This kind of things is what I think of when people complain about "hidden external costs of electric cars".<p>Yes, recycling batteries is an issue. Conditions in rare earth mines are an issue.<p>But when you want to "consider hidden costs" of EVs you should do the same for ICE cars. And there are lots of these, including building, maintaining and recycling supertankers, refineries, pipelines, oil wells on land and in the sea, causing oil spill every decade, keeping oil tyrannies in charge, fueling resource wars in 3rd world countries.<p>But it's status quo so it doesn't count.
Very misleading title on the submission. The New Yorker's title is no better, but their subtitle is half-decent:<p>"Stranded in Yemen’s war zone, a decaying supertanker has more than a million barrels of oil aboard. If—or when—it explodes or sinks, thousands may die."<p>Summary - The unmaintained, rusting tanker is at the entrance to the Red Sea (and thus the Suez Canal). The side in the Yemeni civil war which controls it is enjoying considerable benefits from the ongoing threat of a huge oil spill. Diplomatic efforts at a resolution have gone nowhere.<p>Note - In the context (derelict tanker, crude oil), the term "explode" refers only to the explosion of some flammable vapors at the top of the oil tanks. That would (very likely) still be enough to start breaking up the ship, thus spilling ~all the crude oil.
I’m still reading it but with every paragraph it gets worse and worse and worse. How did this go unnoticed and unreported for so long?<p>EDIT: I’ve finished it (long article). All I can take away from that is that the current situation and short and long term outlooks are all extremely bleak.
Someone deleted their comment with the google maps link, but it's conveniently located next to the "Yemen Company For Flour Mills And Silos" aka "big pile of explosive and flammable powders that's a critical food source for the region".<p><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Yemen+Company+For+Flour+Mills+And+Silos-alHudaydah/@14.8406812,42.9407426,4334m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x16053be363aba37b:0x7aea559347f1b8a2!2sAl+Hudaydah,+Yemen!3b1!8m2!3d14.7909118!4d42.9708838!3m4!1s0x16053d92d191409b:0xb1de3a55a4c0e983!8m2!3d14.8371389!4d42.9526591" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/maps/place/Yemen+Company+For+Flour+Mi...</a><p>I'm also reminded of the SS Richard Montgomery, which is another "if we leave this for a generation maybe it will go away" situation: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery</a>
Explosion would require a degree of air fuel mixture so that the reaction can go quickly. The vapor from evaporation of the oil could explode but not a million barrels of oil itself. So the number may have been used to conjure up a misleading picture if the intention is to emphasize the magnitude of a possible explosion. That being said, oil spill and uncontrolable fire are all very real risks, just not as exciting as explosions.
A quick search suggests that the world uses close to 100M barrels a day, of which the largest user, the US, uses about 20M.<p>So this ship stores an amount that fuels about 1% of the world for a day.<p>How many such ships are there, and how many are in as bad a state as this one?
This ship is unfortunately not alone in the world. Here is another one:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FSO_Nabarima" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FSO_Nabarima</a>
In addition, it is also important to remember that the ship is itself rusting due to a lack of maintenance, and it is only a matter of time before the oil enters the sea.
> The Houthi leadership has obstructed efforts by foreign entities to inspect the ship or to siphon its oil<p>For anyone else whose mind jumped to the same conclusion as mine.
Question: has there been any decent and uncorrupt Arab government? Everyone criticizes Western "imperialism", but it seems the lives of most people in the Middle East were much better when under British rule?
Has not been a supertanker since 1987. Since then it has been only a floating oil storage tank, without engines.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FSO_Safer" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FSO_Safer</a>
Really clicks are so important these days? This article proves nothing except that dangerous catastrophe can happen.<p>People don't even realize how potentially dangerous is gasoline station a few blocks away or fertilizers magazine just outside their town or department of chemistry on the nearby University.<p>For some reason those dangers are not (yet) that sexy to be described in the alarmistic article.
Okay, positive attitude: We congeal the oil in situ in the tanks into plastic-blocks. It renders the ship unuseable but the ship is already unusable, but it at least reduces the hazard on final breaking apart.<p>PS:
I lost my bet, i had a bet, that 5 months after we are out of Afghanistan, the warmongering would start again.<p>Damn it.<p>We embargoe a regime, its infrastructure is falling into disrepair, and now that disrepair is a reason to go in?
Whats next?<p>Pothole repair jobs with bunker-busters in Iran? Infrastructure demolishion and rebuilding as a service via the Military Industrial Complex? A construction company called the MOAB-mob?<p>If the saudis mercenaries cant win and they don't get the genocide properly done, at least pay for better bad journalism to draw the US into another firefight/fist-aid mission.