Concealed

In the midst of the monarchist kerfuffle, and the election of people to manage the nation's potholes, the raging over an illegal and unworkable plan to exile traumatised refugees to a country known for brutal genocide, and a TV infomercial by a US sex offender, the story about Turkmenistan flickered briefly across the news and rapidly sank without trace. In case you missed it...

A land-locked country of 6 million people on the eastern shore of the Caspian sea, Turkmenistan is the second biggest supplier of gas to China (after Australia). It is ruled by a ruthless dictator with scant regard for human rights. Its gas reserves are colossal - fourth largest in the world, as well as having substantial oil

Two large gas fields in the west of the country have been detected by new satelite technology to be venting methane - "marsh gas" - into the atmosphere. Not just little leaks but deliberate releases on a huge scale - several millions of tonnes of year. Methane is eighty times more deadly as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide over the first twenty years after its release. The effect of the methane released by these fields in each of the last few years is greater than the total carbon released by the UK

In the past, gas producers used to burn methane as it was released, but the flames are easy to see from space, so they started venting it directly to the atmosphere to avoid detection, vastly increasing its climate impact

Meanwhile, on The Mall on parade day, the metropolitan police detained 13 people because they were wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts. They said it was because of intelligence

The wet May is suiting the green roof on the shed, encouraging a little carbon absorbtion. I can see buttercups and plantain and, I think, yarrow. I know there will be vetches and, I hope, yellow rattle again. This is the best regular view we get of the roof - we have put it in a place that is not overlooked by any of our upstairs windows, so the only way to see it from above is to get out the ladder. You could say lacking in intelligence