Clear-up operations do further damage when they try to disperse oil slicks, says robert matthews
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The huge oil slick now blighting the northern coastline of Alaska is hard to miss: hundreds of thousands of gallons of pitch-black crude oil snaking its way across the pristine white tundra, after leaking from a rusty pipeline.
Environmentalists are calling it a disaster, though compared to the 11 million gallons dumped by the Exxon Valdez further south in 1989, it is really a little local difficulty. Even so, there is plenty of scope for the well-meaning to make things an awful lot worse.
Back in the environmental Dark Ages, people knew little and cared less about the effects of oil slicks, and left them to disperse. But by the time the Torrey Canyon was holed off Land's End in 1967, the idea of mankind standing by and watching an "ecological disaster" unfold had become anathema.
Rescue teams swung into action, spraying
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| Otters that were saved spread a nasty virus to otters unharmed by the slick |
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the seas with detergents to break up the oil slick, while the Fleet Air Arm tried burning it off with napalm. The result was catastrophic, with marine life that had survived the slick being either incinerated or slowly poisoned by the toxic chemicals.
When the Valdez struck a reef in Alaska's Prince Edward Sound, clean-up experts had ditched nasty chemicals in favour of hot water blasted at very high pressure. This left the coastline looking nice, but sent oil down to areas previously untouched, while marine life that was relatively tolerant to oil - such as mussels and rock weed - was blasted off rocks or scalded. Meanwhile, rescued otters transported to safe zones spread a nasty virus to healthy otters unharmed by the slick.
No-one disputes that oil spills are an environmental disaster. A 2003 study found clear evidence that the ecological damage of the Valdez spill persists. What is less clear is the amount of damage done by those whose good intentions are not matched by their insight into the ways of nature. 
FIRST POSTED MARCH 15, 2006
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