Google is a multinational tech company known for many things, but preserving the environment is not necessarily one of them. This doesn’t mean that we don’t expect it to be eco-conscious, it just means that there aren’t so many outspoken concerns in this particular direction coming from the tech industry. But Google is actually on its way to being more environmentally friendly as we speak.

Google Partnered Up with EDF

Ever since 2012, Google Street View cars (you know, those funny little guys that everyone wants to pose for) have been mounted with EDF sensors that detect methane leaks in the areas that the cars survey. EDF stands for the Environmental Defense Fund, and the sensors they designed are extremely cost effective and efficient in detecting methane problems. Ever since the partnership between Google and EDF first kicked off 5 years ago, the cars have detected as many as 5,500 (or even more) methane leaks around the surveyed areas.

But why is methane so harmful, one might ask? Well, while it’s true that the burning of natural gases (such as methane) is much cleaner than that of fossil fuel (such as coal), methane leaks are actually responsible for the undoing of the benefits that we believe burning methane instead of coal brings. So, methane leaks actually work against the benefits that using cleaner fuel sources has on our lives and our planet.

The Fight Against Global Warming

Ever since Google got involved with identifying these leaks, the fight against climate change has actually been more successful. By managing to identify leaks, EDF has also been able to fix them and the issues they caused, so our world could get cleaner and safer every day. In the current political climate, it’s good to see that at least some important people actually know that global warming is a real threat, not a conspiracy made up by China.