Today’s good news story comes from the Good News Network. Here is the story as published.
Remarkable Man Averts Oil Tanker Disaster by Crowdfunding to Stop Crumbling Ship From Releasing Tons into Red Sea
In July, news media reported that a derelict oil tanker off the coast of Yemen had its more than 1 million barrels of crude removed in a successful cleanup operation.
The operation may have prevented a major environmental catastrophe in the Red Sea because the tanker, FSO Safer, was 47 years old and had serious mechanical and structural risks.
Now, an addendum to the story reveals the work of a true hero whose crowdfunding campaign succeeded in collecting the money necessary for the sea-saving work.
That addendum began when truce negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the controlling faction of Yemen, the Houthis, opened a wartime window of opportunity to do something about this environmental Sword of Damocles that had been hanging over the communities in the Red Sea since the FSO Safer was abandoned in 2015 after Saudi’s invasion.
The agreement to allow environmental crews is required so that a new vessel can be purchased to hold the oil, which technically belongs to the Yemen state, though who that represents isn’t settled yet. After agreement was reached in May of 2022, the race was on for the United Nations to conduct a hugely ambitious fundraiser of $144 million for a new tanker and a salvage company to drain all the oil, clean all the insides of the tanks, and bring the massive bulker to shore.
David Gressly, the UN’s resident humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, spearheaded the fundraiser and salvage operation but said that progress was slow going.
“If we had a major oil spill there, we would have probably raised a billion dollars in a month because there are mechanisms for governments to do just that,” Gressley told the Guardian.
After government and private sector donations weren’t adding up, Gressley opened the fundraising to the world—anyone with a dollar to spare was invited to contribute to this admittedly massive goal.
By September 2022, the campaign had gathered $75 million of the required $144 million, an astonishing return driven by individuals, from Yemeni businessmen to schoolchildren in the US. When the campaign reached $121m in July this year, the emergency humanitarian fund of the UN provided a low-interest loan to cover the rest.
From there, work was turned over to Boskalis, a salvage company that finished the cleanup operation by August 11th after the MT Yemen, a brand new oil tanker, weighed anchor alongside Safer to siphon off the last of her oil before the old girl was towed to Yemen’s shore for scuppering.
Alongside his lifesaving work in Yemen, Gressley is also considering establishing contingency plans for future situations of the sort since he was still explaining that the money he helped raise would be going to a good cause even after the Boskalis said Safer had between 12 and 18 months of time left before crumbling into the sea.
You can watch an animation of the oil transfer.
The good news in this story is a person cared about averting a disaster and did something about it. Today’s JohnKu talks about the benefits of being decisive. I hope you have a great weekend.
Action by John W. Howell © 2023
There is time to wait,
But knowing action is first . . .
Averts disaster.
Back home to the Jura coffee maker at last. Humming the tune Yellow Brick Road while waiting for the soothing syrup to make its way into my cup makes the time shorter. The tune has been in my head since it was the last duet sung with my daughter while away. Keeping it in my head also holds the memory of a very special time spent with her, my son-in-law, and the three grandkids.
