Oil spill on the Mississippi
Bloomberg has labelled the recent oil spill that caused a part of the Mississippi river, along with the Port of New Orleans to be temporarily closed, indicative of the high risk/ high reward nature of US oil boom due to the risks of transporting crude oil.
On Feb. 22 a barge transporting light crude oil hit a tugboat on the river spilling around 31,500 gallons. To date, 1,021 gallons of oil and water have been reclaimed. 29 boats were delayed during the closure.
Jonathan Henderson, a spokesman for the New Orleans-based Gulf Restoration Network believes the US is facing an “imminent risk of a barge disaster or a rail disaster” as more oil is shipped to the Gulf of Mexico for refining.
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Procter & Gamble using unsustainable palm oil
Greenpeace is calling on consumers to pressure cosmetics manufacturer Procter & Gamble (P&G), through an online petition, to clean up its palm oil supply chain. The call to arms follows the results of an investigation revealing ten incidents of woodland being cleared in Indonesia by companies which supply P&G with palm oil. The forest clearances also irreparably damaged the habitats of orangutans and tigers.
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Drone ships
It emerged this week that Rolls Royce is developing self-piloted cargo ship, under a project titled “Blue Ocean”. Although still is the development stage, a virtual-reality prototype has already been created.
Working in conjunction with the Maritime Unmanned Navigation through Intelligence in Networks (MUNIN), and partially funded by the European Commission, the goal of the project is to develop a self-guided ship, which would mainly utilize onboard decision making systems. The vessel would also be operated from a control station on land.
The first prototype ship hopes to be developed and sailed by the end of 2015.
Under current regulations however, an autonomous ship is not even legal; depending on the ship type, legally every vessel must sail with a minimum number of crew members.
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