1,000 tonnes (1.3 million liters) of heavy fuel oil on burning ship near the South Pole
I ran across this article on Treehugger today, and thought I'd share it with you. It seems that a Japanese whaling ship is currently adrift and on fire near the South Pole. According to New Zealand, there is a danger to some 250,000 pairs of breeding penguins and other local wildlife. The captain of the ship has stayed aboard, along with 30 members of the original crew. The crew states that the fire is underneath the deck, above the engine room. They have "contained" the fire to this area of the ship and locked it down to keep it from spreading, although the do admit that it not completely under control (there was "still some potential" that the fire could flare up again) at this time.
Whaling does not have anything to do with this site, but any possible oil spill is something that should be kept an eye on. We have spoken about the disasters that an oil spill can have on the environment before, which is why oil drilling and transportation is such a serious matter. Let's hope this one turns out the best it can.
[Source: Treehugger]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim 10:59AM (2/16/2007)
If this were biodiesel, it would barely be newsworthy. Biodiesel is much less toxic to the environment than table sugar.
We may never know the true cost of our intentionally manipulated addiction to Oil. http://internalcombustionbook.com
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Arnie 10:39AM (2/16/2007)
You are absolutely right. "Whaling does not have anything to do with this site..." This is an automotive site right?
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Jeremy Korzeniewski 4:57PM (2/16/2007)
Arnie, Tim makes a point in his comment directly following yours. If this were biodiesel, it would not be newsworthy at all. Yes, this is an automotive site, but we frequently cover topics regarding fuels, and this is one more reason that biofuels would be a much more "green" solution for our transportation needs.
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Doug R 10:38AM (2/18/2007)
Tim, dude, I love ya but enough with the oil conspiracy already. Do you remember the 1980s? Oil was $16 a barrel and OPEC was the primary reason. The domestic oil industry couldn't drill a hole without losing money. They were laying off people left and right. Many of the companies died and many merged just to stay alive. I saw multiple floors of the Conoco buildings in Ponca City, OK dissapear and half the town dry up in a matter of a few years. If the oil industry had half the influence over the powers that be, that this crazy irresponsible book suggests, do you honestly think they would have allowed cheap OPEC oil into this country? We also would have been paying $3+ a gallon for gasoline many years ago, don't you think?
No new refineries allowed to be built in 30 years. 40 different blends of fuel required across the country. This creates a supply and demand nightmare. Insane government policy, compliments of the environmentalist lobbies, not big oil. Add the damage of Katrina to the mix and you get $3 a gallon fuel. How ironic that the ones screaming the loudest about oil industry profits are the ones responsible for the catalyst creating the situation.
We use oil because it's the most practical and economically viable. If alternative fuels were truly competitive, then they would be the fuel of choice. No one has conspired to keep them down.
Ethanol probably won't meet the increase in demand let alone even begin to replace gasoline. Corn is extremely demanding on the soil. You just can't grow a bunch of corn every year without depleting the soil. All this cellulosic waste everyone speaks of isn't just trash that's thrown away. Farmers don't waste anything, everything is used for something. This current flirtation with E85 has caused the price of corn to double. This has greatly effected the bottom line for food producers to livestock producers. There have been protests by the poor over the price spike in tortillas and corn related products in Mexico. The New York Times says they should just "eat less corn".
If biodiesel is counting on Agriculture then they'll run into the same problem. Using anything that is wasted is a great idea, but can used vegetable oil from restaurants, etc. satisfy the demand? I don't know, but it seems unlikely. Doesn't mean it shouldn't be used anyway, waste not want not.
I understand that biodiesel is less toxic than crude oil as far as these creatures attempting to clean it from their feathers, whale oil is probably less toxic as well from this stand point. From the danger of loss of the down and outer feathers to retain heat, any oil I would think is bad news.
Oil tanker tech has come along way, but I'd prefer more domestic drilling and less over ocean transport.
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