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Remarkable Man Averts Oil Tanker Disaster by Crowdfunding to Remove Crumbling Ship From Red Sea

www.goodnewsnetwork.org /remarkable-man-averts-oil-tanker-disaster-by-crowdfunding-to-stop-crumbling-ship-from-releasing-tons-into-red-sea/

Summary

  • A derelict oil tanker off the coast of Yemen was in danger of leaking more than a million barrels of crude oil into the Red Sea.

  • The tanker, FSO Safer, was 47 years old and had serious mechanical and structural risks.

  • A UN diplomat, David Gressly, orchestrated a last-ditch cleanup operation to remove the oil from the tanker.

  • Gressly launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise the $144 million needed for the operation.

  • The campaign was successful, and the oil was removed from the tanker in August 2023.

  • Gressly is now considering establishing contingency plans for future situations of this sort.

More Details

  • The FSO Safer was abandoned off the coast of Yemen in 2015 when war broke out in the country.

  • The oil on the tanker belongs to the Yemeni state, but who represents that country is not yet settled.

  • The crowdfunding campaign was successful because it was supported by people from all over the world, including Yemeni businessmen, schoolchildren in the United States, and the UN emergency humanitarian fund.

  • Gressly is now considering establishing contingency plans for future situations of this sort, such as setting up a fund to cover the cost of emergency cleanups.

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