6 ms·
The shadowy world of abandoned oil tankers
- jaco6 9mo ago[dead]
- ToucanLoucan 9mo agoBefore I read, I’m going to guess some combination of shady business bullshit and global instability. reads Yup.
- SanjayMehta 9mo ago[flagged]
- IlIlIlIIlIlIlI 9mo agoNothing about North Korea?? Ahh!!!
- smadge 9mo agoThe Russia reference doesn’t seem forced since the explanation for increased abandonments is attempts to skirt sanctions against Russian.
- SanjayMehta 9mo agoIt's the BBC. They're literally funded by the British regime using license fees. To understand the connection between the British regime and Russophobia, refer to John Gleason's research captured in a book called "The Genesis of Russophobia in Great Britain." https://archive.org/details/genesisofrussoph0000glea https://archive.org/details/genesisofrussoph0000glea
- SanjayMehta 9mo agoAlso, who gave the US regime the single authority to impose unilateral sanctions? The sooner the dollar collapses the better for the world.
- Sabinus 9mo agoRussia. They asked for a 'spheres of influence' world and forgot the USA's sphere of influence is the world's oceans (and South America). Pressuring Russia's oil exports is the way the Trump admin is motivating Russia to come to the negotiating table. They apparently want the war wrapped up in time for the mid-terms. That, and Trump likes being a strong king and wielding US might, right into the history books.
- SanjayMehta 9mo agoThe US' days are numbered. Once the world rids itself of dollarisation, the US won't be able to export their inflation to the rest of the world. Maybe just to Europe and Japan, which in any case are vassal states.
- Sabinus 9mo agoGood luck finding more trustworthy and profitable economic systems. The dedollarisation will hurt the US but since there aren't a lot of alternatives it'll be far less disruptive than anti-US groups would believe. There will be more of a spreading of risk than there is now.
- SanjayMehta 9mo agoLook at who is dumping US treasuries and who is buying and taking possession of physical gold. China has come down to 1/3 of their peak. Enjoy the incoming hyperinflation.
- BLKNSLVR 9mo agoThis is another one of those things that, having put no thought into it as something that has sat in the background of life since childhood, I had figured was better organised/protected against malicious, negligent and/or fraudulent behaviour. The world is far more of a chaotic jungle than the facade makes it appear. There is yet much opportunity for mischief for those who dare and have the resources and lack of moral compass.
- rramadass 9mo agoBeginning to think is beginning to be undermined. -- Albert Camus The ease/comfort of our so-called "Modern Civilization" is built on illusions constructed intentionally by people-in-power/govts-in-collusion. People are kept distracted and managed using techniques of propaganda and reflexive control. The developed/richer countries take advantage of the developing/poorer countries by offshoring dangerous/poisonous/etc. industries/work onto them while mouthing platitudes and absolving themselves of all responsibilities. If you start asking questions (and educate yourself) on how-a-thing-comes-to-be from first principles, what happens to it after its end-of-life, the effects on the people involved in the entire chain (from birth to death) you will rise up in arms to tear the system down and rebuild it all. Here for example is a shocking article on waste tyres from around the world being sent to India to be disposed off and how the entire process literally poisons poor people forced to do that job; The Black Wind: How India is becoming the World's Waste Tyre Furnace - https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/india-is-becoming-worlds-waste-tyre-furnace https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/india-is-becoming-wo...
- bigwheels 9mo agoReminds me of the Shipbreakers article from 3 years ago: https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/the-toxic-tide-of-ship-breaking/4015158.article https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/the-toxic-tide-of-sh... The toxic tide of ship breaking https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34905496 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34905496 - 30 comments Unforgettable.
- BLKNSLVR 9mo agoThe video used for this fan-made film clip is from a documentary called Working Man's Death about ship breaking: https://youtu.be/KVm8G0ipETc https://youtu.be/KVm8G0ipETc
- burkaman 9mo agoThis kind of thing seems to be pretty core to the oil industry business model. In the US when they don't want to deal with an oil well anymore they have whatever fake shell company owns it declare bankruptcy and then they don't have to deal with cleaning it up (https://www.propublica.org/article/oil-orphan-wells-cleanup-playbook-siana-tom-ragsdale https://www.propublica.org/article/oil-orphan-wells-cleanup-...).
- Spooky23 9mo agoThis is a feature of all resource extraction industry. I live in New York - we have 100+ year old oil related hazards in western NY to this day. My folks had a gravel mine near their home that would occasionally cause issues relating to flooding and some sort of contamination that was there. IMO, these industries need to be heavily taxed if not owned by the government.
- mschuster91 9mo ago> IMO, these industries need to be heavily taxed if not owned by the government. ... or for every building and infrastructure, a bond needs to be placed with the government to be a safeguard for its demolition cost, and for projects that risk environmental damage (mining, oil drills), proof of insurance needs to be provided before the construction begins, and should that insurance ever lapse, the entire property gets seized by the government.
- jgeada 9mo agoAnd don't forget retroactive claw backs on any profits taken; otherwise they'd make sure the assets to be seized are of absolutely no value (and canonically, negative value: all the environmental disaster and other collateral damage is offloaded to the public)
- amanaplanacanal 9mo agoIsn't that the whole purpose of "limited liability" corporations? So that the owners can abscond with the profits and leave the mess to the public?
- ggm 9mo agoThis problem is one of the reasons Maritime unions worldwide have been significant and strong players in national labour relations.
