Coal strikes again: Chinese tanker ship stuck on Great Barrier Reef

Illustrating yet another reason why we need to stop burning coal, a large coal freighter is stuck on a section of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia and is leaking fuel.

Mon, Apr 05 2010 at 4:26 PM

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Natural Resources, Coal, Energy, Oil & Gas

Photo: The Lightworks/Flickr

A large Chinese coal ship has run aground on a section of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia and is in danger of breaking up. The ship is already leaking coal and oil and is in danger of breaking apart entirely, dumping its load of fuel onto the reefs below.

Here are a couple of news reports (via my buddy Adam at Twilight Earth).

This is one of the big reasons why we need to stop burning coal. You don't need to ship sunlight, wind and geothermal energy around the world in giant cargo ships.

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Comments: 4

Steve Butler Apr 06 2010 at 12:48 AM

International shipping is a fact of life. This is just an example of incompetence and negligence on the part of the Watch Officer. The ship could have been carrying cement, or grain, any number of other commodities. It is somewhat disingenuous to blame the cargo. I'll go search on my own, but a good reporter might have done a little research on the specific environmental impact (if any) of the coal cargo on the reef if the ship breaks up. Applications like Marine shipping and aircraft will probably

.... More

be the last bastions of fossil fuels in even the Greenest of possible futures. There's just not another energy source, other than nuclear, suitable for powering long-distance commercial shipping and aircraft, and I sure don't want to put a nuclear reactor on a ship whose officers can't follow a course with 15 km.

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ANDRAS BARTHA Apr 05 2010 at 9:20 PM

I wish the AUSTRALIAN GOV, force a big fine for the carrier ship owner and the captain it is a shame bin so negligent.

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stephen thierry Apr 05 2010 at 8:55 PM

another example of chairman (reluctant to use that term for a despt) mao's populate at all costs which is taking australia and the world to the brink. it is time this genie was contained and put back in its bottle, but requiring it to deal with its own political problems and its own population problems rather than exporting them through avarice and greed into other less suspecting parts of the world.

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Larry Apr 05 2010 at 7:01 PM

Fine, but if you are really serious about reducing the consumption of burning fossil fuels, you had better start embracing nuclear alternatives. Wind is a toy and not widely available, Geothermal is not widely available, and it will be decades before solar collectors are efficient enough to make any meaningful contribution.

Facts are facts. Face them or live with the status quo.