Spill 'er Up!

Oil spills from Japanese and Philippine tankers

It's been an oil-spillarific few days. A Japanese tanker, en route from Jordan, collided yesterday with a distressed cargo ship and spilled about 1.4 million gallons of crude into the eastern Indian Ocean. The ship's owner claims the spill has been contained and there's no need to clean it up, as the oil will naturally disperse into the sea. Um? A Philippine tanker sunk Friday, and the over half-million gallons of oil it was carrying have already created an oil slick over 17 miles long, the worst spill in Philippine history. The crud has reached the coastline of the island of Guimaras, which declared a "state of calamity"; a marine sanctuary on another island was tainted by crude oil four inches thick. Meanwhile, Lebanon will today begin mopping up the biggest spill in its history, which leaked into the Mediterranean Sea from a power plant bombed in mid-July and has tainted 87 miles of coastline. Oil. Love it!