The Many Unknowns of Inevitable Arctic Oil Spills

With drilling and shipping comes risk, and no one knows how to clean up the mess when it's cold, dark and icy.

Scientists from around the world have spent decades trying to answer the question:  what happens when oil spills in ice?

As global temperatures climb and the Arctic sea ice melts, shipping in the Arctic is on the rise and oil and gas companies are eyeing further development of the vast resources of the North.

But when oil inevitably spills in the Arctic, scientists say it's going to be an entirely different scenario from what has played out in the Gulf of Mexico.  Oil spills are nasty business no matter what, but when sub-zero temperatures, persistent darkness, remote locations and sea ice are thrown into the mix, the situation becomes exponentially more complex.

Despite the years of research into what happens when oil spills in ice, there remain more questions than answers.  The problem, of course, is that no country is raising its hand to try spilling oil into the pristine Arctic environment to study what happens.  The small spills that have occurred in the name of science, particularly in Norway, have been in controlled environments—far from the reality of what an Arctic spill could look like, with sparse resources, weather that is unpredictable at best and long, unforgiving periods of darkness.

Read more at The Many Unknowns of Inevitable Arctic Oil Spills