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By Dmitry Zhdannikov (Reuters) The global oil market was thrown into chaos on Thursday after Russia invaded Ukraine, with top buyers of Russian oil struggling to secure guarantees at Western banks.
We haven’t forgotten the oil spill in the Mediterranean, this past February, that led to hundreds of tons of tar (the thicker emulsion that results from the oil-and-water mix) coming ashore along almost all – 160 km. out of a total of 190 km. – of Israel’s coastline. The damage to marine life was extensive, to the beaches, horrific. Thick gobs of the tarry stuff, in places some four to five inches thick, along with many thousands of smaller blobs, covered the waters and the rocky shore, spread over the the beaches that for a very long time will be unfit for use. Thousands of volunteers have been working ever since, laboriously collecting the tarry globs. Sea turtles, marine birds and endangered marine mammals were some of the wildlife that have perished or have been affected by the spill.
A huge oil spill in the eastern Mediterranean has caused colossal damage to Israel’s beaches, now gooey with clumps of tar that thousands of volunteers are laboriously picking out of the sand. It has been an unparalleled ecological disaster that has already done, and will continue to do, great harm to the coastal flora and fauna. It has devastated the local economy. For at least a year, and some estimates suggest much longer, tourists and locals will not be able to use the beaches; many will have to seek alternatives abroad. Coastal businesses in Israel, from vacation rentals to restaurants, will close down. The accident has spilled tons of tar across more than 100 miles of coastline from Israel to southern Lebanon in what Israeli officials are calling one of the worst disasters in the country’s history.