the distribution of access to electricity in 2012. What are the bottom 5 countries for access to electricity in the world? Given your observations of distributions of flares globally in question 1, what would your suggestion be to a policy maker in a country interested in expanding electricity access? (Assuming the optimal outcome for policymakers is 100% access)