Thanks to climate change and improving accessibility, the US Arctic waters are more at risk than ever before from environmental disasters, such as oil spills, that we are ill-equipped to cope with says new report.
The risk has increased because the area is becoming more accessible for commercial activities such as shipping, oil and gas development, and tourism, while extreme weather and environmental settings, limited operations and communications infrastructure, a vast geographic area, and vulnerable species, ecosystems, and cultures. make oil spills here particularly challenging.
Scientists from the US National Research Council say a full suite of proven oil response tools is needed to address potential oil spills in U.S. Arctic waters, but not all of them are readily available. While much is known about both oil behaviour and response technologies in ice-covered environments, there are areas where additional research would enable more informed decisions about the most effective response strategies for different Arctic spill situations, the report adds.
The report therefore recommends that present oil spill response technologies are tested under real-world conditions, and recommends that a controlled field experiments in the U.S. Arctic should take place as part of a long-term, collaborative Arctic oil spill research and development programme.
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