As a newbie, at first the tech-heavy work intimidated me; it was difficult to imagine how I would fit in.
That fear was quickly replaced with excitement. On my first day, I met the team and developed a better understanding of exactly how I would contribute to environmental change.
Nigeria is not only the largest economy in Africa, but also the largest exporter of crude oil on the continent, exporting 1.27 million barrels per day in 2021. The Nigerian economy is—and historically has been—reliant on the hydrocarbon industry for foreign exchange income and tax revenue. The reliance on crude oil in particular for income generation has led to the widespread proliferation of offshore drilling operations in the petroleum-rich Niger Delta Basin.
For the past eight months, SkyTruth has been working with a team of journalists and media outlets associated with Lighthouse Reports investigating the problem of chronic (and often illegal) oil pollution by vessels at sea transiting European waters. These outlets recently released a groundbreaking series of stories. In this blog post we explain how SkyTruth developed the estimates used by these journalists to reveal the extent of oily bilge waste in European waters.
Trinidad and Tobago – the small dual-island Caribbean nation – has been a top exporter of liquefied natural gas for years. Because of its significant oil and gas exploration, and what some Trinidadians would call poor corporate and government responsibility, oil leakages from offshore infrastructure are very common events in Trinidad’s waters. With the help of satellite imagery, SkyTruth has been able to directly observe and continuously monitor Trinidad’s chronic oil pollution.
As 2021 draws to a close, SkyTruth is celebrating its 20th anniversary as an environmental tech nonprofit. It’s hard for us to believe how far SkyTruth — and technology — have come in those 20 years, and how much we have accomplished. In 2022 we’re poised to grow even more; doubling the size of the SkyTruth team and magnifying our ability to use technology to promote conservation for people and the planet. Read on to join us on our journey from very humble beginnings to high-tech innovators.