The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Fiery North Sea Collision Between Oil Tanker and Cargo Ship Causes at Least 32 Casualties
Dear Diary. Here we go again. We have another report of deaths and destruction from another explosion involving fossil fuels. For all of the 20th century and that of the 21st we have witnessed giant oil rig explosions marring beaches and killing wildlife and tanker spills doing the same for marine fauna. There have been refinery explosions, which export death, not to mention causing cancer. Portions of the western and central Gulf Coast are nicknamed ‘Cancer Alley.’
So, it comes as no surprise that an oil tanker is involved with more deaths this March. We have on average about one or two significant fossil fuel incidents across the planet per year. Until the planet kicks its addition to oily, slimy fuel, we will continue to get these tragic events.
Here are more details from Common Dreams:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/north-sea-oil-rigs
An oil tanker and a cargo ship collided off the British coast in the North Sea on March 10, 2025. (Photo: @SputnikIntl/X)
At Least 32 Casualties in Fiery North Sea Collision Between Oil Tanker and Cargo Ship
Advocates expressed concern for wildlife as emergency crews completed rescue and firefighting efforts.
Mar 10, 2025
This is a developing story… Please check back for possible updates…
British emergency workers on Monday were responding to a collision between an oil tanker and a cargo ship off the eastern coast of the United Kingdom in the North Sea.
At least 32 casualties were “brought ashore in Grimsby,” a port town in Lincolnshire, reported The Guardian, and the two ships were believed to be a U.S.-flagged tanker called the MV Stena Immaculate and a cargo vessel called the Solong, which was headed for Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Photos and videos posted on social media showed the vessels on fire and surrounded by thick black smoke.
Martyn Boyers, chief executive of the Port of Gimsby East, told the BBC that a “massive fireball” was seen erupting around the time of the collision.
“They must have sent a mayday out—luckily there was a crew transfer vessel out there already,” said Boyers. “Since then there has been a flotilla of ambulances to pick up anyone they can find.”
Boyers told Sky News that “a haze and a smog” had been reported off the coast on Monday.
“It’s been very foggy, and the fog has never lifted. So I would imagine that at that time, when the accident took place, that there would have been fog,” said Boyers. “Having said that all these vessels now… they’ve got every, every bit of kit that’s known to man about how to navigate and radars and everything. So it’s a very, very unusual and tragic accident.”
His Majesty’s Coastguard, the U.K. maritime agency, reported that an alarm was raised about the crash about 10 miles off the coast of East Yorkshire at 9:48 am local time.
The Solong appeared to have struck the oil tanker when it was anchored, according to tracking data.
The BBC reported Monday morning that all members of the Stena Immaculate crew had been accounted for and were safe; it was not clear whether there were still people in the Solong’s crew who still needed to be located.
Climate campaigners have warned against continued oil extraction in the North Sea; in January, advocates celebrated as grassroots campaigners and groups won a lawsuit stopping two fossil fuel projects by Shell and Equinor from moving forward there.
David Steel, manager of the Isle of May National Nature Reserve, noted that the disaster happened just as seabirds’ breeding season is about to begin.
“Seabirds pouring back into the North Sea as they head to colonies down east coast,” said Steel, “and this is a breaking headline we didn’t need today.”
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is more new February 2025 and Winter 2024/25 climatology (summer for Southern Hemisphere):
Here is More Climate News from Thursday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)