- notatoad 9mo agoso these ships are abandoned by the companies that own them, with the crew still on board? and then the crew is just stuck there with dwindling food supplies until somebody comes to rescue them? in my head this seems like a problem that could be solved by getting on the radio to a nearby port and saying "hey, we've got a tanker carrying $50m worth of crude oil, you can have it if you let us dock", but obviously it can't be that simple if that's not happening. why not?
- JohnMakin 9mo agoWhen you are flying a foreign flag docked in a port you are complex legal situation - in international law, you follow the laws of the flag country, in addition to being under local jurisdiction (most of the time). And if you’re flying a flag for a boat that’s not registered under that flag, which as this article explains is easily verifiable, who is going to buy the oil, and how? not to mention any possible international sanctions on the oil, customs, the crew getting paid and wanting to return home, wherever that may be, and you get situations that can last for a long time. For this case a boat to boat transfer may be the only real way.
- curiousObject 9mo agoYour comment hints at another problem, which is that allowing the cargo into a port possibly could be exploited as a loophole to break sanctions. Yet another big problem is that cargo might be too low in value, or even undesirable. Like the cargo of Ammonium Nitrate that exploded in Beirut a few years ago (it had been taken off the docked ship which then sank in the port. The cargo was stored in the port, then stuck in legal and payment disputes, and the result was horrific).
- segmondy 9mo agolet the crew paint a new flag for the country they want to dock at.
- conception 9mo agoPirates aren’t normally treated… well.
- siliconc0w 9mo agoIf we actually taxed fossil fuel producers what it took to offset the negative externalities offloaded to the public, we'd be 100% on renewables long ago.
- colechristensen 9mo agoAnd perhaps with an economic collapse to rival the climate outcomes we're afraid of nevermind noncompliance by economies that couldn't begin to survive with such an expensive early switch followed by... what recourse? War? Wouldn't everything be great if everyone did the super hard thing in the past so all of our problems would be solved and we'd live in peace and perfect harmony! /s
- triceratops 9mo ago> nevermind noncompliance by economies that couldn't begin to survive with such an expensive early switch followed by... what recourse? Tariffs.
- marssaxman 9mo ago> if everyone did the super hard thing in the past I'd settle for the present - or the near future - or at all, ever, really, in place of the "let's just drive this bus off the cliff at full speed and hope our children learn to fly in midair" policy we've been implicitly choosing.
- colechristensen 9mo agoSolar is the cheapest source of electricity now and we've got grid scale batteries that are economical. The solution is here. Climate change is too. It's time to stop worrying and hoping drastic prevention plans are going to work because it's already happened. The world is going to change and people are going to have to change with it (and move, mostly).
- marssaxman 9mo ago
- delichon 9mo agoThere is a silver lining to this particular catastrophe. A large fraction of the abandoned tankers are a result of sanctions on Russia. It means they're working. Ukraine cares very much about these ships, having damaged a dozen tankers with their "kinetic sanctions" in the past year. They care because the oil is both a war material and a major source of Russian revenue. More abandoned tankers means a weaker Russia.
- dopa42365 9mo ago[flagged]
- user205738 9mo agoAnd what is the positive effect here? This gives rise to escalation, harms the environment, and doesn't really help end the war.
- gorgonical 9mo agoAt the risk of sounding pedantic, you're (I think, implicitly) claiming that reducing Russian oil revenues doesn't impact their war capabilities. Why would that be the case?
- SJC_Hacker 9mo agoStriking at the economy of the aggressor definitely helps end the war How can Russia escalate, short of nukes or expanding the war either of Which would be suicide
- Ms-J 9mo agoIf the crew is mistreated they should sell the boat and all of the contents, including the oil. Yes, many countries don't have the capacity to refine a large amount, but there are many simple techniques such as even heating the oil that any country can do. There are always buyers up the chain and in neighboring countries that will buy it. Even arrangements from buyers across the world. People ignore sanctions all the time. It's part of a free world and free trade. Similar to the legacy laws on the books that everyone and their mother ignores. It is much easier to simply go on with your life and when everyone ignores the law, it gets removed. Politicians don't want to be seen as weaker than they already are so they remove the law very quickly.
- Panzerschrek 9mo agoYou can't just sell a whole tanker of oil without proving it's yours. Nobody (or almost nobody) want to risk doing such purchase.
- Ms-J 9mo agoThere is always buyers or ways to utilize the cargo. There are many countries that would happily take in the oil for a sizeable discount. Groups also when the host country wants a layer of deniability.
- randycupertino 9mo agoWhen my dad passed away somewhere along the years of various moves and owners of the boat my mom or my uncle of my brother in law had lost the title to the boat and it was such a huge family debacle for YEARS because no one could prove who the owner was and they had to go through the estate to contact each owner of the boat through all the years since it was made every single person who ever had possession of the boat before it could be given away or sold to make sure it was not stolen it was the biggest headache for my mom and sisters and I to deal with. Also the hull, trailer and motor all had separate titles. Now whenever I see an abandoned boat somewhere I'm like... they must have illegally dumped it because they lost the title and couldn't handle the administrative burden!!
- Traubenfuchs 9mo agoAnyone wants to start an insurance startup for bringing stranded people home / to wherever they want with me? (any human trafficking is purely conincidental and not supported by us)
- geek43 9mo agosounds like good news for us seasteaders