Fuel eating microbes, chemicals and fire: the race to discover new ways to contain Arctic oil spills

As the rising number of vessels in the icy waters increases the risk of environmental disaster, scientists are scrambling to find potential solutions Last winter, inside the subarctic Churchill Marine Observatory in Canada, scientists embarked on an experiment they hoped would result in a gamechanging remedy for polluted Arctic waters. They released 130 litres of diesel into an ice-covered pool filled with raw seawater pumped in from Hudson Bay and added oil-eating microbes. The technique had...

By Gloria Dickie