News from a Changing Planet -- This Week On Earth #41

Thank you to everyone who responded to my desperate cry for help request for some ideas of things to write about. I haven’t had a chance to write back to everyone and I may not have time, but thank you again so much for your time and thoughtfulness and creativity.

OIL POLLUTION HOTSPOTS: Illegal oil dumping in the world’s oceans is much more widespread than previously thought. (Financial Times)

Rendering of an oil slick in the ocean. Credit Johndwilliams/Dreamstime via Financial Times

Using satellite imagery and artificial intelligence, researchers are now tracking illegal intentional oil dumping from ships around the world. Over the last three years, they have identified more than 2,700 oil slicks that appear to have been purposefully released from ships, many of them in Asia, including 500 in the waters off Indonesia. A recent spill in February off the coast of the Indonesian island of Bintan was more than 185km (115 miles) long and about 2km (just over a mile) wide.

“Even so, the data likely only represents a small proportion of the problem, based on a 15 per cent sample of available global satellite images that were scanned and SkyTruth researchers then reviewed. The images are taken every six to 12 days and do not cover the entirety of the world’s oceans.”

This is a pretty stunning visualization, even if it’s hard to imagine that the thin black streaks across on the website are actually oil slicks and not some kind of midcentury abstract artwork…but the scale of the pollution is scary and stunning. If we didn’t know about this, what else don’t we know about?!

PROPOSED MINE NEAR THE OKEFENOKEE: Locals say NOkefeNOTkee! (Washington Post)