Massive oil spill - Environmental Catastrophe
Wet Bird Media | 05.08.2006 04:20 | Animal Liberation | Anti-militarism | Ecology | World
Oil leaking from a bombed power station in Lebanon has reached the coastline of neighbouring Syria and is spreading north, the Kenya-based United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says. Lebanon's Environment Ministry has called it the worst environmental disaster to hit the Arab state. The spill has already polluted over 80 kilometres of Lebanon's coastline...
Environmental Catastrophe
Environmental Catastrophe
Environmental Catastrophe
Environmental Catastrophe
Environmental Catastrophe
Environmental Catastrophe
The environmental damage has attracted little media attention but experts warn the long-term effects could be devastating.
Some 110 000 barrels of oil poured into the Mediterranean two weeks ago after Israeli warplanes hit a coastal power plant. One tank is still burning, sending clouds of thick black smoke across the country. Compounding the problem is an Israeli naval blockade and continuing military operations that have made any cleanup impossible. And environmental officials say the longer the problem is allowed to go unchecked, the greater the lasting damage.
Israeli jets hit storage tanks at the Jiyyeh plant south of the Lebanese capital Beirut at the onset of the war. The blasts caused an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 tonne oil spillage into the Mediterranean.
"Satellite imagery now shows that the oil slick has entered Syrian waters and has already contaminated approximately 10 kilometres of coastline north of the borders between Syria and Lebanon," UNEP said. Local ecologists say the oil is especially threatening since fish spawn and sea turtles, including the endangered green turtle, nest on Lebanon's coast.
"An environmental catastrophe is threatening the Mediterranean region hostilities must cease to guarantee immediate access to the affected area," said Paul Misfud, coordinator for UNEP-Mediterranean Action Plan.
The Worldwide Fund says the oil pollution has reached "catastrophic proportions", about 30,000 tonnes of heating oil had leaked into the sea. It could not be excluded that the oil slick would reach Turkey and Cyprus. The WWF said rare sea turtles were threatened with extinction, as well as fish stocks already decimated by over fishing, and migratory birds.
"The oil has been drifting in the Mediterranean for alomst three weeks. Each day more makes the situation worse for human beings and nature," warned the WWF. If not removed, the oil would form lumps and sink to the bottom of the sea. From there, its poisons would get into the food chain, and could ultimately, via fish, get back to humans as well.
The first country to rush and help Lebanon was Kuwait, which suffered a similar disaster during the 1991 Gulf War. But three truckloads of cleanup supplies the country sent in are stuck in Beirut, with crews waiting for the fighting to wane before beginning their work, said the capital's mayor, Abdel Monem Ariss.
"We have no access to Lebanon territorial waters," Sarraf said. "This means that we are already 10 days delayed and in terms of oil pollution, 10 days is a century."
In Geneva, the UNEP's Steiner said the agency has teams on standby to move to Lebanon as soon as the conditions permit. "Oil and marine diversity do not mix well," Steiner said. "We are immediately concerned for marine life in the area." Sarraf likened the disaster to the Erika spill off of France in 1999, when the oil tanker split in two and dumped 70 000 barrels of oil into the Atlantic that washed up along 400 km of French shoreline.
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Compiled from various media sources using Google News:
http://news.google.com.
Wet Bird Media
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Environmental Disaster - Oil Spillage - Israel/Lebanon
13.08.2006 11:28
The narrative sent is below:
To all addressees (see below),
I am an Englishman living in the England. I have no political bias. I am solely interested in one thing from a global perspective…. The environment.
Ladies and Gentlemen, when you and I are dead and gone, the earth will still remain and our children will inherit what we leave behind. Mankind is a caretaker of the planet; a maintenance engineer, keeping the eco systems running as best we can until the next generation takes over. The role of mankind in the context of the environment is the stewardship of the planet.
At present it is my view that we, the human race in our stewardship capacity are not doing a very good job. While the human race has its wars, quarrels, disagreements, they are nothing in comparison to the force of nature.
The force of nature, does not recognise boundaries, does not have bias in any form, treats everything and everybody all the same…… a tsunami, a typhoon, a flood, etc., do not discriminate. These mechanisms bring chaos and catastrophe to all; you could considered these activities as nature resetting itself to a default setting.
The recent events in the middle east, specifically the recent oil spillage into the sea off the coast of Southern Lebanon/Northern Israel, is an environmental disaster.
Gentleman and Ladies, we are not dealing with risk mitigation, crisis management, we are dealing with disaster management. The name of the game is to reduce the effect of what we as human beings have done. The affect of this disaster is in the same category as the disaster of the Exxon Valdez.
Now is the time for integration and cooperation in this matter. You will have noticed that I have addressed this email to environmental, tourism, energy representatives in Lebanon and Israel. I have trawled some of your websites and it is clear that both countries have an interest in environmental stewardship. Hence I have copied in EcoOcean to this email. Other organisations such as RedR (an engineering NGO), Greenpeace (you both have representatives), Friends of the Earth maybe able to help, initially I strongly suggest you discuss the disaster management exercise I hope you will initiate with the agencies that were involved with the Exxon Valdez they maybe able to help and assist.
Time is of the essence; you have caused this environmental disaster; consideration has to be given to the eco systems and animals in that area, the legacy to your children, and the legacy to the region and the planet as a whole.
Your countries have significant resources, you engage in joint Jewish/Arab projects, you recognise the need for environmental management. It is now time to prove to all that you are honest in your intentions. If you choose to engage in a joint project to deal with this disaster, then who knows it could lead to further joint thinking.
Now is the time to show willing of environmental recovery. I sincerely hope you do.
Yours Sincerely,
Bryan P Kilroy
Distribution:
Note; I have tried to email all relevant stakeholders, where a name has been written but no email sent this is because I am not able to obtain their email address. If in this case an email addressee could pass on this email it would be appreciated.
Yacoub Sarraf
Environment, Lebanon
Gideon Ezra
Environment, Lebanon
Ghalib Majadla
Environment, Lebanon
Environmental Protection, Israel
Ayou Hmayyed –
Head of Tourism, Israel
Joseph Sarkis
Tourism
“Coast watch” _environmental volunteer project
EcoOcean
Maritime Environment projects (including oil spillage capability)
Mohammad Kabbani
Energy, Israel
Akram Chehayab
Environment, Israel
Project Coordinator: Michael Rosenfeld,
Sven Beer, Department of Plant Sciences
Dr Mats Björk, Department of Botany, Sweden.
Med Explorer's Daniel Schaffer, skipper
Emile Jamil Lahoud
President of the Republic of Lebanon
Ehud Olmert
Prime Minister Israel
Mohamad Fneich
Energy and water
Fouad Siniora
Prime minister, Lebanon
Web link:
I just hope the addressees take note and set aside their issues, and deal with this issue that does not recognise any border or political concern.
Bryan Kilroy
e-mail:
c44b@hotmail.com