Breaking News! Oil Tanker crashes into Great Barrier Reef ! Buy a dam EV Nissan Leaf already!

It was carrying about 60,000 tons of coal from Australia to China. It was carrying about 1000 tons of fuel oil to propel the voyage.

As the news article indicates, the ship was substantially off course and grounded on reef. I have read different reports of its impact speed and it's not going to be easy to sort that out. Setting it aside.

For context, China now imports about 100 million tons coal/yr; about 1/3 of its total 'burn'. That from Vietnam comes overland. From Australia, of course, it comes in ships like this. Australia is the world's largest coal exporter and its other major custmoers are Japan and S. Korea.

Globally a lot more crude oil is shipped than coal, and those ships are sometimes poorly piloted as well. If your main point is that marine shipments of fossil fuels are risky and that reduced fuel burn overall could reduce that risk, I agree completely.

So far, most of the news converage on the Shen Neng 1 concerns the fuel oil leaking. But the ship is sufficiently damaged that it may break apart where it is. I don't think we have much previous experience about effects of coal dumping in shallow, highly productive marine systems. Might turn out to be a mess.

For the 1000's of similar ships outbound from Australia, dang it guys, switch on the GPS already.

 

440 ft Bulk ocean carrier: $17 million
Marine GPS navigation unit: $48,000 for all bells and whistles
Major "oops" by driving bulk ocean carrier up onto protected reef: PRICELESS

 

Can you spell "Joseph Hazelwood"? (Exxon Valdez Captain) Maybe the captain of this ship was 3 sheets to the wind, too.

On an equally environmentally friendly note ... you can kiss off a ShiP load of miners in West Virgina too:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/06/mine.disaster.safety/


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Drill here in the USA, get off foriegn oil, That way the small chance of incidents like this don't happen.

 

You do realize that:

1. Drilling here in the USA won't do diddly squat to our foreign oil imports? (never mind that Obama has already gotten the ball rolling on that topic, anyway)
2. The tanker in question is coal tanker header to China, not the USA?

 

"Small chance???"

We live in a world where S*%t happens. If it can, it will! Ships hit reefs, Captains drink, mates mess around in the dark with the other "mates" and hit islands! (See Queen of the North!).

And folks want us to have a bigger reliance on Nuke power! Homer at the control board is not too far fetched, (no offense to operators everywhere, but people mess up!)

At least if I fall off the roof cleaning the solar panels, the only one hurt is me!

Icarus

 

Around 18 years ago, I was part of a team doing a major control systems refit at a petrochemical plant. Two control rooms, we would "fail over" the primary control room to the other one, while the upgrades were being done to the LCN

I thought it would be a cleaver prank to NOT inform the control room operator what was happening. Instead, I waited until we had confirmed the other control room was synched and running in full control, then I started undoing the BNC connectors on the LCN to the primary control room

The phone in the network room suddenly started ringing, and even the ringing sounded panicked. "Oh my gawd, all my screens are dead, I've lost control, what do I do?"

So, to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that I am a Very Evil Person, I said this to him, in a scared voice:

"The whole system failed! Run! RUUUNNNNNNN! IT'S GONNA BLOW!!!!"

The network room was in the same corridor as the primary control room. We're in the corridor, snickering, when the control room door almost flies off its hinges, and the operator comes racing out with this look of sheer panic

Us engineers just lose it and start rolling on the floor, laughing. The operator yelled a comment that, due to this being a "family friendly" forum, I can't repeat verbatim

It rhymes with "duck shoe"

 

To also prove that I am a Very Evil Person, here is a prank I pulled on my best friend - we are still best friends go figure - while in the Army. We were on leave and in Manila

Hank had had WAY too much to drink, and the rest of us thought it would be a good time to have a bit of fun at his expense. He was always bragging how easily he could Score, and he actually could prove it most times

We wanted to find a transvestite to hook him up with, but generally when you NEED one, they are nowhere in sight. Just then, I look over towards the bar, and this drop-dead gorgeous woman swivels around on the bar stool. She had on a miniskirt

She wasn't wearing panties, and I happened to notice a lot of extra "junk" down there. WHOO-HOO! So we all got together, approached her with $110, pointed out Hank, and told she/he/it to take him All The Way

She/he/it takes Hank upstairs to one of the rooms, and we follow with evil snickering. We're waiting by the closed door. Did I mention Hank was a pretty good Linebacker in high school and college?

Suddenly this terrified man scream. I swear the door BLEW off the frame and crashed into the wall. Hank runs out of there nude, screaming, and streaks off down the corridor. She/he/it still had all of his/her/its clothes on, and told us that Hank had reached inside.

He evidently found Captain Winky

So we gathered up Hank's clothes, and caught up to him still running in a mad panic, nude, down the street. Hank to this day keeps trying to get even, but quite frankly I don't see how he can. His wife claims on their third date, he experimentally touched Down There "just to be sure"

So, keep that in mind if I ever invite a PriusChatter to a bar, and get them drunk

 

You really missed your window of opportunity. Seems like I remember the picture taken of the3 mods in Detroit ... not one set of eyes between 'em that weren't cross-eyed.

 

Huh, I could have RULED this forum then. Anytime I was admonished for something, I'd just have to remind the mods of that secret photo of the drinking, the transvestite, and the fact their wives were nowhere in sight

 

You must have missed this when it happened.
Endless leak fuelling oil rig blaze - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Drilling isn't the ultimate answer. Don't look down for the answer, look up.

 

At the rate that automobile sales are climbing in China (they are the #1 automobile market, and March sales are up 50% over last year), they are now leading the "race".

With their recent trade deficit in March (the first in 6 years) due mainly to imports of raw materials (like coal on the tanker and oil) this will only increase China's motivation to improve efficiency. Just look at how the electric scooter/motorcycle market has totally taken over gasoline sales there.

With their government, if they want to make a priority, they will. And at their current rate of growth, they have no choice by to do so.