If you smell methane, alert your local utility gas to prevent explosions and reduce air pollution. Be proactive and persistent in reporting leaks, and explain your concerns.

This one is simple. Whenever you come across the smell of methane (natural gas) give a call to your local utility gas-reporting phone number or website. Not only do you prevent the risk of explosions, but it helps not waste this polluting, planet-heating substance from leaking into the air.

We hear of methane leaks from industrial piping, flaring and fracking but what does that mean? Natural gas is made primarily of methane, with a little ethane and other hydrocarbons. Industry mines and processes it for fuel, but it is a very potent greenhouse gas that overheats our world. Unfortunately most corporations and municipalities only maintain equipment to a cost-effective level. This means they may not regularly send out employees looking for leaks.

So help them by being proactive. If needed, be a pest and call about a consistent leak, even if small. We need those leaks plugged. If you are up for it, while you have them on the phone, explain why you are concerned — not just for safety, but to prevent the cooking of the planet.

Technically, when we smell natural gas we smell an additive used to create a detectable smell, as methane itself is odorless. The goal of the additive is to help find leaks before they cause an explosion.