CIRCLING THE GLOBE as a travel writer, visiting almost 150 countries over about 20 years, I have seen a lot of remarkable things. I’ve stood in the basket of a hot-air balloon and watched herds of elephants crossing the Serengeti. I have travelled by helicopter in Antarctica to see humpback whales feeding in the frigid waters. I’ve been awestruck by the Taj Mahal in India, Machu Picchu in Peru and the Pyramids of Giza. I have even felt the last rays of a sunset fading over Cambodia’s Angkor Wat as I sat atop a temple.
But I have never, ever seen or experienced anything like the Gates of Hell, its flames dazzling from the bottom of the crater 30 metres below, lighting up the Karakum Desert with burning methane. My visit nearly a decade ago was an unforgettable experience.
That place is on my mind these days because it has been in the news recently. Darvaza, Turkmenistan’s famous flaming gas crater, is finally about to be extinguished, its polluting abyss plugged, hopefully forever. The country’s new president, Serdar Berdimuhamedov, announced that the United States is going to help his country do it for the good of the whole world.
The crater is in one of Turkmenistan’s two main gas fields, both of which are huge contributors to climate change. (Satellite data gathered on behalf of The Guardian shows that methane leaks from those fields caused more global heating in 2022 than all the carbon emissions of the United Kingdom.)
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, methane is responsible for more than 25 per cent of the global warming we are experiencing today; it traps more heat in the atmosphere per molecule than carbon dioxide (CO2), making it 80 times more potent than CO2, and for longer—20 years after it is released.
Esta historia es de la edición November, 2024 de Reader's Digest India.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición November, 2024 de Reader's Digest India.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
STUDIO - Off Lamington Road by Gieve Patel
Oil on Canvas, 54 x 88 in
NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF MEDICINE
FOODS THAT FIGHT DEMENTIA
TO HELL AND BACK
The Darvaza crater in Turkmenistan is known as the Gates of Hell. I stood on its edge - and lived to tell the tale
THE SNAKE CHARMERS
Invasive Burmese pythons are squeezing the life out of Florida's vast Everglades. An unlikely sisterhood is taking them on
Sisterhood to Last a Lifetime
These college pals teach a master class in how to maintain a friendship for 50-plus years
...TO DIE ON A HOCKEY RINK
ONE MINUTE I WAS PLAYING IN MY BEER LEAGUE, THE NEXT I WAS IN THE HOSPITAL
Just Sit Tight
Broken, battered and trapped in a ravine for days, I desperate driver wonders, \"Will anyone find me?\"
Allow Me to Mansplain...
If there's one thing we know, it's this: We're a nation of know-it-alls
THE BITTER TRUTH ABOUT SUGAR (AND SUGAR SUBSTITUTES!)
It's no secret that we have a serious addiction. Here's how to cut back on the sweet stuff, once and for all.
A Baker's Dozen Facts About Eggs
1 EGGS ARE perhaps the most vital life force. More than 99 per cent of animal species reproduce via oviparity (egg laying), with mammals being the notable outliers. And even then, there are two striking exceptions: the echidna (spiny anteater) and the platypus, the only mammals that lay eggs.
