Looming Eco (Ecological / Economic) Disaster

The New Yorker magazine published a story on 6/25/2022 regarding a oil tanker vessel moored off the coast of Yemen loaded with a MILLION gallons of crude that is possibly about to sink, creating not only an ecological disaster for the local Red Sea area but another global economic disaster due to impacts to shipping lanes.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/can-the-interna…

After concluding its useful life as an ocean-going vessel, it was repurposed in 1987 as an off-shore fuel depot, terminating pipelines from shore into its tanks and providing means for other tankers to re-fuel from it rather than at shore. Now the ship is rusted out and at risk of breaking up. Due to the war that has been underway since 2014, the ship has had virtually zero corrective maintenance performed against any onboard systems, further heightening the risk of a major calamity.

Eliminating the spill risk will cost nearly $80 million dollars to remove the oil from the tanker and efforts to round up that funding have been complicated by international politics.

This seems to be another sign of how ill-equipped the world is right now to act in unison on any constructive solution. Eight million dollars is going to look damn cheap in comparison to the cost of cleaning up a spill and disrupting worldwide shipping in a world already failing to correct crippled supply chains.

WTH

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This seems to be another sign of how ill-equipped the world is right now to act in unison on any constructive solution. Eight million dollars is going to look damn cheap in comparison to the cost of cleaning up a spill and disrupting worldwide shipping in a world already failing to correct crippled supply chains.

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Yes the oil industry has given the world thousands of disasters, and they keep getting bigger with worse outcomes with passing years.

The oil industry always wants maximum profits and does not care about maintenance to prevent oil spills, explosions, fires, environmental degradation, water pollution (rivers, lakes and oceans), air pollution, and climate change (CO2 and methane pollution).

Only thing limiting more disasters and more pollution is government regulations when they are enforced.

Jaak

2 Likes

This seems to be another sign of how ill-equipped the world is right now to act in unison on any constructive solution. Eight million dollars is going to look damn cheap in comparison to the cost of cleaning up a spill and disrupting worldwide shipping in a world already failing to correct crippled supply chains.

Being is a war zone is a large factor in the situation.

Yes the oil industry has given the world thousands of disasters…

…and many more benefits.

DB2

6 Likes

“Yes the oil industry has given the world thousands of disasters…”

and if no oil industry? We’d have a billion horses pooping in the streets of the cities - with a million folks employed to nightly remove a billion pounds of horse poop. Horrible stench. Disease, Flies. When it rains, rivers and bays polluted beyond belief.

without oil, we’d be living an 1880s lifestyle. Burning trillions of pounds of coal to generate electricity to run the lights and motors of industry.

Oh, you might have an around town car run off lead acid battery with 25 mile type range. On dirt roads. (cobble stones in the immediate down town).

The population of the world would have been limited …farm yields 90% less than today.

Only long distance transport - coal fired trains.
Barges on rivers. Sailing ships and ships run on coal.

No thanks.

Cities would be so polluted, life spans would be less than those in the 1800s.

t.

5 Likes

t: and if no oil industry? We’d have a billion horses pooping in the streets of the cities - with a million folks employed to nightly remove a billion pounds of horse poop.

without oil, we’d be living an 1880s lifestyle. Burning trillions of pounds of coal to generate electricity to run the lights and motors of industry.

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LOL!

Wake up luddite! No horse poop and no coal or oil needed in future. We can live in a world with minimal use of fossil fuels. We will generate electricity from renewables, generate green hydrogen, and electrify our transportation, industry, and buildings.

Jaak

1 Like

Jaak:“We can live in a world with minimal use of fossil fuels. We will generate electricity from renewables, generate green hydrogen, and electrify our transportation, industry, and buildings.”

But HOW FAR in the future.

Likely 90% of roads are made of asphalt…from oil refining.

Cars are made from plastic composites and steel , iron, copper, and a dozen other metals…all currently mined around the world by fossil fueled machines, hauled by fossil fuel trucks to fossil fuel refineries, then shipped across oceans on fossil fueled ships. Made with billions of pounds of steel.

Likely in 100 years, most fossil fuel resources will be GONE. Used up.

Meanwhile, most food production is simply converting fossil fuels calories into food calories.
Even worse for ‘meat’. Fuel intensive farming with cultivating, planting, weeding, pest control, harvesting, drying, transportation, converting into edible food, refrigeration, transportation to stores, and on and on.

In addition, more people and rising standards of living are requiring more energy be produced - soaking up most new ‘renewable’ energy projects right off the bat.

It will be 50 years till a steep decline in fossil fuel use and a lot of that will be because fossil fuels are becoming ‘scarce’.

t.

Cars are made from plastic composites and steel , iron, copper, and a dozen other metals…all currently mined around the world by fossil fueled machines, hauled by fossil fuel trucks to fossil fuel refineries, then shipped across oceans on fossil fueled ships. Made with billions of pounds of steel.

It will be 50 years till a steep decline in fossil fuel use and a lot of that will be because fossil fuels are becoming ‘scarce’.

t.

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All this will happen by 2050.

Jaak

1 Like