Natural Science Forum / Earth Science / Oceanography / July 2006

Assuming the tanker is very small, carrying at most 1 gram of oil, the oil
might spread out to cover a few square meters and might take a thousand
dollars or so to clean up, but that cost is difficult to predict since it's
a strong function of where the spill occurs.  If the tanker sinks in a
bathtub, the cleanup costs are relatively small.  If it sinks somewhere
where a clean-up crew has significant travel costs to get to, such as a the
seas of Arcturus IV, then it could run into the trillions of trillions of
dollars, assuming a hyperdrive could be invented at all.  

As you can see this is a very difficult question to answer and if my
information makes it into your science report, do not quote me.

A lot depends on hpow the recovery is financed.

If it were to be the oil company or the ship owners to do the paying it
would be left to nature to sort it. But these days governments are
involved and so the money is not a problem. The ones doing the cleaning
usually co-operate with others in the trade and make the insurance
companies bleed.

The work almost invariably never starts until the weather turns nasty.

When BA wants to build an airport or runway, they get government
backing, so the more they spend, the more they make. If they can build
an airport for 3 billion or 1 billion they will make more money
spending 3 billion. The government then puts in 3 more billion.

Then instead of charging the airline companies 10 pence per passenger
to use it, they can charge 60 pence per passenger. Who is going to
quibble over 50 pence? I doubt 1 person in 20 is even aware of the fix.

I dare say it's the same in the oil-spill industry.

It certainly is with "rebuilding" Iraq. This sort of thing goes on from
Washington to Peking. That was how Russia functioned under the
gangsters when they were called the KGB and that is how it is run
today.

In Britain you were born into an aristocracy in which this sort of
behaviour was expected. Only a fool would suppose it changed in the
last few decades.

If rafts of straw were floated over an oil slick it would be mopped up
very easily at minimal cost. No one has ever done such a silly thing.